2026 ND Portal Targets

Veritate Duce Progredi

Veritate Duce Progredi

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maxwell said:

Some film analysis of WR and DL portal additions from Landon Tengwall starting at 45min, might temper some expectations a little. Specifically is critical of Keon's lack of pass rushing moves/skills. I appreciate that he isn't swayed by star ratings or past narratives, but just calls what he sees on film.
I highly recommend checking out his YouTube page for anyone interested in film analysis , super knowledgeable guy with really in depth breakdowns of line play specifically.
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I think it's healthy for everyone to have a sober view of the acquisitions. They augment the current roster. Keon hasn't had a lot of production in the 3 fast years since his recruitment. It'll be up to Landow and Partridge to get him ready. We didn't need to go find an immediate starter at DE with what we have in the room. There are a lot of players in position to 'emerge'. Keon adds one more with high potential.

Same with the WRs. I'll take 5-star potential with our current WR room. We have a relatively high floor with some proven playmakers but we need the potential for a true, defense-adjusting #1 to develop. The freshman class, the underclassmen and Graham/Porter provide that potential.

We could really use one of our TEs to have an emergence as well. RB is a big question mark until we see it on the field.

Anyone who claims this team is a finished product is lying to themselves. The defense looks...stacked. The offense needs to develop and find who wants to be a playmaker. The good news is there are a LOT of options unlike years past.
 
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notredomer23

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The production argument for the receivers is difficult because Michigan State was void of talent at the position while Mylan Graham would have needed to see the field over Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate, and Emeka Egbuka.

Roles reversed, Nick Marsh wouldn’t have seen the field over those 3 last year. He probably would have over Brandon Innis this year but that’s still WR3 in what was not a prolific offense.
 
Irish#1

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maxwell said:

Some film analysis of WR and DL portal additions from Landon Tengwall starting at 45min, might temper some expectations a little. Specifically is critical of Keon's lack of pass rushing moves/skills. I appreciate that he isn't swayed by star ratings or past narratives, but just calls what he sees on film.
I highly recommend checking out his YouTube page for anyone interested in film analysis , super knowledgeable guy with really in depth breakdowns of line play specifically.
Click to expand...

Watching the Colts, I got to see first hand the improvement in the D line. in just one year. I suspect Partridge can do the same with Keely.
 
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irish4ever

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NDPhilly said:


These rankings are often totally off but if nothing else it shows how we were competing (and winning) top tier guys this year vs last
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IF the Irish do land Gray, that would be (3) DL ranked well within the top 100 this yr. and we were fairly excited just to land Dawson (compare his ranking 754 from last year). Damn, these (3) plus bringing Mukam back into the fold as depth ... WOW what a haul this would be!
 
IrishLax

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Veritate Duce Progredi said:
I think it's healthy for everyone to have a sober view of the acquisitions. They augment the current roster. Keon hasn't had a lot of production in the 3 fast years since his recruitment. It'll be up to Landow and Partridge to get him ready. We didn't need to go find an immediate starter at DE with what we have in the room. There are a lot of players in position to 'emerge'. Keon adds one more with high potential.

Same with the WRs. I'll take 5-star potential with our current WR room. We have a relatively high floor with some proven playmakers but we need the potential for a true, defense-adjusting #1 to develop. The freshman class, the underclassmen and Graham/Porter provide that potential.

We could really use one of our TEs to have an emergence as well. RB is a big question mark until we see it on the field.

Anyone who claims this team is a finished product is lying to themselves. The defense looks...stacked. The offense needs to develop and find who wants to be a playmaker. The good news is there are a LOT of options unlike years past.
Click to expand...
The offense has a 1st round pick at QB though + two proven WRs.

Honestly, biggest question mark is tackle play on the OL. If something short circuits the season it will be poor pass protection from unproven players. RB is a dropoff, not a question mark, I take issue with their phrasing. We know what Aneyas Williams is and it's very good, reminiscent of Kyren... but it's not top NFL draft pick good.
 
GowerND11

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IrishLax said:
The offense has a 1st round pick at QB though + two proven WRs.

Honestly, biggest question mark is tackle play on the OL. If something short circuits the season it will be poor pass protection from unproven players. RB is a dropoff, not a question mark, I take issue with their phrasing. We know what Aneyas Williams is and it's very good, reminiscent of Kyren... but it's not top NFL draft pick good.
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Agree with this. To add my thoughts:


We ran for over 2400 yards this past year with Love and Price as the 1 and 2. One would have to assume there is going to be less production overall next year in rushing. So, assume 1900 yards. That would mean we should see an increase in passing yardage from Carr. He threw for 2741 yards (228 YPG), I don't think it's unrealistic for him to throw for over 3100 yards (258+ YPG) in the 12 regular season games.
 
Dale

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Veritate Duce Progredi said:
I think it's healthy for everyone to have a sober view of the acquisitions. They augment the current roster. Keon hasn't had a lot of production in the 3 fast years since his recruitment. It'll be up to Landow and Partridge to get him ready. We didn't need to go find an immediate starter at DE with what we have in the room. There are a lot of players in position to 'emerge'. Keon adds one more with high potential.

Same with the WRs. I'll take 5-star potential with our current WR room. We have a relatively high floor with some proven playmakers but we need the potential for a true, defense-adjusting #1 to develop. The freshman class, the underclassmen and Graham/Porter provide that potential.

We could really use one of our TEs to have an emergence as well. RB is a big question mark until we see it on the field.

Anyone who claims this team is a finished product is lying to themselves. The defense looks...stacked. The offense needs to develop and find who wants to be a playmaker. The good news is there are a LOT of options unlike years past.
Click to expand...

