Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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28 FEBRUARY 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY TYLER HORKA E ven though the transfer portal win- dow is shorter this year than it was in previous offseasons, and even though there is just one of them, Fighting Irish activity in it is actually much more pronounced now than before. There are a few reasons for that. Notre Dame last played Nov. 29. The Irish didn't know it then, but it would turn out to be their last game of the 2025 sea- son. That realization came just more than a week later in early December when Notre Dame was snubbed from the College Foot- ball Playoff and subsequently decided not to participate in the Pop-Tarts Bowl. So three weeks before the portal even opened Jan. 2, Irish players were rudely hit on the head with reality; chasing a national championship was no longer possible this season, and it was all of a sudden time to decide if they wanted to stay in South Bend to go after that dream again in 2026. They could put off the same decision until the end of January a year ago because their season didn't end until the very last game. The sting of defeat in the national title game was good for at least one thing; it galvanized the group. Notre Dame hardly had any transfer portal defections. This year has been a different story. With seemingly all the time in the world to think about playing for another pro- gram and not having a 14-2 record to fall back on and aim to improve upon by a game or two, a slew of Irish players put their names in the portal. Fifteen of them, to be exact, as of Jan. 5. Here is more on those 15 players plus tidbits on who else is parting ways with Notre Dame and for what reasons. THE PORTAL-BOUND PLAYERS This is a group headlined by quarterback Kenny Minchey, who originally commit- ted to Nebraska Jan. 4 before flipping to Kentucky one day later. Minchey was at Notre Dame for three seasons, but he never started. It would have been shocking if he didn't go into the portal considering the Irish have an incumbent starting quarter- back in CJ Carr. That knowledge pushed walk-on Anthony Rezac into the portal as well. He's going to South Dakota State. The only other portal players from Notre Dame who announced where they'll be playing next as of Jan. 5 were running back Gi'Bran Payne, who's headed to Cincinnati, and defensive end Joshua Burnham, who's going to Indiana. Notre Dame can make do — and has made do the last two seasons — without Payne, but the Burnham departure is a bit of a bummer. He was a steady pres- ence along the Notre Dame defensive line and as a special teamer despite constantly battling injuries during his time with the Irish. If he puts together a healthy season in 2026, it could end up being the best year of his college career. That's a diffi- cult hypothetical for Irish fans to consider knowing it won't occur in South Bend. Just about every other one of Notre Dame's portal defectors makes sense. They were all in the camp of, "I haven't played here much, and I'm probably not going to play here much in the future." How many times, for instance, does any- one recall hearing cornerback Chance Tucker's name on a Notre Dame broad- cast? He's been injured, and he also plays a position held down by Leonard Moore and Christian Gray for the last two sea- sons. For that, cornerback Cree Thomas also went into the portal after just one season with the Irish. Other defensive backs to enter the portal were safeties Taebron Bennie- Powell, JaDon Blair, Karson Hobbs and Ben Minich. Of them, Blair is the one who stands out. He could have blos- somed into quite a player if he had more patience. He could very well do so sooner somewhere else, though, which has to be what he's thinking. It was hard to imag- ine Hobbs could ever rebound from be- ing tried at nickel but quickly losing his playing time to a true freshman, Dal- las Golden. Notre Dame tried Minich HERE AND THERE Notre Dame bids farewell to upward of 20 players who were a part of the 2025 roster, most of whom are leaving via the transfer portal Former Notre Dame quarterback Kenny Minchey will continue his college career at Kentucky after enter- ing the transfer portal following the 2025 season. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER