It’s been almost 4 months since our last roster update, and while we’re in the thick of an improving football season on the field, the acquisition of talent and program management never stops. In fact, the Early Signing Period is going to be here faster than you think. In just 37 days from today that window opens up–earlier than in previous seasons. That means when Notre Dame concludes the regular season at Stanford, the ESD period will be open that following Wednesday before conference championship weekend kicks off.

A reminder that we are now operating under the 105-man roster rule for football players and adjusted our old scholarship spreadsheet to that fact:

***NEW 18 Stripes ROSTER Tracker CLICK HERE***

Out of Eligibility Following 2025:

QB Tyler Buchner
RB Jake Tafelski
WR Malachi Fields
WR Will Pauling
TE Eli Raridon
DE Junior Tuihalamaka
DE Jordan Botelho
DT Gabriel Rubio
DT Jason Onye
DT Jared Dawson
CB Chance Tucker
CB Davonte Smith
S Jalen Stroman
PK Noah Burnette
P James Rendell

We’ll get to some eligibility changes, or lack thereof, at the bottom of today’s article. The only change since our last update was the medical retirement of tight end Kevin Bauman who suffered yet another season-ending knee injury back in August. He would’ve been eligible for a 7th season (he was the second tight end in the same class with now 3rd year NFL pro Michael Mayer, for reference) but has decided to hang up the cleats.

Bauman has retired. 

You may recall there was some discussion around when Jordan Botelho would be healthy in 2025 and if that would lead to a potential 7th season for the Hawaiian edge rusher, but he’s played in all 7 games so far and will not be able to return in 2026.

2026-27 Academic Classes

27 Verbal Commits
26 Sophomores
28 Juniors
27 Seniors
17 Graduates
125 Total Roster Spots

Notre Dame continues to carry 113 players on the current roster–and with the grandfather rule for 2025 class and earlier players–the 105-rule basically doesn’t mean anything for several more years.

The 2026 class is already up to a healthy 27 players (4th in the team Composite rankings) and might add another piece or two before the regular season wraps up. Since our last update the class has added:

WR Kaydon Finley
WR Devin Fitzgerald
WR Brayden Robinson
DL Elijah Golden
S Nick Reddish

Momentum is picking up quickly for the 2027 class. Pittsburgh offensive tackle James Halter (0.9483) just became the 5th and highest rated member of the class last week. If the new Early Signing Period is moved to the summer be prepared for the 2027 class to fill up very quickly through the upcoming spring.

List of Eligible 2026 Grad Students

Tier 1

RB Jadarian Price
OL Ashton Craig
OL Billy Schrauth
OL Aamil Wagner
DE Josh Burnham
DT Donovan Hinish
LB Jaylen Sneed

This list of players has been locked in since before spring ball. Price is hovering around a top 5 running back in this spring’s NFL Draft and will be advised to leave for the pros. No one could fault him. Raridon has been rising up draft boards this year although I’m not sure it’ll be enough for him to leave after 2025. It may be a close call.

I would hope Craig (now out for the year), Schrauth (injured and may come back), and Wagner all come back.

Stock: UP, UP, UP.

Burnham has been banged up all season but along with Hinish (a captain!) they are necessary depth and I’m guessing they are welcomed back with open arms. They are good fits at Notre Dame and likely wouldn’t be picking up big NIL paydays elsewhere.

We continue to see Sneed maturing and getting better. This off-season would be the third year where many predict he’ll leave, but will he stick it out? There are a lot of schools where he wouldn’t be coming off the field as a starting linebacker and once you have a degree that is tempting.

Tier 2

RB Gi’Bran Payne
TE Ty Washington

I bumped up Ty Washington into Tier 2 as he essentially has remained the backup tight end in 2025, although his snap counts are pretty limited (132 total snaps, or 28.7% of all offensive snaps) and we haven’t seen him much as a pass catcher.

With a grand total of 3 carries this season–all in the blowout win over Arkansas–it’s expected that Payne will be moving on after this fall.

Tier 3

RB Dylan Devezin
WR Leo Scheidler
TE Justin Fisher
LB Jerry Rullo
CB Isaiah Dunn
CB Mickey Brown
CB Charles Du

Here is the bottom of the roster guys, the walk-on group.

