Notre Dame football: Team needs and transfer portal wishlist

With losses to Ohio State, Louisville, and Clemson, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish finished at 9-3 in Marcus Freeman’s second season and earned a bid to the Sun Bowl. That’s not where Freeman wants his team to be, and he’ll need to turn over the roster to get Notre Dame back into the College Football Playoff conversation, even with the expansion to 12 teams in 2024.

Notre Dame will likely lose around 30 players off this year’s roster, some to the NFL, some to the transfer portal, and some who just finally ran out of eligibility. Nine players have already entered the portal including Zeke Correll, Nana Osafo-Mensah, and leading receiver Chris Tyree.

Freeman has brought in back-to-back top-15 recruiting classes, but where the young players aren’t ready to step in he’ll need to fill key positions with stop-gaps.

That includes the most key position on the football field. Quarterback Sam Hartman, who transferred from Wake Forest to take over the starting job in 2023, is done after the Sun Bowl, but Freeman appears to have his sights set on Hartman’s replacement.

The transfer portal officially opened on Monday, December 4, and players will continue to jump in throughout the month. Still, we have a pretty good picture of what the portal looks like, and who should be on Notre Dame’s wishlist.

Quarterback

Sam Hartman had a solid year in 2023, throwing for 2,689 yards and 24 touchdowns with eight interceptions. He completed 63.5% of his passes and averaged 8.9 yards per attempt. The Notre Dame passing game ranked 53rd in the country and the Fighting Irish gained 6.6 yards per play, which was 10th best in the nation.

Sophomore Steve Angeli was Hartman’s backup, but he doesn’t seem earmarked for the starting job. Instead, Freeman will turn to the portal for a solution, but not a more permanent one. Teams are still coveting the one-year grad transfers like Hartman was, but starting each season with a new quarterback might not be sustainable long-term.

Notre Dame could look for a transfer quarterback with a track record of success and multiple seasons of eligibility remaining, but it looks like Freeman has already chosen his guy. If he doesn’t get him, then he’ll need to turn to Plan B.

Riley Leonard has been the starter at Duke for two seasons, and this year as a junior, he played seven games due to an injury. He only has one year of eligibility remaining, and entered the transfer portal after his head coach, Mike Elko, left for Texas A&M.

Leonard entered the portal with a “do not contact” designation, which typically means the player has a good idea of where they’re going. Most suspect that place is South Bend, but he could be following Elko to College Station.

This season, Leonard had his breakout moment in Week 1 when he knocked off Clemson. He finished the year completing 57.6% of his passes for 1,102 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions. He averaged 6.7 yards per attempt, and the numbers were not pretty across the board.

Leonard was very limited due to his toe injury, and the Duke roster was not exactly loaded with talent at the skill positions. The ceiling is still very high for Leonard, even as a veteran player.

It didn’t work out for Moore, a top-rated QB in the 2023 recruiting class, out in LA, so he may want to come back closer to home. Moore was a five-star out of Detroit, Michigan, and ranked only behind Arch Manning and Nico Iamaleava.

This year, Moore was forced into action due to injuries and poor play from UCLA’s veteran QBs and he finished with 1,610 yards and 11 touchdowns, but only completed 53.5% of his passes and threw nine touchdowns.

Moore has three years of eligibility remaining. He could be a long-term answer at the position for Marcus Freeman. Despite the tough year, Moore is still a hyper-talent thrower with gobs of potential.