FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Four games into his career as the starting quarterback for Notre Dame football, CJ Carr knows all the moves.
There’s that crossed-wrists thing he does before the snap, signaling something that usually led to another ridiculously easy gain in a 56-13 win over unranked/hapless Arkansas on Saturday.
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He has another version behind his back, which he’s used to check out of an apparent pass call in favor of a painfully simple handoff to one of his otherworldly running backs.
And Carr, just a redshirt freshman, has that subtle little pre-snap nod to his wideouts, which led to a 48-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Faison against Purdue and maybe even the 23-yarder to Will Pauling midway through Saturday’s second quarter.
Most encouragingly, perhaps, is “The Hand,” which Carr has shown to the sideline and veteran offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock on more than a few occasions already this year.
“That’s him telling me, ‘Get off the buzzer, idiot; I’m good,’” Denbrock said in the days leading up to Saturday’s laugher at Reynolds Razorback Stadium. “I’m still trying to coax him and make sure he’s got every little piece of information, and he’s like, ‘Dude.’“
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Denbrock, of course, recognizes this gesture. It’s the same one he sees at times from young Chance Denbrock, his teenaged son.
“My son would go, ‘Dude, what are you doing?’“ Denbrock said. “It’s awesome.”
Carr, the veteran OC said, “is a guy who likes responsibility … likes to take it on himself.”
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Why wouldn’t he when this year’s Irish offense seemingly has so many obvious answers for even the most complex of riddles put forth by opposing defenses?
“It’s unbelievable,” Carr said after pushing the Irish back to 2-2. “Anywhere you look, there’s guys that will win 1-on-1 matchups. There were still three or four balls left on the table that we could come down with and that I can make better throws on.
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“It could be even more than what we showed, but the talent in that receiver room is unbelievable.”
Since falling into a 21-7 hole through three quarters in the season opener at Miami, Carr has led the Irish to 20 touchdowns over his past 11 quarters at the controls. Backup Kenny Minchey ran things in the past two fourth quarters of garbage time.
True, eight of those touchdowns belong to Jeremiyah Love, who had four more against the Hogs, and another seven have gone to Jadarian Price.
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“With Jadarian and J-Love in the back, those little screens, you don’t know what could happen,” Carr said. “At any point those two can take these balls as far as they need to go.”
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And yes, Marty Biagi’s special teams have chipped in a pair of scores (Price’s 100-yard kickoff return and Tae Johnson’s 20-yard return of a blocked punt).
Yet there’s no denying the Irish offense is humming in a way that isn’t just buying time for Chris Ash’s defense to find its equilibrium, but in a scoreboard-taxing manner that could carry the Irish all the way back to the College Football Playoff.
“I don’t know that he’s ever going to get all the keys to the Ferrari,” Denbrock said of Carr before facing Arkansas, “but we’ll let him take it out for a spin every once in a while. He’s done a nice job with it.”
How James Rendell became ‘The Lonely Australian’
Consider the plight of Irish punter James Rendell, aka “The Lonely Australian.”
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Aside from Rendell’s two punts against Texas A&M, the last of which came with 11:30 left in the third quarter, Notre Dame hasn’t required his services this year. Since pinning the Aggies at their 1, setting up a 29-yard go-ahead touchdown drive for Notre Dame, Rendell has become milk-carton invisible to coach Marcus Freeman.
Oh, Rendell jogged out there one time against the Razorbacks, but he merely served as a 6-foot-6, 225-pound decoy after the Irish bogged down post-halftime.
Leading 42-13 and facing fourth-and-10 from their own 25, the Irish snapped the ball to Love, who flipped it to Jordan Faison, who fired downfield to Malachi Fields for a 40-yard gain.
Rendell? He trotted back to the Irish bench, where the 25-year-old scholar busied himself as usual with some grad-course reading on the exercycle and maybe another listen-through of AC/DC’s greatest hits.
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OK, Rendell wasn’t reading on the sideline, but you get the point. Hyperbole is what happens when your offense goes 28 possessions (and counting) without punting a single time: the last five against A&M, all 13 against Purdue and 10 more at Arkansas.
“The trust ‘Free’ has us to do our jobs is unbelievable,” Carr said. “We came out on one of the fourth downs later in the first half, and it wasn’t a conversation. It was like, ‘All right, we’re going for it. I trust you guys. You’re the group I want on the field.’ That trust means the world to the offense.”
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This year, those being left “Thunderstruck” are the opposing defenses tasked with trying to slow down Carr and Co.
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Among those in attendance Saturday, where the crowd of 75,111 was the 10th largest in stadium history, was a representative from The Broyles Award, named after the late Arkansas coaching legend, Frank Broyles.
Last year’s winner was Al Golden, the Notre Dame defensive coordinator who only weeks before announced his return to the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals. When the list of five finalists is released later this fall, no one should be surprised to see Denbrock’s name among them.
And if Carr tries to help with the acceptance speech, Denbrock should show him “The Hand,” just for laughs.
Notre Dame enjoyed plenty of those on this sun-splashed Saturday in the Ozarks.
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Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: CJ Carr hand, responsibility leads Notre Dame offense, stats, James Rendell
