Notre Dame Football: Report states Marshall’s Cain Madden is transferring to the Irish

According to a report by Irish Illustrated’s Tim Prister, Marshall Thundering Herd graduate transfer guard, Cain Madden, will be playing football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in 2021.

While at the time of publishing this article nothing has been made official by Cain madden or Notre Dame, we can certainly trust Tim Prister’s reporting.

Madden chose the Irish over the Florida State Seminoles which is a huge win — but also very telling. Florida State is looking to beef up its offensive line and has already added Notre Dame transfer, Dillan Gibbons, from the transfer portal. For Madden to pick the Irish, he had to see that there was immediate playing time on the line this season.

Notre Dame lost a lot to the NFL Draft this year, and spring football saw the Irish move a bunch of parts around to help find its best five players. With Jarrett Patterson out during the spring, Blake Fisher seemed to lock in the left tackle spot, while fellow freshman Rocco Spindler was lining up a starting guard spot for himself. The addition of Madden likely means that Spindler won’t be needed as badly this fall to start at a guard spot, and it will probably be Madden and Patterson inside with Josh Lugg and Fisher out at tackle — and Zeke Correll at center.

At least that’s the projection for the moment.

It’s a big offseason for the Irish and the transfer portal. Madden joins quarterback Jack Coan as new guys coming in, and Notre Dame is still in the hunt for Tulsa CB Akayleb Evans as well. The “returning production” stat is starting to dwindle as a negative.