Portal Needs

This is a tricky time of year for the roster. In our next update (likely coming in January following the conclusion of this current season) we’ll shift towards needs in the 2027 recruiting class. For now, the 2026 class is pretty sewn up so attention is beginning to turn towards the transfer portal. In many ways, the portal has become more interesting from a fan perspective than the freshmen recruiting class. Given the information we know now, here are some positions for Notre Dame to target in the transfer portal going into 2026:

Quarterback (1)

If there was a year to bring in a non-threatening but solid veteran quarterback for depth purposes this will be the off-season to do so. We’d expect Kenny Minchey to exit to a potential starting job elsewhere and the Swiss army knife veteran Tyler Buchner is leaving, too. CJ Carr backed up by a redshirt freshman and true freshmen is a bit scary. Perhaps Freeman is comfortable keeping with these 3 quarterbacks only, but I would be surprised.

Running Back (1)

It sounds like Notre Dame is preparing for an exodus from the running back room after 2025. Love is only a true junior and most definitely will be off to the NFL with Price going too. Either one coming back (which would be miraculous) changes the calculation for 2026 but I don’t think you can plan on that. We already mentioned Payne, and there are whispers that Aneyas Williams (6 carries through 7 games) isn’t happy with his playing time and could explore his options. It seems kind of rash to me, but we’ll see.

If they need to, the Irish will be as well positioned as anyone in the country to offer an excellent offer for playing time, NIL, and national spotlight to an elite running back transfer.

Wide Receiver (1)

The smart move may be to target 2 wide receivers in the transfer portal. I’m currently sitting at 60% against the idea if only because there is an enormous amount of young talent waiting in the wings. Malachi Fields and Will Pauling are getting a lot of targets right now, although a healthy Jaden Greathouse returning for 2026 is a huge boost to the depth chart.

Greathouse has missed the last 3 games and only has 4 catches in 2025.

Then again, does Notre Dame think there are any big impact players from the 2024-26 recruiting cycles? There are 11(!!) wideouts recruited in those 3 classes, plus walk-on Matt Jeffery is seeing the field a little bit. The numbers are in their favor to develop a few of these players but I also sympathize with someone who feels at least 2 veteran receivers need to come in again to help out CJ Carr.

Defensive End (1)

Botelho and Tuihalamaka are leaving, Bryce Young hasn’t lived up to expectations as a sophomore, and Loghan Thomas is banged up. Adding one pass rusher for 2026 is a no brainer.

Defensive Tackle (1-2)

Notre Dame isn’t recruiting 3-4 interior players on defense every cycle. It’s almost like they are baking in adding multiple defensive tackles from the portal every year. Now, Rubio is hurt potentially long-term. That will allow someone else (Elijah Hughes has been a pleasant surprise lately) to gain experience but when healthy this unit is losing 3 out of its top 4/5 players in 2026.

Nickel (1)

As per tradition.

Corner (1)

Leonard Moore and Christian Gray should be set to come back. The boundary and field corners spots should bring back a lot of experience although there’s still not a ton of depth. I’m not sure what is going on with Karson Hobbs after a brutal start to 2025, although the promise remains high for the 2025 class led by Dallas Golden’s recent quality play. I still think one experienced veteran is a good idea from the portal.

Placekicker (1)

You can’t give up on true freshman kicker Erik Schmidt (he’s missed his only field goal attempt this year plus a PAT miss among 12 attempts, with 3 kickoffs out of bounds) but in this NIL era I’d always be keeping my eyes out for a proven kicker.

5 for 5 (Not Yet)

In recent months there has been discussions about moving college sports to a “5 years to play 5” at both the D1 and D2 level. However, just last week the Division 1 Administrative Committee made a statement that they will “maintain existing eligibility rules as they pertain to student-athletes competing in no more than four seasons of athletics competition in a particular sport over a consecutive five-year period.” That seemed at odds with the current reporting that the rule was likely to be implemented, although it seems like current lawsuits are holding up the process.

Crucial to the eligibility change is the elimination of redshirts rules and waivers. In the current climate I really have a hard time believing that all waivers are going to be eliminated. I like the clean and straightforward nature of 5 years to play 5 but I also believe players will be challenging eligibility with waivers and we are likely to see a fresh batch of lawsuits coming from this (likely) new decision sometime in the future.