Is CJ Carr related to Lloyd Carr? Closer look at Notre Dame commit's relationship with former Michigan coach

CJ Carr is an Irishman with the heart of a Wolverine. Notre Dame's freshman quarterback is the grandson of former Michigan Wolverines head coach Lloyd Carr, who won five Big Ten titles and one national championship while at Ann Arbor.

CJ is effectively college football royalty, with his other grandfather being All-American Tom Curtis. Moreover, his father, Jason Carr, was a backup QB at Michigan.

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Despite his Wolverine connections, Carr chose South Bend over Ann Arbor. His decision was in part inspired by a desire to go far away from home.

“I never wanted to go to school close to my hometown, I kind of wanted to branch out a little bit and Notre Dame was the perfect place," Carr said.

"It’s just always been like that. I remember mentioning to my dad a while ago like, ‘Wow, you went to the same school that you grew up in?’ It was never really appealing to me, honestly.” [via MLive].

CJ Carr said he was mesmerized by the campus of the University of Notre Dame, and there are reports that he canceled visits to Alabama, LSU, and Georgia shortly after visiting the Irish.

Lloyd Carr's reaction to CJ Carr attending Notre Dame

One would expect Lloyd Carr to have felt hard-pressed by his grandson's decision to attend Notre Dame instead of Michigan. However, that doesn't seem to be the case, with the veteran coach putting his grandson's happiness above all else.

“I said, `C.J., what do you think?,’” Lloyd Carr recalled asking via AP News. “And he said, ‘Papa, I’m going to Notre Dame. His dad was standing there and his dad said, ’Hey, wait a minute. You got a lot of things to look at and think about.’”

“I told everybody, ‘If he’s happy, I’m happy,’”

The former four-star recruit set his mind on the Fighting Irish and nothing was going to dissuade him from that. Don't expect to see him starting in 2024, though, as Duke transfer Riley Leonard has a lock on the starting spot. But who knows? Over the next few years, he might become the future of the program.

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