Notre Dame Football: Transfer Portal updates for the Fighting Irish

As of Boxing Day, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish have secured three commitments from the transfer portal. Here are a few updates about a few of their top targets in the portal.

QUARTERBACK

Notre Dame had planned on dipping into the quarterback transfer portal for quite some, and because of that decision, Drew Pyne quit and transferred to Arizona State. I was told that Notre Dame’s target list of quarterbacks was pretty thin. One of the names brought up the most over the last few weeks was Hudson Card from the Texas Longhorns. While I don’t believe he was much of a target for Notre Dame and Tommy Rees — it doesn’t really matter now. Card is transferring to play for the Purdue Boilermakers.

Another interesting note to pass along concerning Card’s decision is that Boilermaker freshman QB Brady Allen (from Fort Branch, Indiana) has also entered the transfer portal. While interested in Notre Dame during the 2022 recruiting cycle as the #10 ranked quarterback in the country, the Irish took a pass for Steve Angeli.

The perceived #1 target at QB for the Irish is Sam Hartman — who still has not entered the transfer portal. Hartman has received the highest grade to date from PFF for his bowl performance against the Missouri Tigers.

DEFENSIVE LINE

Notre Dame put a lot of effort and time into recruiting Western Michigan Broncos DT Braden Fiske from the transfer portal. The Irish looked to be his top choice for a little while, and it certainly looked like it helped that Fiske is from Michigan City — but he has committed to the Florida State Seminoles. NIL money (or acquisition fee if you need things to be spelled out) seems to be the biggest reason why.

Notre Dame is still working to get a defensive lineman from the portal. Perhaps they could snag two from Winston-Salem. Defensive lineman Rondell Bothroyd recently entered the portal, and Notre Dame might make him their next target.