Sunday’s 27-24 Miami defeat of Notre Dame will be remembered for its final drives, and reasonably so. That’s where the game was most obviously won. The Hurricanes drove to kick a go-ahead field goal, and the Irish could not muster a response with more than a minute on the clock.
For Notre Dame, the sky isn’t falling with a three-point road loss to the No. 10 ranked team in America. Irish fans searching for signs of hope don’t have to look much farther than the game’s decisive point, only toward the final offensive play Notre Dame ran before Miami took over for its winning drive.
On that play, redshirt freshman quarterback CJ Carr took a 7-yard quarterback draw to the end zone, completing a 14-point Irish comeback and tying the game at 24-24. In one of the toughest starting debut spots imaginable — a primetime top-10 duel between the national runner-up and one of its fiercest rivals – Carr handled himself wonderfully. Having never attempted a college pass before Sunday’s game, Carr completed 19/30 of them at Hard Rock Stadium, totaling 221 pass yards with two passing touchdowns and a score on the ground.
“He’s gonna be a really good quarterback — everything that I thought he was gonna be,” head coach Marcus Freeman said after Sunday’s game. “His ceiling is so high.”
After a bumpy start during which the Irish did not gain a first down on three of their first four drives, Carr composed an epic play to answer Miami’s opening touchdown.
With less than six minutes to play in the first half, he and the Irish faced a third-and-goal from the Miami 7-yard line. Looking to pass, Carr was quickly flushed from the pocket, retreating some 23 yards behind the line of scrimmage. As Carr backtracked, he mimicked two-time NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes, swerving to one side, then back the other. Escaping the pocket left, Carr lost defensive tackle Ahmad Moten and drifted forward, lobbing his first career touchdown pass to freshman wideout Micah Gilbert.
“We had a 3-by-1 set with two ends to the field,” Carr described of the score. “They were playing some sort of middle field open coverage — just really low to squeeze a slant in there. I felt backside pressure, so I just tried to make a guy miss, did it, and Micah Gilbert made a great catch — great effort to get open in the end zone.”
Miami took over the game’s middle third, opening up a 21-7 lead shortly after halftime and putting the Irish offense in a tough spot. Carr again responded, though, hitting junior wide receiver Jordan Faison for a 1-yard touchdown to cut the deficit to just one score on the opening play of the fourth quarter. Notre Dame’s defense followed with a quick stop, affording the freshman quarterback his first crack at a tying drive in high leverage.
That’s when Carr made his only major mistake of the night. On the drive’s second play, a run-pass option, Carr pulled the ball from junior running back Jeremiyah Love and released a screen pass to Faison. Miami had already swarmed Faison, though, creating an interception that helped the Hurricanes take a 10-point lead.
In hindsight, Carr recognized that on a second-and-2, handing the rock to his All-American running back may have been the superior choice.
“I think I need to continue to get a better feel for what our offense needs in the moment, and a lot of times it's gonna be Jeremiyah Love,” Carr said. “On the pick, I should've just given him the ball specifically, and [I] cost us a big play. [I’ve] just gotta keep growing.”
Impressively, Carr did not let the late interception derail his performance. On his next drive, he led Notre Dame to a field goal that tightened the score to 24-17. On the one after that, a repeat opportunity to tie the game, he found senior tight end Eli Raridon for a 65-yard completion before channeling Riley Leonard, the rushing touchdown machine who wore Notre Dame’s No. 13 before him, for the tying touchdown.
Carr, who had already taken some severe punishment from Hurricanes defenders for running the football earlier in the quarter, impressively showed no hesitation near the goal line.
“It was something we had a lot of success with last year, and whenever my number’s called to run, that's what we’ve gotta do to win the game,” Carr said. “I think it helped us tonight.”
In a 17-point fourth quarter, Carr gained plenty of confidence in himself and the offense and hopes that Notre Dame can find that productivity right away next Saturday against Texas A&M. However, he’s still keenly aware that his record as the starting quarterback begins with a zero, not a one.
As any good leader would, Carr pointed the finger at himself after Sunday’s game, expressing his eagerness to address what must be improved.
“We attack it tonight, we attack it tomorrow,” Carr said. “Tonight wasn’t good enough out of me specifically, and we’ve gotta be able to get better. My dad always says the only way to get rid of the loss is with a win.”
And while the freshman’s demeanor at the podium on Sunday would suggest he’ll be alright, Coach Freeman still made it clear that Carr can’t beat himself up over losing his first start. The competitor in him may tempt him to go that route, but the bottom line is that the potential Carr displayed is much, much too high for him to do anything but look forward.
“He’s a gamer, man,” Freeman said of Carr. “He performs when the lights are on, he prepares his tail off, he had answers for questions that myself or Coach [Mike] Denbrock would have and he's gonna do great things. It's just the start for him.”
