If you were looking forward to the openiong of the transfer portal to get a few big offseason wins for Notre Dame, this past weekend was probably a little disappointing. Let’s quickly recap some of went on, and then maybe we can exhale a little bit, and put things into perspective.
GONE
Arguably two of the biggest targets on the Notre Dame transfer portal wish list were Michigan State WR Nick Marsh, and Iowa State CB Jontez Williams. Notre Dame was looking to replace Malachi Fields with Marsh as a proven talent at WR, and Williams was likely lined up to be Notre Dame’s annual nickelback pull out of the portal.
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Both players had visits scheduled with Notre Dame, and both players committed to the first school they visited. Marsh committed to the Indiana Hoosiers, and Williams committed to the USC Trojans.
While there are a number of Irish fans lining up to criticize Notre Dame for these losses, I’m not privy to what every offer looks like (as far as contracts are concerned). One complaint that might be the loudest is that Notre Dame chose not to host any players this weekend. I’ve heard multiple reasons why that was the case, but I’m not sure it matters as much as we think. With portal players, the first visit seems to be the school they have targeted themselves as the top choice (probably after some back channel talks) and as long as things check out — they’re in. This is quite different from high school recruiting when you want the last visit most of the time.
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So… as much as Notre Dame fans thought the Irish should get both players, they were likely already going to commit to their top choice right off the bat.
OUR OLD FACES IN NEW PLACES
Several Notre Dame transfer portal entries committed to their new home over the weekend. The most notable players are defensive end Josh Burnham who committed to Indiana, and quarterback Kenny Minchey who committed to Nebraska. Fomer walk-on quarterback Anthony Rezac also committed to South Dakota State through the transfer portal this weekend.
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IN |
OUT |
|---|---|
|
– |
QB – Kenny Minchey – Nebraska |
|
– |
S – Taebron Bennie-Powell |
|
– |
RB – Gi’Bran Payne |
|
– |
S – JaDon Blair |
|
– |
CB – Chance Tucker |
|
– |
S – Ben Minich |
|
– |
K – Marcello Diomede |
|
– |
DB – Karson Hobbs |
|
– |
DE – Joshua Burnham – Indiana |
|
– |
DT – Armel Mukam |
|
– |
CB – Cree Thomas |
|
– |
QB – Anthony Rezac – South Dakota St. |
STILL VISITING
While it’s hard to say, “yeah man that guy is visiting” after the Marsh and Williams incident, here is the list of players currently scheduled to visit Notre Dame:
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Tuesday — Penn State DT Xavier Gilliam
Monday — Central Florida DT Horace Lockett
Tuesday — Michigan State DE Jalen Thompson
Monday — Wake Forest DT Mateen Igirogba
Monday — Iowa State WR Xavier Townsend
This week — Rutgers WR Ian Strong
Monday — Tulsa TE Brody Foley
A QUARTERBACK?
Yes. On the latest Earned 5-Star Podcast I strongly advised that Notre Dame should find a QB to come in and battle for the #2 job even though that player would need to come from a small pool of players. It looks like Notre Dame pulled something out of the pool in Mercer QB Braden Atkinson, but we will have to see how this plays out.
A KICKER?
Obviously yes, Notre Dame is going to grab a kicker in the portal — but who? I’ve heard conflicting tidbits about a couple different players, but unfortunately I can’t really say much more. I do firmly believe the Irish will land a kicker early this week, and it’ll be fine.
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SETTLE DOWN
There are a lot of complaints out there, and to be fair, I think most of the complaints are also fair.
However… change your underwear.
The “bad news” so far hasn’t been devastating to the 2026 campaign. Notre Dame has an incredibly deep and talented secondary right now, and if the Irish need just ONE wide receiver, there are still a number of really good targets in the portal. Notre Dame currently has 14 receivers set to play in 2026 and I’m still willing to bet that guys like Elijah Burress and Micah Gilbert step up in a big way with CJ Carr throwing the football.
Notre Dame’s biggest need really is along the defensive line, and they are still very much in the mix for the guys they have targeted.
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While we are living in a transfer portal world, you should probably remember that Notre Dame just signed its best recruiting class in at least 30 years. That doesn’t happen at Notre Dame (in the NIL world) by chance. Notre Dame is doing everything it can to field the best roster they can in 2026 and beyond.
COMING IN HOT
The news all weekend has been fast and furious. I expect much of the same this week, so be on the lookout for good (and maybe bad) news over the next few days. I caution everyone from making a bunch of definitive statements that may look foolish in the coming days, weeks, and months.
