SOUTH BEND — In his first season as a starter for Notre Dame football, quarterback CJ Carr was rarely mistaken for his predecessor, Ramblin’ Riley Leonard.

While Carr inherited Leonard’s No. 13 jersey, his wheels were another matter.

Carr averaged a meager 3.0 yards on his 41 official carries in 2025, a breakdown that included 68 yards on designed runs and another 56 on nine scrambles. Carr reached the end zone three times, but he averaged just 1.1 yards after contact overall, according to Pro Football Focus.

Which is just fine with his position coach.

“He does such a good job in the run-pass game, there are very limited opportunities,” Irish quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli said in the spring. “But when he scrambled last year, I thought he was pretty good.”

The coaching point moving forward? Be smart on those runs, as you might expect with former backup Kenny Minchey having transferred to Kentucky.

“The thing that I've encouraged (Carr) to do is we need to slide and get down,” Guidugli said. “There are some cumbersome plays at the end of some of his scrambles where he's taking unnecessary shots that we just need to go ahead and get on down.”

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Now listed at 215 pounds, Carr has packed on noticeable muscle this offseason, but the experience gap between the third-year sophomore and his trio of untested backups puts a premium on keeping Carr’s jersey clean.

Second-year man Blake Hebert took scout team snaps last fall, but well-regarded freshmen Noah Grubbs and Teddy Jarrard have been on campus only briefly.

Grubbs, a midyear enrollee from Lake Mary, Florida, displayed a live arm in the spring and could beat out Hebert for the primary backup role.

Jarrard, a Georgia phenom who reclassified from the 2027 recruiting cycle, has a big future and can match Grubbs’ 6-4 frame.

The Irish, however, would rather not expose any quarterback beyond Carr to meaningful snaps this fall.

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.

13 | QB | CJ Carr | 6-2, 215 | 3Y

12 | QB | Blake Hebert | 6-2, 216 | 2Y

10 | QB | Noah Grubbs | 6-4, 209 | 1Y

9 | QB | Teddy Jarrard | 6-4, 207 | 1Y

Bold denotes projected starter

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame football quarterback preview for the 2026 season