Getting these numbers right
The transfer portal isn’t even officially open yet (that’s on December, 5) and things are already getting pretty wild all around college football — including the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Obviously the news concerning quarterback Drew Pyne and his decision to skip the bowl game and jump right into the portal is big stuff for Notre Dame fans — but the overall end result wasn’t some big surprise.
Notre Dame absolutely plans on hitting the transfer portal as hard as it can — and they told Pyne they were going to bring in a quarterback to compete. It’s my understanding that there are a handful of QB targets that Notre Dame could actively go after when the portal opens, such as:
- Devin Leary — NC State Wolfpack (not in the portal yet)
- Hudson Card — Texas Longhorns
- Michael Pratt — Tulane Green Wave (not in the portal yet)
- Brennan Armstrong — Virginia Cavaliers
But quarterback isn’t the only position that they are looking at. In fact, Western Michigan Broncos DT Braden Fiske is visiting Notre Dame right now. The Irish could also be in the market for EDGE players like a guy like Stephen Herron from the Stanford Cardinal.
How many Notre Dame actually goes after depends on the 2023 recruiting class (and vice versa) and how many departures the Irish see in the end. I fully expect the scholarship chart to be well over the 85 limit in the spring, so the entire picture won’t come about until this summer.
Below is an updated chart — where I finally started pulling obvious players out. There are almost a dozen more that I think have a good chance of being gone to the NFL Draft or transfer portal after the bowl… but we’ll let that unfold over the next few weeks.