Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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36 PRESEASON 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY ERIC HANSEN T he NCAA's new 5-for-5 rule cre- ates a temporary parallel uni- verse for the next few years when it comes to calculating a college football player's years of eligibility, and changes the math in all kinds of ways for college coaches. It also sends the term "redshirting" toward obsolescence. Notre Dame fifth-year head coach Marcus Freeman sees all of this as a positive, including the flip side of the equation. That is, players like safety Luke Talich and defensive tackle Elijah Hughes, for instance, who were head- ing into their final college seasons, now have an option to return in 2027. "It's good for both parties — the student-athlete, but also the coaches," Freeman said of the 5-for-5 rule during a sit-down with a small group of report- ers in late July. "Coaches don't have to make a decision on what four games we are playing them [in]. "Do we want to save this fourth game in case we need them? We've got to have a tough conversation. We need you to play Game 5, and this kid is talking to his agent and his parents, 'They don't want me to play Game 5.' That's tough on a young person. It's tough on coaches. "Now that young person doesn't have to worry about his parents saying, 'You can only play three games or four games — don't play another one.' I think it's really an added benefit for all parties. It's going to be, I think, something good moving forward." Redshirting has been part of college football's vernacular since 1937, origi- nating at Nebraska, but it only started to gain mass momentum universally after freshman eligibility was permanently restored by the NCAA in 1972. In 2018, players seeking non-medical redshirts were allowed to play in up to four games and still reach that goal. Previously, one snap in one game was enough to burn through a poten- tial redshirt year. In 2024, the rule was amended to exclude postseason games from the four-game limit. Thus, a freshman in the 12-team College Foot- ball Playoff could conceivably play up to eight games total. All players on the current Irish roster have the option of using the old rules or the new age-based rules, which- ever is more beneficial from an eligi- bility standpoint. The 2027 recruiting class will be the first fully subject to the 5-for-5 rule — which essentially means a five-year window to play five years of football, with very minimal and rare exceptions to recoup a missed year. And now, with redshirting no longer a viable option, conceivably all 30 of Notre Dame's freshmen could see ac- tion in 2026. But the volume of those expected to make an immediate impact has been tamped down in recent years YOUTH MOVEMENT Projecting the 2025 paths for all 30 freshmen Defensive end Rodney Dunham worked his way into the two-deep depth chart during spring practice and figures to be a strong rotational piece on the line as a freshman for the Irish. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER