Notre Dame’s 2026 football season is now halfway through the regular season and junior quarterback CJ Carr is still in the thick of the Heisman Trophy race.
While not the odds-on favorite like he was during the preseason, according to FanDuel, Carr has had an impressive start to 2026.
Through six weeks, Carr has compiled 1,378 yards passing, 19 total touchdowns and has only thrown 1 interception.
Now, Carr and the Irish look to take on No. 8 BYU in Notre Dame’s most anticipated matchup since it welcomed Mike Elko’s Aggies to South Bend over a year ago.
It’s no secret that games like this factor heavily into the Heisman Trophy race.
Lead your team to a victory on the biggest stage and you have one of the toughest stats to achieve in the Heisman race: a meaningful win.
Lose the game, and you can be forgotten while others who did win big games get the attention.
Last season, everyone remembers Fernando Mendoza helping Indiana beat Penn State on the road and Ohio State in the Big 10 championship game en route to a Heisman trophy and National Championship.
Going even further back, Bryce Young’s dismantling of Georgia’s defense in 2021 SEC championship game or Caleb William’s valiant effort against Marcus Freeman’s 2023 squad en route to their Heisman trophies.
This is the type of game where Carr can get something the guys in front of him don’t have—a signature win.
Notre Dame traveling to Utah to take on BYU is dripping with all the storylines.
A Top 10 matchup with College Gameday in attendance between two teams that were supposed to meet in the 2025 Pop-Tart Bowl before Notre Dame declined its bowl invitation is oozing with signature-win potential.
Carr is no stranger to showing up in big games like this, as noted by Irish Sports Daily’s Jamie Uyeyama in his 6 Thoughts on a Thursday article.
“It’s College Gameday,” said Uyeyama. “It’s primetime. It’s two undefeated teams ranked in the top-10. It’s Notre Dame’s first true opportunity to show that they are a CFP-worthy team and, at least for a while, silence any doubters.
“It’s also a huge opportunity for CJ Carr. The first two monster games of his career were against Miami and Texas A&M. That was 16 games ago and those were also the first two starts of Carr’s college career.”
If Carr can not only help the Irish win, but play well and score a couple of touchdowns, he adds something that Jeremiah Smith, Darian Mensah and Keelon Russell don’t have—that signature win.
While I have written this article for a couple weeks now and harped on the numbers that Carr has to put up to remain in the Heisman Trophy race there is one statistic that is far more relevant this week than the past six.
That’s winning.
So far in his Notre Dame career, Carr has been pretty good about doing that.
As the starting quarterback for the Irish, Carr has compiled a 16-2 record since the start of 2025.
He has also improved a lot since he became the starter, as Uyeyama also noted in his 6 Thoughts on a Thursday article.
“This season Carr is clearly the best player on the offense and he might just be the best quarterback in college football,” said Uyeyama. “He was trying to prove he was Notre Dame’s QB1 at the start of last season. Now he’s put himself in a position to possibly be QB1 in all of college football as the leader of possibly the best team in college football.”
Adding a Top 10 road win will be ideal for Carr’s Heisman efforts as well as Notre Dame’s national title hopes.
Turning to the rest of the nation, here are the players with the same or better odds to win the Heisman per FanDuel and who they are playing this week:
- Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith at No. 5 Indiana
- Miami quarterback Darian Mensah vs. Florida State
The key to Carr’s Heisman hopes likely lies in the most famous quote from former Las Vegas Raiders owner Al Davis: “Just win, baby.”
If Carr can help lead the Irish to a big win in Provo, Carr might continue to climb up the Heisman rankings.
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