Notre Dame offensive lineman Quinn Carroll enters transfer portal
Notre Dame is losing a former highly-rated offensive line recruit.
Junior offensive lineman Quinn Carroll announced Monday he has entered the NCAA transfer portal. He will be a graduate transfer.
Carroll did not play in his freshman season because of an ACL injury. He played in three games as a redshirt freshman in 2020 and was a participant in all 13 games this past season, mostly on special teams.
Carroll was the No. 97 overall recruit in the class of 2019 according to the On3 recruiting database. He was the No. 13 offensive tackle in the class and the No. 1 overall player coming out of the state of Minnesota. He played his high school ball at Edina High in the Minneapolis area.
It’s not quite the career most initially expected from Carroll, but he says he’s leaving with much fulfillment anyway.
“My experience has been as good or better than I hoped,” Carroll wrote in his announcement. “I love this school, I love my teammates and friends, and I love my coaches. I have made life long friendships and I have learned countless lessons through the wins, the losses, my injury and recovery, and battling to compete every day.”
The 6-6, 313-pound Carroll played a total of 23 offensive snaps spread over games against Navy, Virginia and Georgia Tech, but he couldn’t work his way into a starting role despite freshman Blake Fisher suffering a knee injury in the season opener and there being a question mark at left guard early in the year as well. Joe Alt became the go-to starter at tackle, and Andrew Kristofic held down the guard spot.
Carroll still has three years of eligibility remaining. With freshmen Alt and Fisher looking like surefire starters at the tackle positions and Kristofic, a rising senior with two years of eligibility left, destined to stay at one of the guard spots, there wasn’t much room on the line for Carroll to stay and push for playing time.
Notre Dame still has a slew of offensive linemen who have yet to establish themselves as mainstays in the position group. Zeke Correll, Rocco Spindler, Tosh Baker, Michael Carmody would all qualify in that category, with some of those players having appeared more than others so far in their Irish careers.
Notre Dame just signed five offensive line recruits in the class of 2022 in the early signing period. Whoever head coach Marcus Freeman hires to replace Jeff Quinn, who is not expected to return to the team as the offensive line coach in 2022, will have plenty to work with.
