Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman went with his gut, and picked CJ Carr to be his starting quarterback out of fall camp, and it’s a move that has proved to be extremely fruitful.
The redshirt freshman has already played at an extremely high level, passing for 1,280-yards with 11 touchdowns and just 2 interceptions through five games this season. His play was enough for ESPN to name him as its top freshman quarterback in the country.
Tom Luginbill, who made up the list, wrote up a glowing review of the rising Irish star. He said that “Carr is one of college football’s most poised quarterbacks regardless of class. The redshirt freshman wasn’t the reason Notre Dame lost to Miami or Texas Tech — in fact, he kept the Irish in contention.” Luginbill would go on to say that him ranking No. 7 nationally in QBR coupled with the fact that Carr hasn’t turned the ball over much is why he’s at the top.
When looking at the other quarterbacks that made the top-10, it’s an impressive list of players, but it’s been clear that Carr has been the best freshman quarterback in the country.
Ranking the top 10 freshman QBs in college football https://t.co/lt5v1lXEGj
— Tom Luginbill 🇺🇸 🏈 (@TomLuginbill) October 9, 2025
Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (Formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.
Follow Mike on X: @MikeFChen
This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Where ESPN ranks CJ Carr among the top freshman QB’s nationally?
