LSU playoff bound? Offensive line anchors Notre Dame's hopes. Which tight end will emerge from a crowded room? Dive into the 2026 outlook.
It's the start of another week of the 2026 offseason, and the premium message board subscribers in the Irish Breakdown community did not disappoint with their submissions in this week's edition of the Buy/Sell/Hold. We answered and discussed topics ranging from premier teams across the country like Indiana and Ohio State down to more discussion around quarterback CJ Carr's outlook on the 2026 season.
The bulk of the offseason is still ahead of us, but spring is right around the corner. We also talked through which players could have a breakout this spring which might lead to them cracking the rotation this fall. You can listen to all of that and more in this week's edition of Buy/Sell/Hold on the Irish Breakdown Podcast.
You can watch the entire show here:
Here are some of the main topics we discussed on today's show:
On Which Team Between Penn State, LSU And Clemson Makes The Playoffs In 2026...
"Of those three, I'd probably buy LSU, hold Clemson and sell Penn State. I thought about taking Clemson because I think they'll be a surprise team and they play in the ACC. But for LSU, they play in the SEC and they're almost guaranteed a playoff spot this year given the committee. Penn State isn't in this conversation for me because they're roster isn't at a point where they can compete for a national title. This isn't the roster they had two years ago, it's basically Iowa State 2.0 who didn't make the playoffs last year."
On The Most Impactful Unit in 2026...
"I'm buying the offensive line, holding the defensive line and selling the wide receivers, and you could argue that the quarterback position will be the third most impactful behind the play in the trenches. If Notre Dame is going to be the offense we believe it can be, they'll need their offensive line to be at the center of that conversation. There's no reason that Joe Rudolph doesn't put together a championship-caliber unit this year and they'll need them to play at that level to achieve the ultimate goal. That room will be the most impactful unit this fall."
On If There Will Be A Clear-Cut No. 1 Tight End By The End Of Spring...
"I'm going to sell this for a couple of reasons. There's a probable breakout coming from James Flanigan who is a redshirt freshman. We don't know what the overall health status is from Cooper Flanagan who missed all of the 2025 season but was working towards making a comeback if they made the playoffs. What role will Ty Washington and Jack Larsen have? Oh, and by the way, their highest ceiling player in the room won't be on campus until the summer. For those reasons, I don't think there will be a clear cut No. 1 guy by May."
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