It wasn’t the cleanest start to the 2026 campaign for Notre Dame in Sunday’s 41-13 win over Wisconsin at Lambeau Field.
In fact, the Irish opened the season with a quick three-and-out that netted negative yardage. Notre Dame had three-and-outs in the first half and managed just 135 yards of total offense, including a pedestrian 4.2 yards per play. Its two scoring drives in the opening half came after the defense created a short field and the offense capitalized with a field goal and touchdown.
The second half was a completely different story.
Notre Dame scored touchdowns on all three of its second-half possessions, with scoring drives covering 70, 75 and 88 yards.
Through it all, quarterback CJ Carr never flinched.
There are going to be ups and downs in the first game of a season, and Carr understood that. Rather than pressing when the offense struggled to find a rhythm, the junior quarterback stayed patient and trusted the adjustments would eventually pay off.
“I think we had our first couple drives scripted up and I thought we had a good plan going into it,” stated Carr. “I wanted to see if we could balance pass and run, which I thought we did a good job of adjusting at halftime and just fighting it through that first half.”
The adjustments worked.
Carr passed for 186 yards in the second half, while Notre Dame increased its yards per play to 5.5 yards per play.
“I think late in the first half was probably a point where I said, we're going to be just fine,” Carr said. “I think we showed that coming out in the second half.”
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman couldn’t have been more pleased with his quarterback, who finished the night 19-of-29 passing for 239 yards and three touchdowns.
And it was the little things Carr did that impressed Freeman the most.
is quarterback. “The things that probably the naked eye doesn't see are what impress me the most. His ability to check plays, his ability to keep our offense out of negative situations. It might be a three-yard run, but if he didn't check it, it would have been a two-yard loss.
“He is a leader. He's smart. He's prepared. He's a coach on the field. He kept our offense in good situations. This is a great start for his junior year.”
Carr’s longest completion went for 30 yards to Jordan Faison, but the running backs also made several clutch contributions in the passing game.
Sophomore Nolan James Jr. finished with four catches for 67 yards and a touchdown, while Aneyas Williams and Kedren Young each recorded receptions that moved the chains.
“We saw on tape all year that checkdowns and those short, quick, late routes to those backs can be very helpful against this team,” explained Carr. “They kind of wanted to drop back into zone and so being able to use them late in that second half, they created a bunch of explosives with short passes and made my life easier.”
More than the statistics, Carr showed the experience and maturity Notre Dame will need from its quarterback this season.
An inexperienced quarterback could have easily become frustrated when the offense struggled to find its footing in the first half. Carr never allowed that to happen.
Instead, he continued working through the issues, trusted the game plan and helped Notre Dame find its rhythm after halftime.
“We prepared for a battle,” said Carr. “We got a battle in the first half and we were really excited coming out of the second half. Free talks about there's nothing great that comes from something that's easy. We knew it was going to be a struggle and it's what we wanted. We ended up finishing really strong.”
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