Notre Dame Football: Examining a massive QB crystal ball

Notre Dame football is considered the leader for five-star QB Dante Moore, but the Irish also got a prediction for CJ Carr on Sunday. Here’s what it means.

The Irish are off to a really strong start on the recruiting trail in the class of 2023, so strong that the Irish are the leader right now in the recruitment of five-star QB Dante Moore.

However, that lead might be starting to slip away a little. Notre Dame football hasn’t received any crystal ball projections for Moore but had an 88-percent chance to land Moore according to the On3.com prediciton machine just last week.

Yet, after Moore visited Miami this past weekend, and also scheduled a future official visit to LSU, Notre Dame’s percentage has dipped to 67. At the same time, the Irish are rising in the recruitment of four-star 2024 quarterback CJ Carr, who received a crystal ball projection to Notre Dame over the weekend from national 247 sports analyst Steve Wiltfong.

What crystal ball means for Notre Dame football

Michigan has three crystal balls for Carr, which should be expected because he’s the grandson of U-M national-championship winning coach Lloyd Carr. The 6-foot-4 quarterback out of Saline, Michigan is ranked 32nd overall in the On3 consensus rankings. The Irish also have a 42 percent chance of winning his commitment, trailing Michigan at 57 percent.

However, a week ago, that percentage was much higher for the Wolverines. So this is good news for Notre Dame football fans. The Irish are in a solid position with Moore and Carr.

Yet, this shouldn’t be misinterpreted as Notre Dame being likely to land both. Carr is probably going to wait for Moore to make his decision, so it’s hard to see them both winding up at Notre Dame, Michigan, or anywhere else.

Moore was being recruited already by Mario Cristobal when he was at Oregon, and he’s got a really strong relationship with Josh Gattis, the Hurricanes’ new OC because he was formerly Michigan’s offensive coordinator. LSU has Brian Kelly, who recruited Moore before he left for the Tigers, so there are pre-existing relationships there.

And the Wolverines still have Jim Harbaugh, who has been the constant for Michigan in the recruitment of both Moore and Carr.

It will be interesting to see how the Wolverines react because they won’t be immune to the fact that they have work to do with Carr and Moore. But at any rate, Notre Dame should feel very good about its chances of landing at least one of the two elite quarterbacks.