The end of the 2024 recruiting cycle is coming soon. It’s been 154 days since our last scholarship update and like always we’ve got a lot of ground to cover following a busy summer and first two-thirds of the Irish football season. Is it just me or did this calendar year absolutely fly by? This 2023 is the quickest year I’ve ever experienced in my life.
We’re now back taking a look at the scholarship numbers and roster strength for Notre Dame. If you’re curious, the Early Signing Period for football begins in just 63 days from today.
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Out of Eligibility Following 2023:
QB Sam Hartman
WR Matt Salerno
DE Javontae Jean-Baptiste
S DJ Brown
S Thomas Harper
K Spencer Shrader
LS Michael Vinson
A few starters and a couple co-starters make the list of players officially done after 2023. Although we are in the middle of the 4th football season since Covid hit, we are still far away from all of the players cycling through the program who were affected by the new eligibility rules. Although as we’ll touch on below, those numbers could be dwindling much faster depending on how Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame construct the roster in the coming months.
2024-25 Academic Classes
23 Verbal Commits
24 Sophomores
20 Juniors
13 Seniors
20 Graduates
100 Total Scholarships
In our last update back in May we discussed signing enormous recruiting classes in the ‘free’ transfer and NIL era. With the cap of 32 players per cycle, including transfers in, the days of a modest 18-man class appear over. That’s even more true as the NCAA finally came to a consensus for the future which we’ll tackle below.
Notre Dame sitting at 100 projected scholarships for the 2024 college football season actually feels quite low for this time of year. Although, consider a couple things:
Former 2021 recruit Kahanu Kia should be returning for 2024 after completing his mission. I’ll always be skeptical of these types of situations working out and even if he does return I think a transfer out very early in his career is probably more likely than ever in this new era of college football. Still, we haven’t heard any reports he’s not coming back to Notre Dame. So that’s 1 scholarship extra to bake into the count.
The Irish went into this 2023 football season with only 83 scholarships, although preferred walk-on Jordan Faison was awarded a scholarship following the Louisville game because he was on partial scholarship with the lacrosse team and since he participated with the football team he now counts against the pigskin count. The “old school” rule with these decisions were that the scholarship was always for 1 year only but in my 15 years of tracking this closely I can’t think of any PWO’s that were given aid and had it later removed because there wasn’t enough room under the 85 limit.
We’ve had a bunch of new 2024 commits in recent weeks/months, including:
RB Kedren Young
WR Logan Saldate
OT Guerby Lambert
OT Styles Prescod
DE Logan Thomas
DT Sean Sevillano
LB Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa
S Brauntae Johnson
S Taebron Bennie-Powell
From the 2025 class, 5 out of the 6 commits were snagged since our last scholarship article:
QB Deuce Knight
RB Justin Thurman
RB Daniel Anderson
DE CJ May
DE Justin Reiff
We also saw former 2024 verbals in wide receiver Isiah Canion decommit and verbal to Georgia Tech while defensive lineman Owen Wafle left Notre Dame for Michigan. Late this past summer, 2025 tight end Nate Roberts also left the Irish class.
Don’t forget Penn State grad transfer Devyn Ford came to the Irish this past off-season and can play beyond 2023. More on him just below.
List of Eligible 2024 Grad Students
* Indicates no redshirt, 2024 eligible only due to Covid.
$ Indicates 6th-year 2024 eligible due to Covid.
# Indicates regular 5th-year eligible for 2024 but also 6th-year eligible for 2025 due to Covid.
Tier 1
DT Howard Cross $
S Xavier Watts *
DE Jordan Botelho *
CB Cam Hart $
OC Zeke Correll $
LB JD Bertrand $
LB Marist Liufau $
LB Jack Kiser $
DT Rylie Mills *
WR Chris Tyree *
CB Clarence Lewis *
DE NaNa Osafo-Mensah $
S Ramon Henderson *
Tier 2
S Antonio Carter $
OT Tosh Baker *
OG Andrew Kristofic $
TE Kevin Bauman #
RB Devyn Ford $
Tier 3
OT Michael Carmody #
DT Aidan Keanaaina #
Oh yeah, we’ve got a whole mess of players whose future at Notre Dame is up in the air as they approach graduate studies or ponder a 6th year in college. I’ve only made changes within the tiers to 4 players since we have more data from the football season:
- Chris Tyree moved up from tier 2 to tier 1 as he’s assumed a starting role at slot receiver.
