Notre Dame Football

New Faces Arriving at Quarterback, Old Friend Returning in Front Seven

By Matt Freeman

December 16, 2023

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In a month of players entering and exiting the program through the Transfer Portal combined with starters entering the draft and opting out of the Sun Bowl, CJ Carr arriving on campus was put on the back burner.

Carr, who threw for 2,754 yards and scored 33 touchdowns as a senior at Saline High School (Mich.), went through is first practice in the blue and gold on Saturday as he’ll participate in Notre Dame’s bowl prep.

No, Carr isn’t able to play in the Sun Bowl and what he does in the next two weeks won’t have an impact on his ability to play in 2024 or beyond as it’s nothing more than an opportunity to get ahead of his freshman year.

“I couldn't imagine being CJ and coming in here by yourself,” stated head coach Marcus Freeman. “He was here yesterday for meetings and walkthroughs, and it was like the first day of school, you're the new guy. I was able to spend some time with him during practice and after practice.

“Today, he was slinging the ball around, and he's gonna be a great player. But it's just good to have him here and that comfort. As you move into the winter, you move into spring ball, he's not starting from ground zero. He knows what the expectations are. He'll know where to go. He'll be able to help those guys that are coming in in January figure it out, but I'm glad he's here, and I'm excited for the future of CJ Carr.”

The immediate future of the quarterback position at Notre Dame will center around Steve Angeli making his first start against Oregon State before the Riley Leonard era begins in South Bend.

Leonard announced his transfer to Notre Dame earlier this week and while Freeman couldn’t publicly speak about him, he did shed some light on what the staff wanted in a quarterback and it centered around experience on Saturdays.

“We were looking for something very similar in terms of Sam (Hartman),” explained Freeman. “When we were looking for Sam Hartman, we were looking for a guy who was talented, right? He's a good football player, proven football player, but a guy that would fit into our locker room and fit into that quarterbacks room and that's what we were looking for when we talked about making another addition to this program.

“You got to be proven to be a good quarterback. We owe it to our football program to find the best football player that fits our locker room that's out there and that's what we tried to identify.”

In addition to Leonard, Notre Dame has added two receivers, a defensive end, nickel and kicker in the first two weeks of the portal being open. Kris Mitchell and Beaux Collins were necessities as the Irish lost four receivers to the portal, but perhaps the most impressive piece is Notre Dame was able to sell each player on the opportunity matching what they need for their future aspirations.

“I think we've done a good job,” stated Freeman. “I think our coaches, our scouting department have done a good job of identifying guys that are the right fit and then the ability to meet with them and show them exactly the plan we have for them but also, what this place can do for them in terms of this next year of what they're aspiring to do.

“It's very similar in terms of the guys that have announced are coming back. There's a specific reason these guys are looking to transfer for a year, and so our job has been able to just show them; here's our plan, and here's what it can do.”

Linebacker Kahanu Kia arrived at Notre Dame in 2021, but after his freshman season, the Hawaii native left the program for his two-year LDS mission.

Kia will return to South Bend in January and while the staff isn’t quite sure what they’re getting, Freeman and the program couldn’t be more excited to welcome him back to The Gug.

“I'm excited,” said Freeman. “I loved my one year with Kahanu. He played linebacker for part of the year and then moved to Vyper part of the year, but to get him back in this program, the energy, the production, the physicality that he plays with, I'm excited to see.

“He hasn't played football for a year and a half, two years. So we understand that, but that was an agreement that we had when he told us he was gonna go on this mission, and so I bet we get a much more mature individual, and I'm excited to see what he does when he gets back.”