With every passing season in college football, the transfer portal continues to play an ever-growing role in how team’s make up a starting lineup. For Notre Dame’s opponents in 2026, every team with the exception of the Naval Academy will have impact portal players in the starting lineup or in the two-deep. After diving into each team, I ranked the offenses that Notre Dame will face this upcoming season, and it starts with the team that played for a national title last month.
1. Miami Hurricanes
After their playoff run in 2025, the Hurricanes return some talented skilled players on the offensive side of the ball. Receiver Malachi Toney will be one of the top players at that position in 2026 and he’ll only be a sophomore. Running back Mark Fletcher returns after a 1,192 yard, 12 rushing touchdown season. They’ll be joined down in South Beach by transfer quarterback Darian Mensah and Cooper Barkate from Duke. Mensah threw for 3,978 yards and 34 touchdowns last season with Barkate hauling in 1,106 of those yards and seven touchdowns. If the offensive line for the Hurricanes holds up, this will be a formidable offense in 2026.
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2. BYU Cougars
BYU finished in the Top 40 in scoring offense (No. 32) and yards per play (No. 38) in 2025 and a lot of key starters on offense return for head coach Kalani Sitake. Quarterback Bear Bachmeier returns for his sophomore season and will be joined by running back LJ Martin who also returns to Provo. The two combined for 23 rushing touchdowns and over 1,800 rushing yards. Bachmeier also passed for 3,033 yards and 15 touchdowns. Leading receiver Parker Kingston returns along with the entire right side of their offensive line. Their portal additions at tight end, including former USC Trojan Walker Lyons, adds another weapon to this unit.
3. SMU Mustangs
The Mustangs are headlined by returning quarterback Kevin Jennings who elected to come back to SMU for his senior season. He threw for 3,641 yards and 26 touchdowns last season, but will look to cut down on his 13 interceptions from 2025. The entire right side of his offensive line returns but only one skilled player, receiver Yamir Knight who hauled in 54 receptions, 637 yards and five touchdowns last season. Kendrick Raphael comes over from Cal to start at running back after posting a 943 yard, 13 touchdown season with the Golden Bears. They also snagged Yannick Smith from East Carolina and a pair of tight ends from Florida State and Texas A&M to supplement their losses at receiver.
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4. Wisconsin Badgers
The Badgers had one of the better portal cycles of the offseason, and nobody is talking about it. Offensively, they brought in Old Dominion quarterback Colton Joseph who passed for 2,624 yards, threw 21 touchdowns, rushed for 1,007 yards and 13 touchdowns. They also picked up Abu Sama III from Iowa State and Bryan Jackson from USC to add to their backfield. Wisconsin also returns their right guard and right tackle along with receivers Vinny Anthony II and Chris Brooks. They also picked up two wide receivers from Southeast Louisiana and Oklahoma State in Jaylon Domingeaux and Shamar Rigby. Their offense will be led by some new faces with good talent.
5. Navy Midshipmen
I know some will cringe at the thought of a triple option offense being ranked in the top five, but Navy has some quality pieces coming back. They’ll be led by quarterback Braxton Woodson who started against Notre Dame last season. He was the only 100-yard rusher the Irish allowed all season. Woodson will be running behind an offensive line that returns their left tackle, center, right guard and right tackle. The biggest question will be his supporting cast. With Eli Heidenreich, Alex Tecza and Brandon Chatman all leaving, he’ll need other ball carriers to step up.
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6. Michigan State Spartans
The Spartans return quarterback Alessio Milivojevic who started the final four regular season games in 2025. He threw for 1,267 yards, 10 touchdowns last season and played against Minnesota on the road, Penn State, Iowa on the road and Maryland. He’ll be rejoined in East Lansing by his left tackle, right tackle and right guard from a season ago. Michigan State picked up Cam Edwards from UCONN in the portal who rushed for 1,240 yards and 15 touchdowns last season. They also picked up receiver KK Smith from Notre Dame who has big-play ability. There’s potential here on this offense.
7. Purdue Boilermakers
Despite their 2-10 record from last season, Purdue returns some quality pieces on offense and it starts with quarterback Ryan Browne. Browne threw for 2,153 yards, rushed for 206 yards and had 13 total touchdowns. He will have to cut down on the turnovers, but will have another year in the system under his belt. His left tackle and right guard return along with running back Antonio Harris who seized the starting job at the end of last season. They picked up a few more backs in the portal including Jerrick Gibson from Texas and Fame Ijebol from Minnesota. They also picked up a trio of wide receivers with Xavier Townsend, Bisi Owens and Asaad Waseem coming to West Lafayette in 2026.
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8. Syracuse Orange
Personally, I wanted to rank the Orange higher; I’m a huge fan of their head coach Fran Brown, but there’s uncertainty across the board on offense for Syracuse. Quarterback Steve Angeli returns this season from injury, but his timeline remains uncertain causing the Orange to dip into the portal to get two quarterbacks. They lost their top five pass catchers from last season. But they do return three of their five starting offensive lineman. Portal pickups like Ahmad Miller from Jackson State and Elijah Moore from Florida State will have to pan out for this offense.
9. Stanford Cardinal
There’s a lot of potential with Stanford’s offense. They return Micah Ford, who’s a quality running back that rushed for 643 yards and four touchdowns last season. The Cardinal also return four of their five starting offensive lineman with their right guard being the only departure. Their lone returning starter at receiver only caught one touchdown pass, and their portal addition at quarterback, Davis Warren, make it hard to put Stanford any higher on this ranking. They do have Nico Brown coming over from Yale at receiver who caught 71 passes for 1,085 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2025.
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10. North Carolina Tarheels
The Tarheels only return two starters from last year’s offense and that’s running back Demon June and wide receiver Jordan Shipp. New offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino will have his work cut out for him having to replace all five starting offensive lineman from a season ago and will be relying on Wisconsin quarterback transfer Billy Edwards to lead the charge. Receiver Trech Kekahuna followed Edwards from Madison to Chapel Hill, but their bigger question remains in the trenches. North Carolina is the only team on Notre Dame’s schedule that doesn’t return an offensive lineman.
11. Boston College Eagles
Boston College, like North Carolina, only return two starters on offense from this past season in receiver Jaedn Skeete and center Michael Crounse. Portal departures hit head coach Bill O’Brien‘s team hard losing players like Dylan Lonergan, Turbo Richard and Reed Harris. Like almost every school on this list, they looked to the portal to supplement a lot of their losses. The Eagles will be relying one of Mason McKenzie a redshirt junior transfer from Saginaw Valley or Grayson Wilson, a redshirt freshman who has yet to play a collegiate snap to lead their offense in 2026.
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12. Rice Owls
The Owls were an extremely veteran team last season and still only managed a 5-8 record after losing to Texas State in the Armed Forces Bowl 41-10. Offensively, they only return three starters in running back Quinton Jackson, receiver Payton Matthews and right tackle Luke Miller. They’ll be relying on portal pick ups to engineer a lot of their offensive success. They snagged quarterback Jaccuri Brown from UCF from the portal to lead the way under center along with Cincinnati receiver Barry Jackson. Personally, I’m interested to see what former Notre Dame linebacker Preston Zinter can do for Rice at tight end.
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