2026 ND Portal Targets

[emaugust]

We need a blue chip percentage figure, stat!

 

[greyhammer90]

View attachment 3062397
Current by avg rating

Marginal difference for 7 more players at that average is something I'll take all day.

 

[DomeFieldAdvantage]

Would it be a bit too greedy of me to want another DE? I feel like we have a good top 3, but kind of question marks after that.

 

[GrangerIrish24]

 

[Irish#1]

That’ll work

And 3/3 fg 3/3 xp in Notre Dame Stadium

MF was secretly trying him out.

 

[Irish8248]

Still feels gross we let up 30 points to purwho

 

[irish4ever]

After this year, there's no way they're losing to Miami next season.

That game will be a ruthless statement game.

I hope that you're right and that the Irish are up 20+ and MF calls a timeout with under 30 sec. left and sets up a play to go deep into their fuckin' jugular! Fuck canes and meatchickens too!

 

[jerseyborn1971]

I don’t think this team will be kicking a lot of FG before the playoff anyway. A whole lotta extra points though

 

[Irish#1]

View attachment 3062398

We are so far back it’s like Back to the Future.

 

[IrishinSyria]

Oregon has the higher player rating avg., at the moment. 92.41 vs. 92.21

I wonder if that factors in transfers out…

 

[bobbyok1]

Where’s IU? 😉

 

[BrooklynDomer]

Would it be a bit too greedy of me to want another DE? I feel like we have a good top 3, but kind of question marks after that.

I kind of wanted Jalen Thompson, too. However, if we get Gray and/or Onye, then Young can stay at DE full-time. With Traore, Young, Keeley, you have a strong 3 man rotation, and then you have guys like Thomas, Hulak, Dunham and Ewetade to rush the passer on 3rd down. The biggest issue is if any of the big 3 get hurt. Then you’re relying on the pass-rushers to play every down.

 

[IrishInOntario]

I kind of wanted Jalen Thompson, too. However, if we get Gray and/or Onye, then Young can stay at DE full-time. With Traore, Young, Keeley, you have a strong 3 man rotation, and then you have guys like Thomas, Hulak, Dunham and Ewetade to rush the passer on 3rd down. The biggest issue is if any of the big 3 get hurt. Then you’re relying on the pass-rushers to play every down.

I wonder if Chris Burgess moving to DT by all accounts and ND looking to add Brewu + Gray in combination with Mukam coming back, doesn't cause ND to slim Cole Mullins down slightly into the 265lb range, where he can fill a Junior Tuihalamaka / Jordan Botelho role as as run down DE... If they landed Gray it would look something like...

DE: Bryce Young
2. Keon Keeley
3. Rodney Dunham

NG: Sionne Gray
2. Armel Mukam
3. Davion Dixon

DT: Francis Brewu
2. Ejijah Hughes
3. Chris Burgess

DE: Boubacar Traore
2. Cole Mullins
3. Loghan Thomas

Note: if Jason Onye gets an extra year, he jumps to the starting spot in the NG rotation and everyone moves down a peg.

Just a thought!

 

[IrishLax]

There is literally zero evidence to support this other than they didnt operate in the way and timeframe that IE and the ND beat expected them to.

This isn't true though. They were set to spend what they considered big money on Marsh and thought they had him locked up for nearly a month.

Someone will write a whole post mortem on this at some point after the dust settles but there was pretty accurate reporting of 1. Things not going as expected 2. ND adjusting on the fly 3. ND landing a lot of really good guys. Which is actually what most people on here predicted.

 

[SoIll]

There is literally zero evidence to support this other than they didnt operate in the way and timeframe that IE and the ND beat expected them to. The portal, like HS recruiting is always going to imperfect and fluid, but unless you know facts that none of the rest of the world does at this time, this statement is silly. Do you know that they wouldnt do it almost exactly the same way if they had to do it all over again?

Maybe mistakes were made, maybe they werent. We will likely never know. You know nothing to be able to state they absolutely made mistakes.

This is false. Mistakes were made

 

[EvilleIrish]

This isn't true though. They were set to spend what they considered big money on Marsh and thought they had him locked up for nearly a month.

Someone will write a whole post mortem on this at some point after the dust settles but there was pretty accurate reporting of 1. Things not going as expected 2. ND adjusting on the fly 3. ND landing a lot of really good guys. Which is actually what most people on here predicted.

