{"id":124375,"date":"2025-09-01T06:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T06:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/124375\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T06:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T06:54:10","slug":"freeman-confident-in-qb-cj-carrs-future-despite-notre-dames-season-opening-loss-to-miami-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/124375\/","title":{"rendered":"Freeman confident in QB CJ Carr’s future despite Notre Dame’s season-opening loss to Miami | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) \u2014 There were a couple things going through Marcus Freeman’s head when he saw CJ Carr scampering around<\/a> to extend the play then finding receiver Micah Gilbert in the end zone for the quarterback’s first collegiate touchdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrow it away! Throw it away! Throw it away!\u201d Freeman, Notre Dame’s head coach, recalled repeating in his head after the game. \u201cI couldn\u2019t see exactly what was going on. I watched him spin out. And usually when you\u2019re feeling pressure it\u2019s like, \u2018Throw the ball the away! Don\u2019t throw the ball across our body! He kept his eyes down field and made a play.<\/p>\n

“We don\u2019t draw them up like that. But those are plays that CJ Carr can make.”<\/p>\n

Carr had an uneven performance in No. 6 Notre Dame’s 27-24 loss<\/a> to No. 10 Miami on Sunday night, but that touchdown pass \u2014 which tied it at 7 in the second quarter \u2014 was an example of the playmaking ability that won the freshman quarterback the starting job.<\/a> And that gave Freeman confidence in Carr’s ability to respond strongly to Sunday’s loss, and potentially lead Notre Dame back to the national title game.<\/p>\n

Carr hadn’t thrown a collegiate pass before Sunday \u2014 he appeared in one game last year, mop-up duty in a 66-7 rout at Purdue \u2014 but nearly helped the Fighting Irish rally from a 14-point deficit against the Hurricanes. The 20-year-old finished 19 of 30 for 221 yards with two touchdown passes and an interception, along with a rushing score with 3:21 left that tied the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis ceiling is so high,” Freeman said. “He\u2019s going to have to take this loss and not let it eat at him too much. He\u2019s a gamer. He performs when the lights are on. He prepares his tail off. He\u2019s going to do great things. It\u2019s just the start for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freeman said part of the offensive gameplan was to create easy decisions and throws to help Carr establish a rhythm, heavily leaning on the run-pass option. Freeman added that Carr was making the right reads on the RPOs early, but as the game went on, the young quarterback needed to hand the ball to dynamic running back Jeremiyah Love to help establish the run game.<\/p>\n

Love, who many believe will be the centerpiece to Notre Dame’s<\/a> offense, finished with 10 carries for 33 yards and caught four passes for 26 yards, but there were times in the game that he was barely involved in the offense. The Fighting Irish were outgained on the ground 119-93.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need to continue to get a better feel for what our offense needs at the moment,\u201d Carr said. “A lot of the time, it’s going to be Jeremiyah Love. On the pick, I should have just given him the ball. It cost us.”<\/p>\n

Carr this year replaces former Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard, who led the Irish to 13 straight wins last season before falling 34-23 to Ohio State in the CFP national championship game. Leonard was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in April.<\/p>\n

He’s from a family with a rich football pedigree<\/a> \u2014 his father, Jason, was a quarterback at Michigan \u2014 and he knows how to respond to a loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight wasn\u2019t good enough out of me specifically,\u201d Carr said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get better. My dad always said the only way to get rid of a loss is with a win.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) \u2014 There were a couple things going through Marcus Freeman’s head when he saw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[79605,1607,2662,399,398,396,397,79604,99],"class_list":["post-124375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-cfp-national-championship","tag-college-football","tag-college-sports","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-notre-dame-miami-college-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}