Notre Dame Football: A Decade Of Transfers

What does the transfer count look like for Notre Dame this past decade?

Transfers happen to every program across the country. In this day and age, college football is so incredibly complex within itself that transfers are inevitable and they happen for a myriad of reasons. Perhaps 30 years ago, it was just being homesick or buried on the depth chart. That isn’t the case anymore as the reasons for a students transfer vary greatly.

Notre Dame isn’t any different. In fact, some my argue that the amount of transfers is too high. Given Notre Dame’s academic standards and a stricter rule book than most, the Irish see a few extra than the rest.

With all of that said, is the transfer situation out of control? In short… Probably not. If we start with the 2005 recruiting class, we have 11 classes (yes, one more than a decade) worth of data spanning the full lengths of two different head coaches in Charlie Weis and Brian Kelly. Nothing looks too abnormal- except perhaps the 2006 class.

I didn’t include any 5th year transfers except for Everett Golson since he was the only one that we really asked and wanted back. So, no… Jake Golic, Brandon Newman, Deion Walker, and others are not included.

*Please forgive the crudeness of these tables as they are basically screenshots from my phone via google docs. Our normal Table Press is causing some bugs. Sorry*

So that’s 32 players over 11 classes. That gives us basically 3 players a class. The 2006 class was crazy as Harbaugh at a 6th grade kegger. 8 players ended up transferring- 7 of which were offensive players that committed to the OFFENSIVE GURU CHARLIE WEIS.

I’m guessing that 2-3 transfers per class is too high for some fans to accept, but for me I look at it as about par for the course. It’s really when we start adding in season-ending injuries, career-ending injuries, early entry for the NFL Draft, suspensions for academics, and suspensions for whatever else may happen at Notre Dame that we feel the hurt of attrition.

Is the rate of transfers at Notre Dame too high? No, not really. Dive into what is happening at other programs and you might feel the same way too.