During our last scholarship update back in mid-January we paid special attention to the one-off rule(s) regarding eligibility for the 2021 season coming off the effects of the pandemic at a time when Notre Dame’s recruiting class was quite small and spring ball–and thus some transfers–hadn’t occurred yet.

As a refresher here’s another look at the most important scholarship rules for 2021:

  • For the 2020-21 season, the team has 25 seniors on scholarship. Let’s say all of these seniors get an extra year of eligibility.
  • For the 2021-22 school year, this program could bring back up to 25 seniors and all of those seniors are eligible to keep their scholarships.
  • If the school is able to fund the maximum number of scholarships it can for the 2021-22 school year, they could have 110 athletes on scholarships. That means 25 returning seniors and 85 others.

In addition, no one lost a year of eligibility while playing during the 2020 season. As you can imagine, Notre Dame will not come close to filling 110 scholarships for the 2021 season. In fact, as things stand today the team is currently sitting at 86 scholarships going into the summer–pretty much your typical year as far as these numbers go.

Out of Eligibility Following 2021:

QB Jack Coan
DT Kurt Hinish
K Jonathan Doerer

Remember, this is the list of players who definitely cannot come back next year. Although there’s some debate about Coan’s status (he played as a true freshman in Wisconsin’s 2nd, 9th, and 12th games in 2017) last year was his redshirt year so the Covid season doesn’t technically help him. Both Hinish and Doerer are only here because of the extra Covid year with the former being a pretty unique situation where Hinish is set to play a full 5 seasons for the Irish (Doerer in addition to being a kicker largely remained on kickoff duties as a true freshman).

Without this extra Covid year we’d normally have far more players listed above here and we’ll deal with that bottleneck down below as we figure out who is eligible for 2022.

2022-23 Academic Classes

13 Verbal Commits
27 Sophomores
16 Juniors
19 Seniors
20 Graduates
95 Total Scholarships

Back on April 13th, tight end Jack Nickel left the 2022 Notre Dame class. Since our last scholarship update several more players have joined the class though, including: Linebacker Josh Burnham, running back Jadarian Price, corner Jaden Mickey, quarterback Steve Angeli, tight end Holden Staes, defensive end Aiden Gobaira, tight end Eli Raridon, defensive end Darren Agu, and wide receiver Amorion Walker.

There have been 3 transfers out of the program since our January update:

Running back/receiver Kendall Abdur-Rahman: Buried on the depth chart at both positions, the once promising 2019 recruit announced he was leaving on April 2nd and will have 4 years of eligibility remaining with the Covid rules.

Receiver Jordan Johnson: The near 5-star recruit announced he was transferring on May 3rd and will have all 4 years of eligibility remaining at his new destination UCF.

Offensive Lineman Dillan Gibbons: Prior to spring practice, Gibbons was a favorite to grab a starting guard spot but evidently fell down the pecking order. He announced on May 6th he’ll be leaving to play at Florida State whom the Irish open the season against in Tallahassee.

List of Eligible 2022 Grad Students

(This is going to be complicated until the 2020 freshmen all cycle out!)

* Indicates no redshirt, 2022 eligible only due to Covid.
$ Indicates 6th-year 2022 eligible due to Covid.
# Indicates regular 5th-year eligible for 2022 but also 6th-year eligible for 2023 due to Covid.

Tier 1

OL Jarrett Patterson #
DT Myron Tagavailoa-Amosa $
LB Drew White $
WR Kevin Austin #
DT Jayson Ademilola *
DE Justin Ademilola $
WR Avery Davis $
CB Tariq Bracy *
LB Shayne Simon *
WR Braden Lenzy #
S D.J. Brown #
LB Bo Bauer *
OL Josh Lugg $
WR Lawrence Keys #
TE George Takacs #
LB Paul Moala *

Tier 2

RB C’Bo Flemister #
LB Isaiah Pryor $
WR Joe Wilkins #

Tier 3

OL John Dirksen #

The impact of spring practice really didn’t shake up these tiers all that much, although with so many bodies it’ll still be a tough decision for players and coaches as to who comes back in 2022.

