Notre Dame Spring Practice Report: Quarterbacks Shine In Jersey Scrimmage

Notre Dame Spring Practice Report: Quarterbacks Shine In Jersey Scrimmage

Notre Dame held its final open practice of the spring this morning as the team competed in their annual Jersey Scrimmage. The offense won the competition after a final-play field goal. The quarterbacks had a strong day, and Irish Breakdown was there to see it. Below is our analysis of the performance of the Irish passers from today's practice.

Blake Hebert went through individual and RVA periods but he did not participate in any of the team periods.

It was mostly a very good day for CJ Carr. He wasn't as sharp as normal early on, but he quickly heated up and diced up the defense pretty well. He was a bit off target on a slot fade throw to Mylan Graham that drew a very questionable defensive pass interference penalty, and he was behind on a slant route to Jordan Faison. He began to bounce back in the opening series, hitting Jordan Faison on a back-shoulder throw. It was a third-and-8 play and the defense dropped eight into coverage, and they were softer on the outside, so Carr just threw it behind Faison, who quickly stopped and came back to the ball for an easy first down.

On the second series, Carr found a soft spot in the defensive zone coverage again, throwing a rope over the middle to Mylan Graham, who did a very good job working the route inside and underneath the safety. On third-and-5, Carr hit Faison on a slant, again against soft coverage. That helped set up a touchdown run as the Irish offense got a field goal and a touchdown on the opening two drives.

There were two big misses by Carr in the practice, and both times were just him forcing a ball and locking in a read. The first one he locked in on Jordan Faison despite having the tight end open short and the backside drag coming open. The second time he locked in on a corner route to Graham and didn't see Micah Gilbert coming open backside as the safety worked over top of Graham. Outside of that his reads were solid. He took the check downs when he needed to, but was also aggressive when it was there. That included a late practice Go route to Faison for a huge play, and a perfectly thrown deep out throw to Graham, getting the ball over top of the corner and in front of the safety.

On that throw, Carr had pressure coming up the middle so he had to get the throw out quickly. He dropped it perfectly over the top and Graham double tapped to get his feet in for the big play.