In the only big games he's played in, he's lost. The most recent, the BYU game, was easily his worst performance in an ND uniform. Granted, he's only played 19 games or so. He was just overhyped coming into the season and has regressed more than he's progressed.
I'm not down on Carr, but the college game is different from the pros. Denbrock's offensive scheme is extremely vanilla and pro-oriented. Carr probably tests well for the pros and will do fine at that level, but the problem is, he's in college now. Now is what matters. If you can't win convincingly here, then what's the point?
The college game is a lot more backyard football. Make some plays, show a little controlled reckless abandon, and create something when things break down. That's just not Carr. Nor is it how Denbrock calls or plans a game, which only compounds the boringness of his offense.
Not to mention, we have okay backs, not elite ones. Having elite backs last year masked both the boringness of Denbrock's offense and Carr's undeveloped skill set. They saved us more than we realize, along with an otherwise soft schedule outside of a couple of games here and there.
When your offense requires the QB to be perfect, he's not a running threat at all, and you have a decent but not great backfield, then we pretty much get what we're getting.
Add this to the laundry list of problems with Ash, and you get an extremely talented team that's underperforming. Sprinkle in minimal fire and passion, and you get people questioning things, with a lingering sense of doubt.
On the Ash front, it was a bad hire. Players like Moore, Shuler, and Bowen all look worse this year. Timid, out of position, late, and overall, they just seem to be thinking more than playing.
Bowen, for example, is a great LB. He's a downhill, see-ball, get-ball type of linebacker. Yet we play a scheme under Ash that has him dropping into pass coverage a lot. For all the things he's good at, he's pretty terrible in coverage. A lot of the big plays in our losses have come when he's been in coverage.
That's not a knock on Bowen. He's been great. It's an example of an inept defensive coordinator. Take the best player on your defense, your lifeblood, and consistently scheme him into situations that expose his biggest weaknesses. It's just dumb.
It's not that ND won't finish with a good record in 2026. We don't play anyone. How could we not?
It's that we're severely underperforming relative to our talent. It feels like we're being shortchanged on the coaching side of the fence.