After a strong spring, we’ve bumped up Avery Davis and Lawrence keys from tier 2, although it’s exceedingly unlikely both would return in 2022, especially Davis who would be coming back for a 6th year.

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Bracy was at the bottom of Tier 1 back in January and we’ve moved him up 9 spots after regaining some of his confidence following spring practice.

Technically, it seems like Josh Lugg won and/or held on to a starting job coming out of spring but that also feels tenuous at best, both because of his injury history, and the young talent being developed around him. Therefore, we lowered him in Tier 1 a handful of spots.

We’re scratching off any 6th-year guys from returning in 2022 which leaves us with the following Tier 1 players as possibilities to come back:

Offense: OL Patterson, WR Austin, WR Lenzy, WR Keys, TE Takacs

Defense: DT Ademilola, DE Ademilola, LB Simon, S Brown, LB Bauer, LB Moala

I’m not sure there’s anyone from this group who you could make a case, at this moment, for going in the first 3 rounds of the 2022 NFL Draft next spring. Patterson and Austin are likely players who could make that case given their talent level but need a strong season coming off injuries, and the latter would really have to put together a big, big year.

Six out of the possible returnees play either wideout or linebacker, so not everyone from those positions are going to come back. My best guess is that Patterson, Austin, Lenzy, both Ademilola’s, Brown, and Bauer come back.

Fixing the grad number at 7 players places the 2022 scholarship projection to 82 overall as of today. Typically, the program balloons to around 90 scholarships after National Signing Day so a 2022 recruiting class should get to at least 21 players, one would think. When you factor in Kyle Hamilton leaving early for the NFL, and maybe Kyren Williams too, there’s a little bit of flexibility to take a chance on a 22 or 23-man class for 2022.

2022 Positional Needs

If we’re looking at 8 more spots in the 2022 class I would focus on the following positions:

WR (2)
OL (1)
DT (1)
LB (1)
CB (1)
S (2)

Ideally, a third receiver and second linebacker will be included from the above list. With the Johnson transfer, re-stocking the receiving corps is a massive priority. At linebacker, it certainly seems likely–given the situation with the likes of Sebastian Cheeks, Jaylen Sneed and Niuafe Tuihalamaka–that this class will be going 4-deep with Josh Burnham and Nolan Ziegler already committed.

Grad Transfer Market for 2021, Though?

Here are the positions Notre Dame should be exploring this off-season:

#1 W Receiver – Coming off injury again, Kevin Austin is the tallest receiver at 6’2″ unless you include incoming freshman Deon Colzie who is listed at 6’4″ by recruiting sites which likely means 6’3″ when he shows up to campus. This receiver corps is desperate for some size. I could actually see them bringing in a backup type if even to get someone with a big body. Or maybe Michael Mayer plays 300 snaps at this spot, who knows!

#2 Strong Safety – Is this Houston Griffith’s spot now? DJ Brown? Who is playing next to Kyle Hamilton? I know I don’t feel great about anyone at the moment.

#3 Combo Offensive Guard/Tackle – Basically, is there a non-injured version of Josh Lugg with maybe a higher athletic ceiling available who could maybe be the offensive lineman version of Ben Skowronek’s role last year? It doesn’t seem likely that Notre Dame would bring in an offensive line transfer but these are strange times in the Portal World.

#4 Corner – It seems like Cam Hart and Ramon Henderson played well enough in the spring to complete a competent foursome at this position, but maybe not? This seems like it could be a tough choice for everyone involved. Roll with a young (and maybe promising) set of corners or add in a veteran to solidify the depth chart? This feels like a position where they won’t mess around with bringing someone in unless it’s an absolute guaranteed starting-caliber player.