Notre Dame's struggling 2025 kicking game gets a serious upgrade with new talent and Biagi's renewed confidence aiming for a title run.
The kicking operation in 2025 is one that I hope Notre Dame leaves in 2025. It struggled, to say the least, after finishing the season ranked No. 130 (55.6%) in the country in field goal percentage made. They also finished No. 128 (94.0%) in the country in extra point percentage made.
This season, the outlook of the entire kicking operation is promising. Rising sophomore Erik Schmidt is heading into his second year with the program, they got Spencer Porath out of the transfer portal from Purdue and are bringing in Micah Drescher in the 2026 recruiting class.
Special teams coordinator Marty Biagi is headed into his fourth year with the program and looks to get that aspect of his special teams unit shored up. There's been no shortage of trick plays and kick off returns for touchdowns during his tenure, but the place kicking operation has been hit or miss (no pun intended) from 2023 to 2025. This year, however, Biagi is confident in where they're at in this point of the offseason.
"We're doing a lot of tracking, a lot of competitive reps and then we're having to monitor the kick loads, especially Erik who's doing both," Biagi shared. "We're always making sure we're being smart. There's a lot of days where we'll probably do a lot more kicking on the Wednesday practices and Saturday practices and give them that Friday off. We're trying to be really efficient. Everybody and every job is open."
One of the kickers competing for the starting role is Porath, a former Purdue place kicker who went five for five inside of Notre Dame Stadium this past season. Porath made 100 percent of his extra points attempted in 2025 and made 88.2 percent of his field goals attempted which who have been tied for the highest in South Bend since Justin Yoon hit that mark in 2015. Porath is a familiar face to Biagi and made his decision to come to Notre Dame that much easier.
"I had recruited Spencer when he was a freshman or sophomore when I was at Purdue," Biagi explained. "I was familiar with him when he was in high school, and I had been by that high school. He's very consistent and has a really good ball flight. That was something that we were looking for; we definitely went through all of our checks and balances to make sure he's healthy and everything. It was good. He came in fresh and he fits this culture academically."
Notre Dame has been a school that's produced steady kickers over the years when you think back to Yoon's time in South Bend as well as Blake Grupe who just signed an extension with the Indianapolis Colts. This season, the Irish have high aspirations and a darn good shot at bringing home their 12th national title and first one since 1988. They'll need their kicking operation firing on all cylinders so we don't have a repeat of 2025.
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