Do you think most of these guys were on ND’s original radar?

 

[IrishinSyria]

This isn't true though. They were set to spend what they considered big money on Marsh and thought they had him locked up for nearly a month.

Someone will write a whole post mortem on this at some point after the dust settles but there was pretty accurate reporting of 1. Things not going as expected 2. ND adjusting on the fly 3. ND landing a lot of really good guys. Which is actually what most people on here predicted.

I mean without knowing what the numbers are we’re all sort of in the dark but in retrospect doesn’t refusing to overpay Marsh look a lot better than it felt at the time?

 

[NDWarrior]

I said before, I think the adjustment is that they started to focus on high-potential underclassman who they had a good feel for, however that information was known (HS recruiting experience, film, etc.).

Maybe half were high-production pickups because if that's all the staff focused on, it wasn't going to work out nearly enough due to high asking prices and academics.

Those high-production ones were maybe due to special circumstances:

- Keely, obviously known via HS recruiting commitent
- Brewu - Who knows if we get him if OSU doesn't recruit AL guys over him
- McKinney - He for sure was a high-production get the staff secured (hey, MM is a stud recruiter!)
- Purdue kicker - Same but obv. not as high profile position as DT or WR

All the other players are younger and mostly inexperienced; and IrishLax is right in that they adjusted on the fly where it worked out that fortunately there were some very good younger, high-potential players who became available about 1 week in after the misses.

At the end of the day, they got the job done.

 

[notredamermotherpray4us]

Do you think most of these guys were on ND’s original radar?

Yes. I feel Freeman and co were well aware that the portal was gonna be a shit show and they had a lot of irons in the fire. Probably still have some more irons in the fire

 

[Domina Nostra]

Will need a backup QB before the summer. Then they’ll be ready to roll.

 

[RudyVerse]

How bad can Herbert season 2 be? He’s going to be surrounded by talent.

 

[KMac151993]

Now get to work...no more slow season starts!

 

[GATTACA!]

How bad can Herbert season 2 be? He’s going to be surrounded by talent.

Let's not find out.

 

[Crazy Balki]

Now get to work...no more slow season starts!

Thankfully, even a slow start probably doesn't keep this team from starting the year 2-0.

Wisconsin is basically a game away from giving Fickell the axe, and Rice is....well, awful.

 

[ND88]

I really can’t stop staring at this lmao. We aren’t just number one in aggregate points, we have by far the highest average, which would only go up with Gray. Stuff I thought I’d never see with ND.

Sorry this isn't to your great point, but wasn't Brad Powers the sh*tbag repeatedly crying about ND's portal performance literally like a day and a half ago? Lmao at these flakes all of the sudden wide-eyed and believing.

 

[IrelandIrish]

Where’s IU? 😉

Thats amazing. 2026-27 has to be our season.

 

[Irishdawg]

Now get to work...no more slow season starts!

Yep, looking forward to a lot of Lambeau leaps September 6th!!
Let’s Go ☘️ Scorched Earth 2026

 

[KMac151993]

Time to put up or shut up as well...championship or bust!

 

[NDhoosier]

1. Things not going as expected 2. ND adjusting on the fly 3. ND landing a lot of really good guys. Which is actually what most people on here predicted.

1. The only "evidence" of this is the from the ND media that was upset because they were being kept in the dark for most of it
2. Every team adjusts on the fly. You dont think players like Marsh change willy-nilly all the time for every team?
3. You didnt... you were one of the most vocal about ND fumbling this transfer portal. You were being extremely pessimistic, which resulted in many others getting pessimistic. This board was difficult to read. Now, it seems you all need to eat some crow. The end result is that ND absolutely won this transfer portal... and they may not even be done.

 

[ND88]

1. The only "evidence" of this is the from the ND media that was upset because they were being kept in the dark for most of it
2. Every team adjusts on the fly. You dont think players like Marsh change willy-nilly all the time for every team?
3. You didnt... you were one of the most vocal about ND fumbling this transfer portal. You were being extremely pessimistic, which resulted in many others getting pessimistic. This board was difficult to read. Now, it seems you all need to eat some crow. The end result is that ND absolutely won this transfer portal... and they may not even be done.