Five-star 2024 quarterback CJ Carr commits to Notre Dame

Notre Dame landed a game-changing commitment from a quarterback prospect out of the state of Michigan on Thursday, just not the prospect many expected to announce for the Irish heading into the summer recruiting season.

Saline (Mich.) High quarterback CJ Carr, a unanimous top-50 prospect in the 2024 class and a five-star prospect according to the 247Sports Composite, committed to the Irish on Thursday night, and after chasing five-star Dante Moore for more than a year to lead the 2023 class, Notre Dame’s pursuit of the Detroit prospect suddenly takes on a different context.

Carr finished his sophomore season at Saline completing 156 of 243 passes (64.2 percent) for 2,696 yards, 28 touchdowns and four interceptions. He has considered reclassification to the 2023 cycle, according to sources with knowledge of the recruitment, but that doesn’t appear likely for now.

Whenever Carr enrolls, his commitment represents a line of demarcation for the Irish recruiting operation under Marcus Freeman, with offensive coordinator Tommy Rees critical to this pursuit. Notre Dame has not landed a top quarterback commitment in more than three years, going back to Tyler Buchner’s pledge on March 8, 2019.

Carr is even more highly regarded than Buchner, with offers from Alabama, LSU and Georgia. Carr’s 247Sports Composite player rating of .9873 makes him the highest-rated Notre Dame commitment on offense since Gunner Kiel 11 years ago.

Both Carr’s parents attended Michigan, with his father Jason a reserve quarterback for the Wolverines. Jason’s father is former Wolverines head coach Lloyd Carr, who led Michigan to its last national championship. Mother Tammi Carr’s father is Tom Curtis, who played safety for Michigan (1966-69), is in the College Football Hall of Fame and is the Wolverines’ all-time leader in interceptions.

Aside from the historical Michigan connections, the Carr family will also forever be linked to the Wolverines through heartbreak. In 2014, CJ’s youngest brother Chad was diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), an inoperable brain tumor. Chad died a year later at five years old, but not before Michigan and college football rallied behind a #ChadTough fundraiser to support research for a cure.

(Photo: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)

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On CJ Carr's commitment night, Notre Dame and a Michigan family celebrate

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Meek: Where do Michigan, Jim Harbaugh turn without CJ Carr?

How did Notre Dame beat out Michigan in Carr’s recruitment?

Pete Sampson, Notre Dame beat writer: Most of the credit goes to Tommy Rees, who made Saline High School a stop during past evaluation periods, basically visiting Carr every time he visited Moore. Early in the recruiting process, Carr told Rees that he wanted to be recruited by Notre Dame. Rees replied that he’d continue to recruit Carr until the quarterback told him to stop. Carr never did.

Carr camped at Notre Dame last summer, returned for a gameday visit last fall, came back during the spring and worked out at Irish Invasion last Sunday night. That final visit came with much public attention from Notre Dame’s staff toward Carr. He met with athletics director Jack Swarbrick.

Former Notre Dame and Michigan defensive line coach Greg Mattison came back to campus to watch the camp. Carr met multiple times with Freeman. And Rees gave the family — Notre Dame pushed for Carr’s cousins to come on the visit with mother Tammi — a golf cart tour of campus while listening to country music.

In the end, the collective push and Notre Dame’s program stability following the change from Brian Kelly to Freeman helped get the Irish over the top. But the presence of a dynamic offensive coordinator in Rees was perhaps the biggest selling point, with Notre Dame in need of its next franchise quarterback.

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Could Carr still reclassify to 2023?

Sampson: While that kind of move would be unprecedented at Notre Dame, it’s something the university appears willing to consider with the football program. The hurdles to make it happen are likely high, but Notre Dame has adapted its admissions processes before to accommodate real-world changes in college football recruiting.

Nearly 20 years ago when Tyrone Willingham was still the head coach, Notre Dame football began the process of pushing for the mid-year enrollment option after Maurice Clarett did it at Ohio State. Roughly three years later, Notre Dame welcomed its first class of mid-year enrollees under Charlie Weis. In that gap between when Notre Dame started pushing for mid-year enrollment and when it was approved, the Irish finished runner-up for a four-star linebacker named Marcus Freeman, who signed with Ohio State.

Reclassification is a more recent trend in college football, but Ohio State has already taken advantage of it twice with five-star prospects: quarterback Quinn Ewers and safety/linebacker Sonny Styles, the younger brother of Irish receiver Lorenzo Styles.

While Carr becoming Notre Dame’s first reclassification is unlikely as of today, it’s easy to understand the benefits for the Irish program, with a quarterback-sized hole remaining in the ’23 class that should finish in the top five and has been ranked No. 1 in the nation for much of this year.

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