- Andrew Kristofic was demoted from tier 1 down to tier 2 after being a favorite to win a starting guard job and not seeing the field much so far in 2023.
- I also moved Rhode Island safety Antonio Carter down to tier 2 since he’s not really making a big impact right now.
- Lastly, Tosh Baker has been moved up to tier 2 as he’s solidified himself as the backup left tackle behind Joe Alt.
I feel comfortable believing 6 out of the 7 players in Tier 2/3 will not come back next year–the one I’m not sure about would be Tosh Baker who would be given every opportunity to win the left tackle job if Joe Alt leaves, but would still be under pressure from some younger players.
Keeping 13 players in Tier 1 is a lot of bodies, including 9 starters. I’d bet Notre Dame would be happy to bring back at least 7 or 8 of these players. I can see a few (Cross, Hart, Bertrand) testing the NFL waters while a couple others probably move on to the real world or one last shot at another school.
Positional Needs
LOW NEED: QB, RB, WR, OL
Well, Notre Dame certainly made the offense a priority and has been having a lot of success in this area of the program. They are sitting pretty at quarterback, already have 2 running backs committed for the next 2 cycles, and 3 receivers are following up a class of 5 (if we’re including Faison) from 2023 while the offensive line is bringing in 4 recruits after a cycle of 5 players a year ago.
MEDIUM NEED: TE, LB, DE, CB, S
With the loss of Nate Roberts in the 2025 class the need for a tight end spiked a little bit. Right now, the Irish are working on a flip of 2024 Nebraska commit Carter Nelson (0.9621) who visited this past weekend for the USC game and legacy James Flanigan (0.9299) is on the radar for 2025.
There are 3 linebackers already committed for 2024 and I debated moving this position to low need. However, this is more about the roster overall that has seen a pair of former linebackers moved to defensive end, Nolan Ziegler has dealt with health issues in 2023, Sneed may not quite be a future superstar, and there will be a massive hole in experience once the Kiser/Bertrand/Liufau trio leave Notre Dame.
Corner and defensive end are less about bringing in numbers (they are fine here, maybe even a little heavy especially at defensive end looking through the 2025 commits) than it is the quest to find true difference makers.
Safety feels a lot like linebacker, there are numbers in the recruiting classes but a huge gap on the roster between the young players and veterans on the team. If Tae Johnson is Him we’d all feel much better about the situation at safety moving forward.
HIGH NEED: DT
I don’t think there’s much competition for the biggest need on the roster for the recruiting trail than the interior of the defensive line. Notre Dame has 1 interior lineman committed for 2024 and 2025 respectively and that’s coming off an iffy 2023 class, as well. Things look a little better if you consider Bryce Young a long-term interior solution, although we have a long way to go with 2025 commit Davion Dixon and interest from his local Miami Hurricanes, among other teams.
The Annual Counter Rule is Officially Gone, Will We See Larger Classes Now?
In case you missed it, the NCAA Division 1 Council formally removed the 25-man signing limit for annual football scholarships that was in effect from the 2011 through 2021 cycles. Following the pandemic, the NCAA allowed 32-man classes and have now officially waived any limit altogether as long as a program doesn’t go over 85 scholarships when fall camp begins.
For a school perennially under the 85-man limit how much does this change things for Notre Dame? Let’s look at a hypothetical heading into the 2024 football season…
8 (a guess of the current graduate eligible players returning from our tier list)
+
23 (commitments for the 2024 class)
+
57 (sophomores, juniors, and seniors)
–
12 (transfers, medicals, NFL, disciplinary, etc.)
