Heading into Notre Dame’s trip to Chapel Hill, it seemed like Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr was on the outside looking in at the top of the Heisman Trophy race.
However, Carr’s 5-touchdown performance against the Tar Heels in a 37-26 win has him right back in the thick of the race.
Carr passed for 234 yards, 4 touchdowns and added 1 rushing touchdown against North Carolina.
Thus far through the 2026 season, Carr has passed for 1,197 yards, 13 touchdowns and 1 interception while completing 71% of his passes.
Carr has also added 3 touchdowns on the ground, bringing his season total to 16 touchdowns.
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Irish Sports Daily’s Jamie Uyeyama highlighted Carr’s strong performance in his Rewatch Notes for the Notre Dame Offense.
“It’s all a combination of Carr’s pre-snap decision-making, his ability to process things quickly, and the protection up front,” said Uyeyama.
“His QBR in this game was 93.1. It’s 90.4 on the season, which is currently fourth in the country. He’s also fourth in the country in EPA per dropback.”
While everyone knows how good a passer Carr is, his ability to get into the end zone with his legs has become more apparent recently.
Carr has a rushing touchdown in the last three Irish games, but that doesn’t mean head coach Marcus Freeman is necessarily comfortable seeing Carr run.
“I'm uncomfortable every time he takes off and runs,” said Freeman. “It’s no different than your own son. You don't want to see him get hurt. You don't want to see any of the players get hurt, but especially your quarterback. But I'm not going to be able to slow him down. It's funny, we were having our Sunday meeting, our normal Sunday meeting. I'm like, Hey, man, you got to slide on the one he scrambled and got hit, it looked like got hit in the ribs. And he was like, ‘Coach, the conditions.’ He was like, ‘I had to make sure I get every yard I could.’”
“I'm like, that's CJ. He is a competitor and he's thought about that. He thought about the conditions. I can't slide feet-first here. I'm going to get every yard because we're not able to throw the ball right now. Yeah, I don't love it. But he's going to find a way. That's who he is. That's a competitor he is.”
Now, with the Stanford Cardinal set to travel to South Bend from sunny Palo Alto, California, Carr has perhaps his best opportunity yet to put together a gaudy Heisman performance.
Stanford’s defense currently ranks 137/138 FBS football teams in passing yards allowed per game.
The Cardinal are allowing 299.8 passing yards per game.
Further, Stanford is also 133/138 FBS teams in points allowed per game as they are allowing 38.20 points per game.
If Carr can put together another 5-touchdown game, or even exceed that, he can keep climbing the Heisman ladder.
Looking around at the rest of the country, the leaders for the Heisman race seem to be Miami quarterback Darian Mensah and Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith.
So far, Mensah has passed for 1438 yards, 15 touchdowns and 0 interceptions while completing 84.2% and has added 2 rushing touchdowns.
So far in 2026, Smith has caught 44 passes for 823 yards and 9 touchdowns.
Smith is currently on pace for 106 receptions for 1,975 yards and 22 touchdowns on a 12-game pace.
Carr currently has +750 odds to win the Heisman per FanDuel Sportsbook.
The players with equal or better odds and their upcoming opponents per FanDuel are as follows:
- Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith plays Maryland
- Miami quarterback Darian Mensah idle
- Alabama quarterback Keelon Russell hosts No. 2 Georgia
As Notre Dame and Stanford prepare to add another game to their storied rivalry, CJ Carr has a golden opportunity to continue to close the gap in the Heisman race on Saturday.
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