Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM MARCH 2026 15 Mission accomplished. Path maneu- vered. "[Notre Dame general manager] Mike Martin continued to reiterate to me, he said, 'Marcus, let's run our race. Run our race,'" head coach Marcus Freeman said. "He has a lot of experience with free agency from his NFL time. And I trusted him. "And again, I didn't hear, I didn't read all the noise, but I'm sure, listen, I don't have to be on Twitter to know what the noise is. So, there were times I had to re- mind him, 'You told me to run our race.' Like, 'We're good. We're good.' Let's be intentional about what we're doing." THE DEFECTORS Notre Dame lost 18 players, includ- ing walk-ons, from the 2025 roster to the transfer portal. Incredibly, only one of them, Joshua Burnham, recorded so much as one start in a Fighting Irish uniform. He was the only player among the dozen and a half who could have feasibly recorded more starts in 2026. Every single one of the other portal entrants was a depth piece. A backup, at best. That includes quarterback Kenny Minchey, who obviously lost the start- ing job to CJ Carr during preseason training camp last year. He stuck it out for the entirety of the 2025 season, but he was always a prime candidate to en- ter the portal at the conclusion of the campaign. Sure enough, he's at Ken- tucky now, and he'll probably end up starting for the Wildcats. Minchey's career is one to monitor for Fighting Irish fans. Maybe they'll even root for him, with Notre Dame and Ken- tucky unlikely to cross paths any time soon. Most Notre Dame fans wrapped their arms around former Irish center Pat Coogan for the success he had at the same position for the national cham- pion Indiana Hoosiers, so that should be a similar case for Burnham. He's at Indiana now, too. As for everyone else who will wear a new uniform beginning in 2026, it's go- ing to take large leaps for them to emerge as big-time players for their new teams. That's because, again, they're mostly players who didn't play significant roles at Notre Dame in the first place. That speaks to the culture Marcus Freeman has established within the Irish pro- gram; the main contributors want to be a part of it for as long as possible. There is an objective to leave no doubt this upcoming season — not leave, period. Why leave such a promising thing? "We have a schedule that if we do what we're supposed to do, and leave no doubt, as you continue to hear me say, that we can get into the playoffs," Freeman said. "And that's what's im- portant." THE DEFENSIVE TACKLES Notre Dame was in such a desperate spot at defensive tackle that any incom- ing player would have amounted to a nice addition. It didn't matter who he was or where he came from, the Irish just needed reinforcements in the worst way. Turns out, bringing in Pitt's Fran- cis Brewu and Oregon's Tionne Gray amounted to much more than taking someone just for the sake of taking him. They were players other premier pro- grams wanted. Notre Dame claimed them, and the potential for Chris Ash's second defense in South Bend is much higher than it would have been had they gone somewhere else. Brewu was an All-ACC honorable mention pick in 2025. He had 36 total tackles and 20 quarterback pressures. He is a hybrid as a run-stopping pass rusher, making him everything you want in an interior defensive lineman. He can do it all, and he does it with an unmatched motor. "The thing I like about him is how hard he plays the game," Freeman said. "To see that guy run after the ball, to see the effort he plays with, it tells me a lot about — when I see big people play really hard, that excites me. Not all big people play really hard, but he does." Gray is less proven and didn't play as significant a role at Oregon as Brewu did at Pitt, totaling 18 tackles in 13 games, but if he can play with the same level of passion as Brewu with his 6-5, 333-pound frame then Notre Dame may have found someone who can come into his own in the second half of his college career and become a top-end defensive stalwart. Signing Gray was an invest- ment in potential, and that was a theme During his two seasons at Pittsburgh, defensive tackle Francis Brewu recorded 51 total stops, 10 tack- les for loss, and 2.5 sacks in 24 games (13 starts). PHOTO COURTESY PITT ATHLETICS