CJ Carr spent last preseason camp competing for a job. He's spending this one embracing everything that comes with having it.
After a full season as Notre Dame's starting quarterback, Carr enters 2026 with a different level of experience, comfort and responsibility.
A year ago, the then-redshirt freshman spent preseason camp locked in a tight competition with Kenny Minchey that wasn't settled until 12 days prior to the opener at Miami. Carr has been entrenched as the starter ever since and his attention this year has shifted toward taking greater ownership of the team around him.
"My role and my whole class has to step up and we're put in more leadership roles of teaching those younger guys,” Carr said last week. "We have so much talent that's come in, and we're going to need a handful of those guys to help us win football games this year.
“So not just me, but a bunch of older guys had to step into huge leadership roles and take more ownership in this team. So I think that's another difference just from Year One and Two to now Three."
Carr's ability to assume that responsibility has been aided by a full season as the starter as well as another year spent developing relationships throughout the program. But Carr knows leadership doesn’t simply come from having another year of experience or first-string spot.
Carr knows leadership is earned and for him, the process has become smoother as his relationships throughout the locker room have expanded.
"I think it's easier to lead when you know and understand every guy in the room, not just in the quarterback or the receiver room, but the whole team," Carr said.
Strengthening those relationships away from football is just as important as doing so on the practice field and in the meeting room.
Carr pointed to a preseason trip to New York that allowed him to become closer with Adon Shuler, Drayk Bowen and Leonard Moore, along with concerts he attended with Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, Jack Larsen and Sean Sevillano Jr. as examples.
"We went to New York and I got super close with Adon and Drayk and Leonard," Carr said. "Not that I wasn't close with them, but you're living with those guys for three days.
"Just those little experiences that you have, going to the concerts in the summer with Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa and Jack Larsen and Sean Sevillano Jr. They're invaluable moments. That is really, it's why you do it. I'm out here with my best friends every day. And so it's easy to lead in that sense."
Carr has taken a similar approach to developing chemistry with Notre Dame's offensive weapons.
A group of Irish skill players traveled to Jacksonville during the offseason, giving Carr and his weapons an opportunity to throw together. But Carr believes what happened away from the field was even more important.
"Once again, you think you're close with guys and we are," Carr said. "And then you go live with guys for three days and they're sleeping on a bunk bed next to you and it's like, ‘Oh geez, I'm smelling their dirty laundry in the morning.’ That's a different level of connection and bond.
"For me, it just reconfirmed just how much fun those guys have in that room and the love that they have for each other. It was an unbelievable experience to get out there and go play golf and go have good food. It wasn't just about the throwing. And honestly, the throwing was probably the least important part of that trip."
Carr is convinced those relationships will eventually show up on the field, pointing specifically to wide receiver Jordan Faison as an example.
"It's not just an on-the-field thing," Carr said. "It's, ‘Let's go play ping pong and eat lunch and hang out.’ And there's a ton of time throughout the summer and camp to do that. So you become really close with these guys off the field.
"Then in a way, you can kind of read their minds on the field and you're out there and Jordan Faison has a locked stop route, but the corner's inside. So he might spray it a little bit out of the break. And I know he's going to do that because I know Jordan."
Carr also credits the personalities inside Notre Dame's locker room for making leadership less about constantly demanding more from his teammates and more about understanding what they need.
"It's not hard to lead at Notre Dame because guys want to be great," he said. "You're around a bunch of guys who are striving to be the best versions of themselves.
“So it's not always yelling and screaming. Sometimes it's just an encouraging word because these guys out here are so competitive and want to be great so badly that leadership can look a bunch of different ways."
Carr may be considerably more established than he was entering last season, but he hasn't allowed that status to change how he views being Notre Dame's quarterback. The significance of the position isn't lost on him, but the attention that comes with it is another matter.
"It's always a big deal," Carr said. "I mean, this is the greatest university in the country and you're playing the greatest sport in America. And so it's a huge deal as in I'm super grateful to be here and be the starting quarterback at Notre Dame and get to come out here every day and play with my best friends and hang out and be in the locker room and be one of the guys.
"I think other people look at it or ask that question as a big deal from the outside perspective. And from that way, it's noise at the end of the day. What matters is the guys in that building and the opinions that they have of you."
Carr has a relatively straightforward strategy for dealing with that noise.
"I think 90 percent of that's coming from social media," he said. "And so I do my best to not be on any of those, Twitter, Instagram, whatever it is. That's where 80 percent of the noise comes from. And then you'll have your mom calling you on a Saturday like, 'Did you see this?' And it's like, 'Alright, relax.'
"If you delete the noise, then it's not there anymore."
Carr can't delete what happened at the end of last season quite as easily, nor does he want to.
But after experiencing the disappointment of the way the 2025 season ended, Carr understands that leading Notre Dame in 2026 also means making sure the Irish don't spend too much time looking backward.
"I think we're going to keep the pain from last year and the hurt that we felt, but it's now '26 and we’ve got to go out and we’ve got to put together the best Notre Dame 2026 Football Team we can and show it on the field week in and week out."
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