Notre Dame Quarterback Named A Tier 1 Signal Caller Per ESPN's David Hale
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The 2026 season in college football is gearing up to be a strong season for the quarterback position. Last season, we saw a changing of the guard with a lot of new, young talent stepping up in premier places like Texas, Oregon, Ohio State and Notre Dame. This season, a lot of those quarterbacks are heading into year two starting for those programs. ESPN writer David Hale took the time to put all 138 FBS quarterbacks into tiers.
At the top, you have Notre Dame starter CJ Carr, Texas starter Arch Manning, OIe Miss starter Trinidad Chambliss and Miami starter Darian Mensah. Carr has been considered one of the top returning signal callers from several major outlets. It's the most buzz generated around a Notre Dame quarterback since Brady Quinn.
"Carr and Sayin both entered the season as untested starters who battled for the QB1 job deep into fall camp, inheriting offenses with superstars ready to carry a heavy load," Hale explained. "Both proved they were up to the task of stewarding elite offenses, yet both came up short of lofty goals. Where their paths diverge now, however, is that Carr will be the centerpiece of Notre Dame in 2026 with Jeremiyah Love moving on to the NFL, while Sayin still has Smith at his disposal as he enters his second season as the Buckeyes' starting QB."
The 6-2, 215-pound Michigan native had a breakout season as a redshirt freshman. Carr passed for 2,741 yards, 24 touchdowns, six interceptions and rushed for an additional three scores. He shattered the program record for quarterback passer rating and helped engineer a 10-game win streak to end the regular season. Early on, we all new Carr was the right guy for the job. Now, it's about going out and showing why he's one of the best in the country.
Hale's tier list was interesting to breakdown in it's entirety. One player left off of the Tier 1 ranking was Oregon starter Dante Moore. Oddly enough, Moore was placed in the same category as LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt who transferred from Arizona State and USC starting quarterback Jayden Maiava. To this day, I still don't understand the hype around Maiava, he's more of a fit in Hale's Tier 3 category which, per his definition, is a tier for quarterbacks who excel against subpar competition and struggle against top contenders which Maiava has the last two seasons.
Tier 6 was also an interesting grouping to breakdown. It's titled 'Welcome to the big leagues' and features three players, two of which should absolutely be in this conversation. Auburn's Byrum Brown and Oklahoma State's Drew Mestemaker are coming up from the G6 level into the P4 level. However, the third quarterback in this category is Anthony Colandrea.
Colandrea transferred from UNLV but had played two seasons at the P4 level prior to transferred to UNLV. It's nitpicky, but I don't think a signal caller who has two years of starting experience in a Power 4 conference should be in a category titled 'Welcome to the big leagues'. I'd rather have seen a quarterback like Colton Joseph from Old Dominion in this category over Nebraska's projected starter. Colandrea should be placed in Tier 14 titled 'Living Dangerously' and is a grouping of quarterbacks who are coming up on their final opportunities at certain places.
Outside of Maiava and Colandrea's placements in this list, this was put together relatively well. I think Moore is Tier 1 quarterback and I don't think Maiava is a Tier 2 player. But if someone wants to pound their fists on the table for a debate, I won't push back too much. Overall, I think this list signifies one thing that we've been talking about at Irish Breakdown for the last couple of months. This is going to be an exceptional and exciting year of quarterback play in college football in 2026.
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