I don’t think anybody claimed we are a finished product as a team.

ND has as many returning pieces as anyone across the country + just added pieces in the portal that maybe did not raise the floor but heavily raised the ceiling of a team already built to contend for the CFP. When you look around the county at what OSU, Texas, Oregon, Georgia etc did, ND did as good if not better than all of them at retention + portal. I mean who else is returning their HC/OC/QB/DC/MLB? Incredible.

So being optimistic is not at all saying “wow we got a finished product everywhere”. It’s saying wow they ended up having a really good January all things considered.
 
rtrn2glory

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Spring is going to be very competitive and I for one am super excited about that. Offensively there's going to be a ton of new unproven pieces at the skill positions that are going to need to show up and improve timing with CJ along with developing rapport across the OL.

Another factor to consider is this team will have a full 3 and a half to 4 months or recovery and off season training compared to only about 2 last year. I can see the players and staff being very hungry to get back on the field and complete. Going to be an exciting month of spring ball
 
PolishDomer

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phillyirish

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IrishLax said:
Yeah I hope people aren't critical of the Porter/Graham signings. I think no one knows how or if they will pan out because there isn't much film on either of them. But from ND, perspective they thought they were getting Marsh, and if you want to spend the money after missing on him you are better off rolling the dice on guys with plus traits than getting JAGs. Faison/Greathouse gives you a solid floor, you don't need a warm body anywhere except maybe boundary.
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I think we all got PTSD from high profile receivers underperforming here.

But given that it’s OSU, identified by Hartline the best WR mind in the country, and the fact that these guys were sitting behind the best WR corps in the country, I don’t think there is any concern for their lack of first year production.
 
IrishLax

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Dale said:
I don’t think anybody claimed we are a finished product as a team.

ND has as many returning pieces as anyone across the country + just added pieces in the portal that maybe did not raise the floor but heavily raised the ceiling of a team already built to contend for the CFP. When you look around the county at what OSU, Texas, Oregon, Georgia etc did, ND did as good if not better than all of them at retention + portal. I mean who else is returning their HC/OC/QB/DC/MLB? Incredible.

So being optimistic is not at all saying “wow we got a finished product everywhere”. It’s saying wow they ended up having a really good January all things considered.
Click to expand...
100% spot on. We're taking a top 10ish defense and probably upgrading the DT position while also adding some key depth in the secondary. So that's a proven commodity.

Every team has to go replace pieces, and no doubt we have some big losses on offense. But what we return is very encouraging. There is always the off-chance you pull a Clemson or Penn State and flame out but there is no way to be anything other than optimistic given the retention + additions.
 
The Backer

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IrishLax said:
I mean this just isn't true. No one is talking about the "media" or the beat. If I'm speculating then I'll always say that. I wasn't speculating. My info is from someone who is involved at RALLY. And even if you don't believe me, then you could look at what SoIll and others said after I posted it. I have called most everything correct including minute detail shit like Brewu not being announced on Monday when everyone else said he was. But even if you don't look at *anything* I said, you can point at:
1. The Marsh situation
2. The kicker we tampered with and thought was a "done deal" that never even entered the portal
3. The Tulsa TE who showed up, said he wanted a laughable amount of money that was way more than what we thought he wanted, and we then told to get lost
Etc. Etc. that are all incredibly well documented and not debatable to anyone keeping it a buck.

Oh come on. This board was the least pessimistic place of all ND boards, we actually had fun with it. And I said the following:
"Freeman isn't happy with the early portal results" ... he literally confirmed this today and talked about Martin talking him off a cliff
"Admissions/academics isn't a barrier, they can get in players, but it is not as smooth as other places" ... literally confirmed today as well. Talking about some students that would need to finish spring at their current school, talking about how they had to have an admissions point person working overtime with deans of individual colleges, etc. Other places were just saying "sign here and then you'll get an email to sign up for your online classes"
"They are going to change the process for 2027" ... they literally go out days later and hire assistants for Martin to take some of the responsibilities off his plate because he was being run ragged
"Money isn't the issue, ND has plenty" ... fact check true
"ND doesn't want to be a portal team, they want to focus on HS recruiting and roster retention" ... Freeman literally said that today multiple times
"I expect when the dust settles that ND will have gotten a handful of high quality transfers" ... proven true
"Some of the negative narratives are batshit" ... true
"Some of the positive narratives from guys like Straughn are also fake" ... true

So you can quibble with me calling it "disorganized" or some of the other subjective/opinion commentary but that call was coming from inside the house. Why do you think they hired two guys to help Martin? Why do you think Freeman made the comments he made today about the tension with Martin having to talk him off the ledge? The people with a big trunk load of money and the intent to spend it were saying the same thing. And a couple of the "first wave" misses were total wtf moments that caught them by surprise. But it's surprising to see your opinion of what I shared, seems like a mischaracterization.
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This just makes me even more optimistic about ND’s leadership. We knew Martin could run a powerful high school recruiting process — we landed one of our best classes in the modern era.

What we found out is that shit can hit the fan and Martin can adapt and think on his feet. All this tells me is things were as bad as they looked the first weekend, but we still ended up massively upgrading the roster.
 
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Irish5Saint

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The Backer said:
This just makes me even more optimistic about ND’s leadership. We knew Martin could run a powerful high school recruiting process — we landed one of our best classes in the modern era.

What we found out is that shit can hit the fan and Martin can adapt and think on his feet. All this tells me is things were as bad as they looked the first weekend, but we still ended up massively upgrading the roster.
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Yup. Great recovery, but the first week of the portal in future years needs to be better.
 
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