2026 ND Portal Targets

NDPhilly

Philly Torqued
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If Burgess is living up to his ranking, he should be a key contributor next year. When Saban was rolling they'd lose guys early to the draft every year and backfill the spot with their elite recruits, not transfers.
 

Jimmy3Putt

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Pyne is the single handed reason we don’t have an 8 game winning streak vs USC.

I’d rather try to win with a talented, but inexperienced kid on our roster. The worst that can happen is a loss which is certain with a Pyne level qb.
 

JamIrish

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Defensive tackle isn't as starved as most think IMO. With Burgess moving inside apparently, depending on if he can hold 290-295lbs well. Burgess, Dixon, Golden, and Hola are a nice young quartet at the position. One, maybe two, will have to be ready to contribute some snaps. Mullins like Burgess, can be a sound contributor but will need to be 285-290. You add Gilliam and go get an immediate plug and play vet... and I think you're good, especially if Onye comes back. We need to upgrade the talent and size inside but it's not like replacing Hinish, Rubio, and Dawson is insurmountable.
 

SWirishfan

I'm a Rocket Man
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I trust this regime now understands anything less than a full court press at this point is pissing into the wind.

Whatever the plan was, it has certainly been shredded and replaced with a more aggressive approach.

Hold the line and have faith these guys are gonna take the gloves off and seal the deal with many targets today and tomorrow.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
So you are saying Ash was in charge and
CMF has to take over again
 

allenm5333

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Defensive tackle isn't as starved as most think IMO. With Burgess moving inside apparently, depending on if he can hold 290-295lbs well. Burgess, Dixon, Golden, and Hola are a nice young quartet at the position. One, maybe two, will have to be ready to contribute some snaps. Mullins like Burgess, can be a sound contributor but will need to be 285-290. You add Gilliam and go get an immediate plug and play vet... and I think you're good, especially if Onye comes back. We need to upgrade the talent and size inside but it's not like replacing Hinish, Rubio, and Dawson is insurmountable.
If everything worked perfectly, we would be fine. But we are a fan of ND and that never works
 

Dale

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I just scrolled through the 247 portal rankings.

ND probably paid a ton in OL roster retention.
It’s a wasteland out there.

Also Gilliam is probably as MUST as we’ve had since Hartman. The DT names are shit followed by shit after the first 15 or so.

WR is still pretty deep IMO. Names are there.
 

NDPhilly

Philly Torqued
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I have a hard time believing the 2nd DT we get doesn’t get passed by one of the guys on the roster. Lots of bodies out there but not a lot of high end talents.
 

Irish#1

Livin' Your Dream!
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Talking Drew Pyne, seriously? Some of you guys need to go trim your toenails.
 

BleedBlueGold

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If Buress is living up to his ranking, he should be a key contributor next year. When Saban was rolling they'd lose guys early to the draft every year and backfill the spot with their elite recruits, not transfers.

I agree except when it comes to DL and OL. I'd prefer to reload with proven commodities who are damn near 25 years old. It seems to be a cheat code in the portal era, imo. Definitely need home grown talent to develop. But always be enhancin' - Marcus Freeman (probably)
 

Irish#1

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Gilliam's family being with him can't be overstated as a positive. Particularly when MF says hi to mom with that smile of his.
 

NDMatt91

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Translation: Gilliam is having a good visit at ND in order to increase the NIL deal he eventually signs at Tennessee
His agent must be smiling from ear to ear. He knows ND is in a really bad spot and they can't afford for Gilliam to leave South Bend uncommitted.
 

Irish_Mickey

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People are losing their sh*t about a DT who nobody heard of before last week, had 21 tackles this year and began at Georgetown. He is far from a sure thing.

IMO Nick Marsh & Jontez Williams appear to be the only impact players we "whiffed" on, if you want to call it that. However, DB was more luxury than necessity and can't blame Marsh for what I presume is a giant bag from the #1 team and a coach who turned a mid-QB into a Heisman winner.

I presume we'll get some warm bodies at DT, but there just don't appear to be many impact players out there. At WR, it would be nice to pull at least 1 solid player, like the Vandy kid, but I think people are underestimating Gilbert and expect at least 1 of the freshman (Finley?) to play a significant role.

The portal has totally thrown a wrench in underclassmen development...if it had always existed, not sure we would have gotten to see the Golden Tates and Will Fullers finish in ND uniforms.
 

IrishinSyria

In truth lies victory
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Gilliam's family being with him can't be overstated as a positive. Particularly when MF says hi to mom with that smile of his.
And then sends flowers and chocolates and then…


Wait, what am I doing? I’m not supposed to be writing hallmark channel fan fic here.
 

RudyVerse

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People are losing their sh*t about a DT who nobody heard of before last week, had 21 tackles this year and began at Georgetown. He is far from a sure thing.

IMO Nick Marsh & Jontez Williams appear to be the only impact players we "whiffed" on, if you want to call it that. However, DB was more luxury than necessity and can't blame Marsh for what I presume is a giant bag from the #1 team and a coach who turned a mid-QB into a Heisman winner.

I presume we'll get some warm bodies at DT, but there just don't appear to be many impact players out there. At WR, it would be nice to pull at least 1 solid player, like the Vandy kid, but I think people are underestimating Gilbert and expect at least 1 of the freshman (Finley?) to play a significant role.

The portal has totally thrown a wrench in underclassmen development...if it had always existed, not sure we would have gotten to see the Golden Tates and Will Fullers finish in ND uniforms.

I think it's less about missing a specific player, and more about 8 of our top 11 DL now gone, and the replacements behind them are just names - no one that earned any real snaps or has any experience.
 

NDMatt91

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People are losing their sh*t about a DT who nobody heard of before last week, had 21 tackles this year and began at Georgetown. He is far from a sure thing.

IMO Nick Marsh & Jontez Williams appear to be the only impact players we "whiffed" on, if you want to call it that. However, DB was more luxury than necessity and can't blame Marsh for what I presume is a giant bag from the #1 team and a coach who turned a mid-QB into a Heisman winner.

I presume we'll get some warm bodies at DT, but there just don't appear to be many impact players out there. At WR, it would be nice to pull at least 1 solid player, like the Vandy kid, but I think people are underestimating Gilbert and expect at least 1 of the freshman (Finley?) to play a significant role.

The portal has totally thrown a wrench in underclassmen development...if it had always existed, not sure we would have gotten to see the Golden Tates and Will Fullers finish in ND uniforms.
He's been rated in the 3rd-5th rounds by multiple sites, and CBS had him in the 60 of best available prospects, had he declared. He's not perfect, but he has a lot of talent/potential. PFF likes him, too.
 

Me2SouthBend

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His agent must be smiling from ear to ear. He knows ND is in a really bad spot and they can't afford for Gilliam to leave South Bend uncommitted.
Keep it down over there. Maybe they don’t know that. If they find out by reading it here we’re coming after you.
 

IrishinSyria

In truth lies victory
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I’m super skeptical of the late start narrative. These aren’t wide eyed high school kids who are likely to be swayed by the back of a sorority girl’s throat, these are kids who have been through it and who are evaluating hard money offers. I think kids are likely to go to their top choice first, but I don’t think anyone’s committing at a visit if they didn’t go on that visit intending to do just that.

I do think we’re probably finding out that our war chest isn’t going as far in this market as we would have liked.
 
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