Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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16 MARCH 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED that manifested in a few more of Notre Dame's transfer portal acquisitions. THE WIDE RECEIVERS Quincy Porter and Mylan Graham have 10 catches for 152 yards between them in three combined college football seasons. For the best wide receivers in the sport, that's a really good game, not three seasons' worth of statistics. They're both former blue-chip re- cruits who signed with the greatest wide receiver factory in the game, Ohio State, so Notre Dame believes they're both ca- pable of 10-catch, 152-yard games in due time. When it came down to recruiting Por- ter and Graham, the former with four years of eligibility remaining and the latter with three, the thought process was, if you have an opportunity to bring in wideouts the Buckeyes viewed as future staples of their vaunted passing game then you do it. And you don't think twice about it. "Both of those guys are guys that we recruited heavily out of high school," Freeman said. "We knew a lot about them. Obviously, [Tae Johnson] is close with Mylan, and Quincy was a guy that we recruited extremely hard and have a connection at Bergen Catholic, with ob- viously Steve Angeli being from there, and with other guys we recruited from there. "So, we knew a lot about them in the high school recruiting process — who they were, the type of players they are. And I'm glad we were able to get them." THE CORNERBACKS Notre Dame has become Cornerback U not for pulling them from the transfer portal but because of the high school recruiting triumphs and subsequent de- velopment of signed players the Irish have proven capable of over the years. But if you can enhance your already- stout secondary with a pair of corners with copious Power Four experience? You do it. No questions asked. DJ McKinney was a staple of an Okla- homa State team that played for the Big 12 championship in 2023. He played the most defensive snaps of any Colo- rado player in 2024. The Buffaloes had Heisman Trophy-winner Travis Hunter playing cornerback alongside McKin- ney that year. If not for an injury, he might've been Colorado's most used player again in 2025. Jayden Sanders, meanwhile, played in all 13 games for Michigan as a true freshman. He made one start against Nebraska. In that game, even with the rather large sample size, he registered his highest PFF game grade of the year — 71.7. That came with a PFF tackling grade of 81.3. For reference, Notre Dame starting corner Christian Gray didn't have a tackling grade that high in any game last season. Did Notre Dame recruit McKin- ney and Sanders to potentially start over Gray in 2026? That remains to be seen. The positioning has to play out throughout the offseason. Adding those two players gives Notre Dame's defense more depth and options than it had before. That's never a bad thing. The numbers game was the im- petus for securing their signings. "We believe in competition," Free- man said. "I think the two guys coming out of the portal are as competitive as anybody else. And as you look at our DB group last year, you're gonna need multiple guys." THE KEON KEELEY REUNION In many ways, Keon Keeley isn't the same person he was three years ago when Notre Dame earned his commit- ment, only for him to back out and sign with Alabama. He hasn't necessarily lived up to the No. 2 overall recruiting ranking he re- ceived coming out of high school in 2023. He's also spent three seasons in another collegiate program. The foot- ball and life experiences that come with such a long time in another culture changes a man, for better or worse. But in Keeley, Freeman sees so much of the young man he recruited as a prep prospect in the early days of his head coaching tenure. "I've always believed Keon was a Notre Dame kid, coming from his high school," Freeman said. "There's obvi- ously kids — young people — on our team now from his high school. He fits here perfectly. "He's such a unique individual. Yes, he's a great talent. He's a very talented football player. But Keon Keeley, as an individual, I remember in our first con- versation recently, when he came on his visit, I'm like, 'Yep, it's the same Keon that we recruited a couple of years ago.' And he fits here. I'm excited for his fu- ture here." As for the football aspect, Keeley had some of his best performances in an Al- abama uniform in the last few games he played for the Crimson Tide. That in- cluded a College Football Playoff outing at Oklahoma in which he had a tackle for loss and batted down a pass. Mylan Graham, who was the No. 8 wide receiver and No. 40 overall player in the class of 2024, hauled in 6 receptions for 93 yards over 13 games in two years at Ohio State. PHOTO COURTESY OHIO STATE ATHLETICS