Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM FEBRUARY 2023 7 BY PATRICK ENGEL T he next wave of Notre Dame's roster churn began just one day after the Gator Bowl, with two players announcing their moves to new ventures. They're not expected to be the last departures or additions as the Irish shift full focus to 2023. Here's who has come and gone since the flurry of exits in early December, plus a look at some transfer targets the Irish are pursuing. DECLARED FOR NFL DRAFT SAFETY BRANDON JOSEPH Senior safety Brandon Joseph is one-and-done at Notre Dame. The 10-game starter for the Irish declared for the NFL Draft Dec. 31, one day after Notre Dame's 45-38 Gator Bowl victory against South Carolina. He did not play in the bowl game due to a prior ankle injury. Joseph made 30 tackles with 1 pass broken up and 1 interception. He scored Notre Dame's first defensive touchdown of the season, a 29-yard interception return on the first play of a 41-24 win at Syracuse Oct. 29. He was also the Irish's primary punt returner and had 179 yards on 18 returns. He missed two regular-season games due to an ankle sprain suffered Nov. 5 versus Clemson. Joseph arrived at Notre Dame with the résumé of a plug-and-play starter. He snatched 9 interceptions in 19 games at Northwestern from 2020-21 and was a consensus All-American for the Wildcats in 2020. He hit the portal after following up an elite 2020 season with simply a good 2021 campaign, though. Joseph had 80 tackles, 3 interceptions and 4 passes broken up in 2021, but Northwestern went 3-9, and he struggled with missed tackles. After feeling his draft stock had slipped in 2021, Joseph decided his best move to reboot it was to go somewhere else. "My personal goal is being a first-round draft pick," Joseph said in January 2022. "It didn't look like that was going to happen this year." Joseph appeared in the first round of some way-too-early 2023 mock drafts last spring, but the latest prospect rankings do not portend a selection there. He is now the No. 81 player in Pro Football Focus' top 100 prospects for 2023. Joseph is not in the top 10 of ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr.'s safety rankings, but Kiper put him in the "just missed" category. OFFENSIVE LINEMAN JARRETT PATTERSON While Jarrett Patterson hadn't officially announced his departure to the NFL as of Jan. 4, the four-year starter has accepted an invitation to the Senior Bowl Feb. 4 in Mobile, Ala., which makes his exit a foregone conclusion. WILL NOT RETURN WIDE RECEIVER BRADEN LENZY One of Notre Dame's Gator Bowl heroes is not only leaving the program but hanging up the cleats. Grad student wide receiver Braden Lenzy will not return for a sixth season and is starting a job at healthcare consulting company Medasource. Lenzy had 24 catches for 309 yards and 3 touchdowns in 2022. He ends his career with 74 receptions for 976 yards and 9 touchdowns. He added 23 carries for 276 yards and 2 scores on the ground. The speedy wideout saved one of his best games for his final act. He had 4 catches for 89 yards and a touchdown in the Gator Bowl. His 44-yard touch- down tied the score at 31 late in the third quarter. His 20-yard catch-and-run on a fake punt set up a go-ahead touchdown in the fourth. INCOMING TRANSFER WIDE RECEIVER KALEB SMITH Notre Dame already had one wide receiver named Kaleb Smith in the fold for next year. The Irish added another on signing day. Virginia Tech grad transfer Kaleb Smith will play for the Irish in 2023. He will be a sixth-year player next fall with one season of eligibility left. Smith was the Hokies' leading receiver in 2022, with 674 yards and 3 touch- downs on 37 catches. His average of 18.2 yards per catch ranks 22nd in the FBS. No other Virginia Tech player had more than 256 receiving yards. The 6-foot-2, 222-pound Smith had two 100-yard receiving games this year. He put up 152 yards on 9 catches on Pittsburgh's defense Oct. 8, which earned him ACC receiver of the week honors. He also had 3 receptions for 141 yards against North Carolina State Oct. 27, which included an 85-yard touchdown. TRANSFER TARGETS TO WATCH Transfers who are enrolling at a new school for the spring semester are granted a five-day visit window during the Dec. 19 through Jan. 12 dead period. Notre Dame is expected to host multiple transfer targets in that Jan. 4-8 period, with former Arkansas safety Jalen Catalon a likely visitor. Utah State defensive end transfer Byron Vaughns is a possibility as well. The most important transfer development, though, occurred the week of the bowl. Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman entered the portal Dec. 27, and ESPN's Pete Thamel reported that day Notre Dame was the favorite to land him. Thamel reported Jan. 2 he was expected to decide by the end of that week. Hartman will be a sixth-year player in 2023 with his final season of eligibility. He is the ACC's all-time leader in touchdown passes, with 110. He has thrown for 7,929 yards, 77 touchdowns and 26 interceptions over the last two seasons, with a 60.7 percent completion rate. ✦ UNDER THE DOME MOVING PIECES Notre Dame's 2023 Roster Continues To Take Shape Safety Brandon Joseph declared for the NFL Draft after one season at Notre Dame. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER