In front of the largest crowd to watch a Blue-Gold Game in 18 years, CJ Carr shined the brightest in Notre Dame’s three quarterback battle to determine a starter for the 2025 season.

Carr, Steve Angeli and Kenny Minchey each manned the Irish offense for four drives a piece as the Blue (offense) team defeated the Gold (defense) team 76-31 in a lopsided scoring system that Marcus Freeman even conceded was probably unfair to the defense.

“A lot of good,” Freeman said of the quarterbacks. “A lot of good, a lot of teaching opportunities I’m sure.”

Carr had three excellent drives along with one poor one. Overall, he finished 14 of 19 passing for two touchdowns and the game’s only interception. Angeli started slow, but completed his final six passes to finish 8-11 for 108 yards and a touchdown pass. Minchey was 6-14 passing for 106 yards and rushed for a 4 yard touchdown.

Freeman says he’s not outcome driven and he needs to evaluate the film to see the one Irish turnover that Carr threw to determine whether it was the route or the throw.

“But it was a lot of good—a lot of good from all three guys and a lot of teaching moments,” Freeman explained. “It was a reflection of how the first 11 practices have been. Those guys have been battling. They’ve all improved. They’re all doing some really good things. It’s crazy to think you have three guys who can all lead your program to a victory and be your starting quarterback.”

Freeman says they will evaluate it and talk about it and have discussions moving forward on where things stand for the quarterback battle. Notre Dame has more evaluations to come this spring with three practices still to be held after the Blue-Gold Game.

“You would like to be able to go into the fall with a two quarterback battle—it’s really hard with a three quarterback battle,” Freeman said. “But we gotta sit down and have conversations on what’s best for our program and what’s best for our quarterbacks. We’ll make those decisions in the future.”

40,621 fans were in attendance on sun splashed Saturday for the 94th Blue Gold Game, making it the most attended Notre Dame spring game since Jimmy Clausen’s debut in 2007 brought out more than 51,000 fans to Notre Dame Stadium.

And Carr played like the highly touted recruit he’s been made out to be for most of the afternoon. He completed all five of his pass attempts on his first drive, highlighted by two perfectly placed passes in coverage to tight ends Kevin Bauman and Jack Larsen for more than 20 yards each. The pass to Larsen beat star safety Adon Shuler. The drive ended with a Noah Burgette 43 yard field goal.

Carr’s next drive, the 6th overall of the game, resulted in the first touchdown of the game. It started with another perfectly placed Carr pass on a wheel route to Kedron Young that went for 28 yards. Carr converted a 1st down on three 3rd downs on the drive and capped things with a 2 yard touchdown pass to Elijah Burress.

Carr’s 3rd drive, the 9th overall of the game, was his worst. He went three and out to start the drive and since the rules of the game were that each possession would be six plays, he got a reset of downs only to throw an interception picked off by Ben Minich.

Carr rebounded to throw a touchdown pass to Xavier Southall on the final play of the Blue Gold Game.

Carr has four years of eligibility remaining, Minchey has three years of eligibility and Angeli has two years of eligibility.

As the veteran of the three, Angeli was the first one out there but was just 1-4 passing on his first drive that included a dropped pass. He still managed the offense to put them in scoring position but Burnette was well off the mark on a 50 yard field goal attempt.

Angeli’s just 2nd drive was a three and out but his third drive is when he started to pick things up. He went 3 of 3 on the drive and got the Irish inside the 5 yard line before safety Luke Talich made consecutive goal line stands on Aneyas Williams runs on 3rd and 4th down to force a turnover on downs. Talich led the Irish with nine tackles.

Angeli’s final drive was his best, going 3 of 3 passing for 66 yards and a touchdown pass to Scrap Richardson.

Minchey was the 2nd quarterback out there for Notre Dame. He was just 1-3 passing on his first drive and was nearly intercepted to conclude his 2nd drive.

Minchey’s 3rd drive was his best of the day as he needed just three plays to lead the Irish to a touchdown. It started with a 24 yard pass to Henry Garrity, then he dumped one off to Larsen who bullied his way inside the five. Minchey capped the drive with a 4 yard touchdown run.

Notre Dame was in position for another possible touchdown on Minchey’s final drive but Minchey nearly threw an interception on 3rd and goal from the 7. Karson Hobbs dropped the would be INT in the end zone allowing the Irish to get a field goal.

But let’s be clear, while Carr looked the best on Saturday, this was just one practice as Freeman and the coaching staff determine who should be the starting quarterback.

Tight end Eli Raridon says it will be extremely hard for the coaching staff to make a choice on the starting quarterback.

“They’re all playing at a very high level and if I was making the decision, I wouldn’t know who to pick either,” Raridon said. “It’s definitely a hard decision for them and whoever it is, will do a good job.”
Irish star running back Jeremiyah Love did not play. Jadarian Price was the most productive running back, rushing for 44 yards on six carries. Aneyas Williams had 12 rushes for 40 yards, Gi’Bran Payne nine rushes for 30 yards, Kedren Young eight rushes for 25 yards and Nolan James four rushes for 16 yards as the Irish ran behind a makeshift offensive line with all its injuries.

James and Young each had three catches to lead the way for the Irish along with KK Smith.