The roster for 2025 continues to evolve
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have been in a war for the National Championship ever since the first round game a month ago. Because this team is locked in and focused on the big prize, we’ve heard only a smidge of what might happen once the season ultimately comes to an end.
Basically — for well over a month there was going to be no players entering the transfer portal from Notre Dame, but as we saw during the Christmas season when the Irish brought in more pass-catchers, the portal is bringing more to South Bend.
Recently the Irish got transfer portal commitments from four players:
- Jared Dawson DT — Louisville Cardinals
- Elijah Hughes DT — USC Trojans
- Jalen Stroman DB — Virginia Tech Hokies
- Noah Brunette K — North Carolina Tar Heels
We knew Notre Dame wanted to pull some defensive linemen out of the portal, and have two big boys in Dawson and Hughes. While neither are huge stars at the moment, I think Notre Dame has proved to be a place where the coaching staff will get the most out of what they have — which could be quite a bit. Getting old in the trenches is always a good thing. Hughes has multiple years of eligibility remaining.
Jalen Stroman went into the 2024 season as a guy that could become a day two pick in the NFL Draft, but was injured in the season opener against Vanderbilt and missed the rest of the season. The Irish continue to do well with veteran defensive backs out of the portal, and welcome Stroman’s ability to the team.
Notre Dame signed a kicker in the 2025 recruiting class, but it’s nice to see that they will continue to keep adding veteran kickers from the portal. Noah Brunette was a 2nd Team All-ACC kicker. Nice.
A huge part of why Notre Dame is playing for a national championship in less than a week is because of what they did in the transfer portal — which is a good reason to have a lot of optimism about the guys Notre Dame will be bringing in this offseason. Of course… there will be a fair number of departures, but we will get to that when we need to.