Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1534445
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM MAY 2025 7 UNDER THE DOME BY TYLER HORKA W ay back when Marcus Freeman was still Notre Dame's defensive coor- dinator, before he had ever even coached a down as the DC in South Bend — let alone one as the head coach — he waltzed across Courtney Lane on his way from the Guglielmino Athletics Complex to the Irish Athletics Center in a white shirt with green and orange lettering. "Catholics vs. Convicts"? Nope. Not relevant — until Aug. 31 of this year, of course, when Notre Dame plays its 2025 season opener at Miami. But in August of 2021? Nah. Freeman (or anyone else at ND) wasn't thinking of the Hurricanes. His shirt read, instead, "WOPU vs. Everybody." WOPU is an acronym standing for Walk-On Players Union, an organization that dubs itself "the voice of the unsung soldiers of Notre Dame football." Freeman has never been a front-runner; he supports the Isaiah Dunns of Notre Dame just as much as the Leonard Moores. The former is a walk-on corner. The latter is an All- American at corner. They both wear the same color helmet and uniform. "You care about every person in that room who has given everything they've got to Notre Dame," Freeman said. For players like Dunn, however, their time at programs like Notre Dame could soon be coming to an end. The ruling on the House vs. NCAA court case — which was most recently presided over by a judge in a hearing in Oakland, Calif., April 7 — will likely slash college football roster sizes down to a hard cutoff 105 student-athletes. The prior limit was 85 scholarship play- ers plus a plethora of walk-ons. As many as any team saw fit. Notre Dame went through this year's spring practice slate with around two dozen, for example. It is not as easy as taking 20 of those walk-ons and giving them roster space at a cap of 105, though. A revenue-shar- ing model built into the settlement will force the hand of college programs to get to that number by way of adding more players of Moore's caliber, not Dunn's. Thus, Notre Dame won't have room for, say, kicker Chris Salerno, who just left the program after four years. Salerno spent a solid chunk of that time as Notre Dame's holder on place- kicks. He was the one who held the ball for Mitch Jeter's Orange Bowl game winner, for instance. What a story that is for a walk-on. Stories like those will cease to exist in the new age. Walk-ons have long been a lifeblood of college football. They're responsi- ble for prepping starters by simulating opponents' traits via the scout team. Sometimes, they even rise to the level of contributing for the team on Saturdays. See: Salerno. Also see: Jordan Faison. In the summer of 2023, Faison wasn't on scholarship and was just a freshman walk-on wide receiver turning heads, beating starters in one-on-ones. Now he's two years into his career and has 49 catches for 678 yards and 5 touchdowns. Faison wouldn't have accumulated any of those statistics if he was never allowed to join the Notre Dame foot- ball team while on scholarship with the Fighting Irish men's lacrosse team. In an era when the roster is limited to 105 guys making money on payments directly from the university, would Fai- son ever be given a shot to showcase his skills? Likely not. Taking away the dream before ever immersing oneself in it would be espe- cially true for players like junior safety Luke Talich, a Wyoming native who wasn't widely recruited because of the lower level of competition he faced in his home state, but was given a chance at Notre Dame because, well, why not? The Irish took a flier on him, and now he might start at the back end of a vaunted Notre Dame defense in Coral Gables, Fla., in August. Talich, one of Faison's best friends through a mutual shared path as a part of WOPU, called walk-ons' fate in the face of the House settlement "tragic." There will be players in the future simi- lar to himself who never have a chance to make a meteoric rise like his own be- cause the concept of a walk-on is abol- ished in the era of name, image and like- ness (NIL). "If I was two years younger, I would never have that opportunity," Talich said. He added, "I don't think you should just limit or kill those opportunities for all those kids. You think about this new settlement that's coming, the amount of kids that are gonna be looking for some place to go, and there's probably not go- ing to be that many places." In the case of WOPU vs. Everybody, nobody wins. ✦ UNDER THE DOME WALKING OUT ON WALK-ONS The future of a college football's lifeblood is in major jeopardy The ruling on the House vs. NCAA court case will likely slash college football roster sizes down to a hard cutoff 105 student-athletes. Junior safety Luke Talich, who began his Fighting Irish career as a walk-on, called it a "tragic" situation for players like him. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER