Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SUMMER 2025 5 I f you figured Notre Dame was destined to lose a plethora of play- ers to the transfer portal in the spring window, the running back posi- tion would have been a good place to first fixate your attention. There was no way the Fighting Irish could retain half a dozen scholarship tailbacks who are all capable of carry- ing the ball voluminously, right on down to true freshman Nolan James Jr. Think again. They're all still here in South Bend. Junior Jeremiyah Love and senior Jadarian Price will lead the way once again. They ac- counted for 80.6 percent of rushing at- tempts from Notre Dame scholarship running backs in 2024. There's no rea- son not to run it back at that clip, or an even higher one, in 2025. That leaves less than 20 percent of the workload to be split amongst se- nior Gi'Bran Payne, sophomores Aneyas Williams and Kedren Young, and James. Sub James for departed graduate stu- dent Devyn Ford last year, and it worked out to be 34 carries for Williams, 21 for Young and 13 for Ford. Not a lot. Payne was out with a knee injury. His availability further crowds an already jam-packed running back room. And yet, again, he's still here. They're all still here — in this era, when it's never been easier to leave. That says something positive about Notre Dame. About its head coach, Marcus Freeman. About where Notre Dame's been and about where Freeman has it headed. "I really like this team that we put to- gether, and I think it has a lot of poten- tial," Freeman said. Payne has potential. He's proven that with 45 carries and 2 rushing touchdowns plus 2 receiving scores on 9 catches in 2023. There's enough positive tape put forth by him to warrant looks from programs seek- ing a top-two tailback. He could be one at a lot of places. At Notre Dame, he's some- where in the RB3 to RB5 range. It feels like Young, meanwhile, is firmly RB4 or RB5. He'd be RB1 or RB2 at fill-in-the-blank-university-here. Mul- tiple answers accepted. There are many of them. His answer, though, is Notre Dame. Payne's answer is Notre Dame. Love's answer is Notre Dame, even with what had to have been numerous offsea- son suitors willing to empty the piggy- bank to get him to transfer. The loyalty of Irish running backs speaks to a widespread sense of as- suredness permeating throughout the Fighting Irish locker room. If you're in the building, you feel the palpable po- tential Freeman spoke of. Why would you want to say goodbye to that? Subsequently, Notre Dame only lost two scholarship players to the transfer portal this spring. For reference, continuing the conversation about running backs across the country seeking better situations for themselves, California lost five running backs to the transfer portal in April. Could you imagine everyone but James — Love, Price, Williams, Young and Payne ... all of them — deciding to continue their college careers elsewhere, all in a span of a couple weeks? That's what happened to the Bears. Heck, they nearly lost the equivalent to an entire two-deep on offense between the winter and spring portal open- ings. Eighteen offensive Cal players went portaling. No t re Da m e , m ea n - while, only saw eight of its scholarship players go into the portal since the end of the 2024 season. That in- cludes both sides of the ball, both portal opportu- nities. Only eight. Now, p e rh a ps No t re Dame's portal inactivity is made possible by the looming House vs. NCAA settlement that could re- sult in college football ros- ters allowing 105 players to be on scholarship, upped from the previous limit of 85. Notre Dame is currently sitting in the mid 90s-coming out of the spring. If the idea is 105 will be the number, not 85, then the Irish didn't need to push another 10 or so players out the door. There will be fewer tough conversations about uncertain futures to be had. This is less about that and more about student-athletes feeling like they're on solid footing in South Bend. The schol- arship limit matters more to coaches than it does to players. The latter go where they feel wanted and leave the roster management up to the former. Quarterback Steve Angeli, for in- stance, made a personal decision predi- cated upon playing time and whatever else. He believed Syracuse was a bet- ter location for him to achieve his goals than Notre Dame. His transfer was war- ranted and maybe even expected. Also expected — more of his peers fol- lowing in his footsteps. Maybe we should have expected the opposite, though; Notre Dame has something special with Free- man at the helm. There are only so many on-field opportunities to go around, but it's the opportunity of a lifetime to see out an athletic — and academic — career at a place like Notre Dame in its current form. That's clearly worth staying for. ✦ Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman has only lost eight scholarship players to the transfer portal since the end of the 2024 season. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER Transfer Portal Inactivity Speaks Highly Of The Program Tyler Horka has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2021. He can be reached at thorka@blueandgold.com GOLDEN GAMUT TYLER HORKA