TOTAL: 76 scholarships
Does 9 more scholarships potentially available feel like a lot to deal with as things stand in late October? It’s a difficult thing to assess year-round but I would imagine Notre Dame will play it on the safer side. For example, the 12 losses above may seem conservative when last year’s roster lost 14 non-graduate transfers from the 2022 August roster. However, that included some dead weight (special teamers Peitsch and Bryan) plus the loss of 3(!) quarterbacks.
The program brought in 4 graduate transfers for the 2022 season and upped that to 7 grad transfers for this past season (6 ended up playing after the retirement of Kaleb Smith the Elder). I would think targeting 5 to 7 grad transfers will be the norm for the immediate future, but anything more like pushing into double-digits may not be realistic for Notre Dame and its admissions department. At least, I’d have to see it to believe it.
Right now, Notre Dame could probably bring in 3 or 4 more freshmen to the 2024 class and feel comfortable about the numbers situation. As always, the end of the cycle is coming fast and there aren’t enough irons in the fire to pick up commitments from 8 or 9 players even if there was space.
I came here looking for a comprehensive big board look at all potential transfer options at qb, wr, safety and d line. When will that be updated?!?!
You must be late on your premium subscription dues. That dropped last week.
I couldn’t believe how many Mild++ ratings there were, tho I’m glad for the nuance. Those subtle gradations between warm and mild are really essential in understanding the recruiting game. Jamie U could never compete with such a system; that’s why I paid the big bucks for the 18 Stripes premium sub.
Far more Mild ++ than the Warm – -. Time for the coaches to get to it, obviously underperforming here on the commits.
Until right now, I didn’t realize how old/experienced our defense is this year. That tier one is basically our starting D. Could be a huge swing in overall talent depending who decides to stay vs go. Fingers crossed we can hold on to a bunch of those guys. Roll out the NIL!
I’m fascinated to see what happens with the linebackers.
Bertrand – The unquestioned leader of the group and would have a chance to finish his career with the top 5 most tackles in school history.
Liufau – The most inconsistent and controversial, but weirdly with his size probably the best pro prospects IF he figures things out.
Kiser – Feels like he’s been super quiet this year, still doesn’t play a ton, and yet 3rd on the team in tackles. I think he graduated SUPER early, too.
Also fascinated about those guys.
Can Bertrand realistically raise his NFL stock anymore (also, what even is it), or is he pretty much maxed out given who he is physically? Would coming back really just be to establish legacy and enjoy one more year of football?
Given Liufau’s potential, that we have been beaten over the head with, seems like another year could really help his draft stock if he was consistently good. But also, would any fan be sad to see him leave?
Kiser. He’s still on the team?
I thought I saw an interview where Kiser said this was his last year. My impression was he would not take another year of eligibility.
I could see Bertrand and Kiser going undrafted and then making a roster as special teams players. Then, 3 or 4 years from now, we are surprised to see them as regulars on some team’s LB unit because they are smart, dependable, and just athletic enough
With the elimination of the 25 man class rule, the Wild West of the lure of the transfer portal and NIL accelerates throughout college football and will impact ND and those scholarship numbers. A loss of four of those Tier 1 players who have their ND degree with two years of eligibility left will need to be filled.
ND has been relatively stable with both coaching staff and internal policies of admission and transfers. The Portal opens up prior to the early Signing Day so you have players considering their potential future playing time at ND with blue chip prospects about to sign and ND pursuing transfers at those positions. No wonder three QBs left last year.
Consider another 4-6 undergrads after their sophomore year leaving or a head coaching change. The Lincoln Riley/USC revolving door situation with forty-five transfers out over two years and thirty-five transfers in and thirty-one signees over those two years is an example of little limits. So far USC has fifteen commit for 2024.
I’m so curious to see how these approaches play out over time. Colorado and USC remade their rosters but have glaring issues on defense and o line, both aspects of football which require cohesiveness and communication as a group that just might be hard to develop when you have such massive roster turnover and reliance on transfers. I’m not saying they *won’t* be able to figure those issues out, but getting mercenaries might work best at offensive skill positions and not as much at o line and defense where culture, cohesion, and communication are that much more important.
To address your excellent points:
From the twenty 2022 transfers in, eight are gone, including skill position players Addison and Travis Dye. Most of the others remaining from 2022 are second string in 2023. The exception is Mario Williams. Brenden Rice is listed as second string.
Ten of the 2023 transfers in are starters including three OL, two DLs (a DT and NT) and one second string NT. Of the other defensive starters, two of their three LBs as well as one of their starter CBs transferred in this year.
Without Caleb Williams and Jordan Addison, for instance, where would that roster rebuild be? To watch what the ND players with years of working together building that cohesion and communication did to a defense made up of almost half of transfers and to an offensive line where three of the offensive linemen transferred in this year is instructive.
Shedeur Sanders has been sacked thirty-four times in seven games as he moves towards the NCAA record of sixty. Four of his O-linemen are transfers in.
The sack numbers for Sanders are a bit misleading. He’s dropped back to pass 54 more times than any other P5 QB in the country. While Colorado’s O Line isn’t great, they aren’t even top 10 in the country in sack rate.
7th worst sack rate in Power 5 though. 17th worst overall. That’s really bad.
Sanders does hang on to the ball soooo long, though. Always looking to make a big play, it seems.
That does take some of the responsibility for all those sacks off the OL, but i really was just rebutting MikeyB’s assertion that the sack numbers are misleading. i guess if we had a breakdown of number of sacks in and out of the pocket it would be a little more clear, but 5 sacks a game is bad no matter the causes.
I’m not sure the younger LBs will be that much better than Liafau and Kiser but I’m ready to find out. With the potential roster turnover, would love to see Bertrand back at Mike next year with Bowen and Sneed. Not sure there’s anybody ready to step up and QB the defense like Bertrand can.
Please come back Xavier Watts? I think we’ll be OK at safety next year, I’m hopeful Henderson can grow into being a plus defender. Also think switching out Clarence Lewis to safety makes sense with all our young corners with more talent. He’ll be a COVID senior next year. I’d feel OK with Henderson and Lewis given our corner talent even if Watts leaves. Now put all three guys in rotation with the younger guys and that could be a lot of fun.
Last, funny that you put Hartman on the banner but barely mentioned QB. How do you all feel about rolling into next year with Minchey/Angeli/Carr?
I would definitely be interested in swinging big for a QB transfer, but I’m not sure there are going to be any Sam Hartmans out there this year. I’m assuming we can’t get anybody in between freshman and grad student, based on past transfer history, so I’m ruling out somebody like Noah Fifita at Arizona.
Maybe Tyler Van Dyke or Riley Leonard decide to transfer? Michael Pratt has played against 2 P5 teams in his career, and they were both Lincoln Riley defenses, so I’m still not sure how good he is. I would imagine one of the two Texas freshmen ends up transferring, but that might not be until after the Spring. I would take any of these guys, but I don’t think I would guarantee a starting job to anybody but Van Dyke.
Same day he goes up on the banner, he shaves his damn beard…I just don’t even know anymore…
Those of us with a “premium subscription” got a text alert about this. What are you missing by not having one? 😉
I’m glad I shelled out for the Mild+ Platinum Subscription, which includes a weekly zoom conference with coach freeman and the team captains. It’s pretty delightful, not gonna lie
Any possibility that Junior or Burnham move back to LB?
Burnham has made some plays at DE, where as I don’t recall any from Junior.
I’d say they are both way too heavy to play linebacker now. But you never know!
I never loved JR’s move. Vyper just doesn’t seem like a natural position for him physically. I always figured they only moved him because we needed bodies there. I also wonder if the staff felt like they recruited over him with Bowen.
At this point, maybe he can drop a bit and be a thumper at LB, even if that means only playing much in a few games a year, or add another 30-40lb (probably unrealistic) and be an athletic 3-tech.
He showed such flashes as a freshman, I hope we find somewhere he can both get on the field and excel. But at 6’2, vyper probably isn’t the spot.