Spring practice heats up! Discover overlooked transfer impact and debate the return of legendary rivalries to Notre Dame's football schedule.
We're nearing the halfway point in spring training for Notre Dame. We're also at the midway point in the week here at Irish Breakdown which means time for another mid-week rundown. We kicked off today's show with a recap of their seventh spring practice where players on both offense and defense stood out. The team is improving and at a rapid pace. The talent on the roster continues to shine and the new position coaches on defense are starting to stand out.
Today, we also talked about the transfer portal players on Notre Dame's roster and how they continue to be overlooked. Despite bringing in two receivers from Ohio State, a defensive lineman from Alabama and a defensive tackle from Oregon and a defensive back from Michigan, this class gets no love. We also talked about the rival teams, and potentially new rivals, that should be on Notre Dame's schedule more consistently. You can listen to all of that and more in this week's edition of the mid-week rundown on the Irish Breakdown Podcast.
You can watch the entire episode here:
Here are some of the main topics we discussed on today's show:
On The Notre Dame Portal Class Being Overlooked...
"Unfortunately, I think a lot goes into this group of guys being overlooked. Honestly, you could argue that every Notre Dame portal class under Marcus Freeman has been overlooked because it doesn't have the numbers that an LSU portal class or a Texas Tech portal class has, but that doesn't make it any less impactful. Here's the other piece, there's a chance that outside of Spencer Porath at kicker, none of the other transfers will start. Now, I wouldn't bet the mortgage on it, but there's an outside chance they won't be in the starting lineup. I don't think that will matter too much because they'll all play, but I think that's a factor as well."
On Adding USC Or Michigan Back On The Schedule...
"You guys have known my stance on this for a while, but I believe that every college football schedule should have a team on their schedule where it boils down to 'good ole fashioned hate' and that's what Michigan and USC bring to the discussion. I think they should have one or the other on the schedule, not necessarily both. You have history with both programs, obviously significantly more with USC and I wish they'd bring it back. If it were up to me, the Trojans would be on the schedule annually, but the powers that be believed it's not a necessity for the sport this year."
On Adding Texas A&M To The Schedule On An Annual Basis...
"I think you need a high-octane game down south and the Aggies bring that to the table. This is a program that you've had history with; you've played in multiple Cotton Bowls and the games in back to back years in 2024 and 2025 were meaningful, benchmark games for both programs. In 2024, it showed us that this Notre Dame team was for real and could win the big game on the road early in the regular season. Last year, it did the same for Texas A&M who walked into Notre Dame Stadium against a Top 10 team and pulled off a last-second victory under the lights."
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