Freeman builds a strong foundation, using leadership and shared culture to integrate a wave of new players into the Notre Dame program.
We've seen seasons where Notre Dame brings in over 30 new players to the roster over the course of the offseason between high school recruiting classes and transfer portal additions. It's rare, however, to see the majority of them on campus during the spring window as early enrollees. In their 2026 high school recruiting class, 24 players are early enrollees and seven of their eight portal additions are already on campus.
Head coach Marcus Freeman has an almost-completed roster as the Irish head into their first spring practice which kicks off tomorrow morning. There were two main things the fifth-year head coach relied on when acclimating dozens of new faces to the Notre Dame standard: leadership and culture.
"I think the leadership has been tremendous," Freeman answered when asked about the current player-led leadership on the team. "This is the first time for me that we have two returning captains. We've got a bunch of guys that have played that are leaders, that wanna be leaders and understand those expectations."
One of the many difficulties of acclimating over 30 new bodies to a team is getting them adjusted to the culture of the program. Notre Dame was a team that many felt were snubbed from the 2025 College Football Playoffs, and that pain is something this program is using to drive their focus and motivate them throughout this offseason. Over 30 players on this current roster weren't on the team on December 7, 2025 but accepting that reality is a part of the brotherhood they're entering.
"We have to get the new coaches, the new players, the ones that weren't here to understand that we're in a relationship," Freeman said. "This is a family; this is a brotherhood. Certain things that have happened in our past have happened to you too, right? You have to be able to keep that pain. You have to feel that pain that we had when they told us that we didn't make the playoff."
"You can't sit here and go, that was them," Freeman continued. "No, that was us. When you come here, I don't care if you're here for a year or for five years or six years. You've joined and you have to put everything in the past and say I'm joining this family and this brotherhood. I'm putting family and putting Notre Dame in front of myself."
Getting over 30 players acclimated with the current roster hasn't been a challenge for Freeman and his staff contrary to what some may believe it would. You have to approach it with a plan and be intentional with getting 30 different guys from different schools and different walks of life working together.
"They need individual time with our strengths staff, with our medical team and our nutritionists," Freeman stated. "When you feel like they're ready to join the guys that have been here, like the veterans, you integrate them. For some guys, it might have been a week or two, and for some guys it was three or four weeks."
"But you have to be intentional," Freeman continued. "We can't train these new guys the way we train guys that have been here for a long time until you know what their bodies can handle. I’ve been very pleased with how we handled that, and everybody has obviously transitioned to one group now in terms of the way we train and the way we run things."
This team is poised to do great things in the 2026 season and they'll need contributions from veterans like Leonard Moore, Drayk Bowen, Adon Shuler, Anthonie Knapp and CJ Carr. Notre Dame will also need contributions from newcomers like Francis Brewu, Keon Keeley, Tionne Gray, Mylan Graham and Quincy Porter. It will be a collective effort to bring home Notre Dame's 12th title and Freeman has the roster to do it.
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