SALINE — Inside a quiet school boardroom, about seven miles south of the 100,000-seat stadium where many assumed he would spend his college years, C.J. Carr flung a silver Notre Dame cap onto his head, revealed a Kelly green T-shirt beneath his blue jacket and announced he would play for the Fighting Irish.
To his left, a former Michigan football quarterback smiled. A few feet in front of him, the last Wolverines coach to win a national championship wore a look of pride. Carr knows them as dad (Jason Carr) and grandpa (Lloyd Carr).
They listened as the starry-eyed scion of Maize-and-Blue royalty delivered his verbal commitment and gushed about a future in South Bend, Indiana with one of U-M’s regional rivals.
C.J. Carr, a gifted passer rated as the 20th-best player in the 2024 class, raved about the culture of a Notre Dame program under new leadership. He cooed about the academic opportunities at the tradition-rich Catholic school. He talked about the prospect of recruiting other elite players to join him over the next 18 months as he waits to sign his national letter of intent.
“I’m just excited,” the 6-foot-3 Saline High School junior said Thursday.
But beyond the walls of the building where he stood in that moment, there was profound disappointment. Across the internet landscape, Michigan loyalists struggled to understand how a legacy with such deep ties could spurn their beloved Wolverines.
The failure to secure an elite talent with that kind of lineage was viewed as a stinging indictment. Just seven years ago, C.J. and his brother, Tommy, led the basketball team in a postgame rendition of the school’s famous fight song, “The Victors.”
Now, he wanted to wake up the echoes with first-year Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman?
“Probably like a lot of Michigan fans, I expected him to go to Michigan,” Lloyd said.
But that was never the plan, according to C.J.
He had no intention of being pigeonholed, following in the footsteps of his father and attending college in the same area where he was raised. Instead, he was seduced by the thought of leaving his nest and spreading his wings far from where his famous last name resonates.
“I never wanted to go to school close to my hometown,” Carr said. “I kind of wanted to branch out a little bit. Notre Dame was just the perfect place.”
Carr took four visits there, falling in love with the campus, the program, the offense, all of it. He grew particularly fond of the 36-year-old Freeman and his young, energetic staff.
Since Freeman succeeded Brian Kelly last December during a seismic spin on the coaching carousel, the Fighting Irish have accrued a ton of momentum. Recruits have lined up to enlist with Notre Dame, which holds the top spot in 247Sports’ 2023 class rankings. Carr, too, was ready to cast his lot with the Irish months ago. Lloyd said his grandchild was eager to “go somewhere where he could be developed as a quarterback.”
But while Carr’s father appreciated the teenager’s exuberance, he advised his son to wait a bit and explore other possibilities.
Jason, after all, still needed to time to wrap his mind around the idea of joining forces with the Golden Domers and one day cheering for old Notre Dame. A generation ago, he was a member of the Wolverines at the height of the rivalry with the Fighting Irish — winning two games, losing one and tying another when the teams met annually in the early 1990s.
“I thought maybe, maybe, you get Michigan to sneak in there and he starts to change his mind a little bit,” Jason said. “And he just never did. He never wavered.”
The Wolverines tried to get Carr to reconsider, understanding the optics of the situation. Jim Harbaugh even dispatched Michigan running backs coach Mike Hart, a Carr family favorite, to make the hard sell.
But Carr had his mind set on Notre Dame, even as the Irish pursued Dante Moore, the Detroit King star quarterback who is ranked the 12th-best prospect in the 2023 class. From afar, the recruitment of Moore and Carr appeared linked considering the position they play, their high ratings and the crossover between their lists of suitors. The college choice of one figured to influence the pick of the other.
“Not really,” Carr insisted. “My goal was to find the best spot for me. I hope the best for Dante wherever he goes.”
Michigan remains a potential option for the local sensation.
A person connected to the Wolverines said Moore has climbed to the top of their wish list now that Carr has been crossed off it.
“We have been going after Dante hard for a while,” the source said. “We hope he says yes. We want him.”
But will they get him?
That is a question that now carries more weight after a Michigan legacy pledged his allegiance to another Midwest the college football power instead of the one where his family burnished its name.
“There is going to be some disappointment,” Lloyd said. “There is going to be some criticism. Those are things that are part of the process. But I think the Michigan fan base will understand it’s his choice. He’s following his dream.”
It’s one that is leading this Carr on the road out of Ann Arbor. Asked if there is any chance he’ll turn back and go blue, Carr beamed the same smile affixed to his face since he declared his college destination.
Without hesitation, he replied, “I’m pretty set on Notre Dame.”
Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Why C.J. Carr spurned Michigan football for Notre Dame