Fact or Fiction: Notre Dame will land a QB from the portal this offseason
Rivals rankings director and national transfer portal analyst Adam Friedman is joined by Paul Strelow of TigerIllustrated.com, national recruiting director Adam Gorney and Eric Hansen of InsideNDSports.com to tackle three topics and determine whether they believe each statement is FACT or FICTION.
1. The result of Saturday’s game won’t change the fact that Clemson needs to be more active in the portal.
Friedman: FACT. Clemson and head coach Dabo Swinney have righted the ship since their season opening loss to Georgia but, if the Tigers expect to consistently play for national championships, there are flaws on this roster and in this recruiting class that will need to be addressed by the transfer portal. Kudos to Cade Klubnik for turning a corner in his last three games. His development has made Clemson a double-digit favorite against Florida State on the road, something nobody saw coming prior to the start of this season. Against many of its opponents, Clemson’s weak points shouldn’t hamper it but, as we saw against Georgia and in previous few seasons, the Tigers have not had the players at key positions to compete against the elite programs in the country. How does Clemson address this in the short term? The transfer portal.
Strelow: FICTION. This game isn’t a referendum on Swinney’s recruiting strategy, just as getting beat by a team with a transfer shouldn’t mean the Tigers needed to have gone to the portal to keep up with the Joneses. Taking transfers is A way and A solution within roster management. It doesn’t have to be THE path. Thus we’d continue disputing as fact that Clemson needs to be bringing in transfers, when the true obstacle faced is the challenge of NIL recruiting. What you do have to get right is quarterback, which is what this matchup has underlined on paper. Klubnik has come good the last couple of games, whereas FSU is showing how vital its bidding war loss for Cam Ward proved to be. There are risks and rewards either route you go, and being dubbed the Portal King is a crown with which judgment can reverse is a hurry. Winning this game – and potentially handily – doesn’t validate the Swinney way, per se. But it would reinforce that he wasn’t necessarily wrong either – which is where Clemson has an argument for apologies.
2. A player who transferred during their college career will be taken No. 1 in the upcoming NFL Draft.
Friedman: FACT. Almost all the top quarterbacks – Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders, and Quinn Ewers – have transferred at least once and Travis Hunter, the best overall player in my opinion, transferred too. That should be all the information we need here but there are some players that could complicate this matter. Jalen Milroe is rising up draft boards and he plays the right position to warrant consideration at No. 1. Right now Michigan’s Will Johnson is the overwhelming choice as the top defensive back in the draft but the last time a defensive back was picked No. 2 – let alone No. 1 – was 1991 so it’s very unlikely he’s a candidate at No. 1. Receivers Tetairoa McMillan and Luther Burden III look like longshots as well. Maybe offensive tackle Kelvin Banks or defensive end James Pearce could find their way up draft boards later this season.
Gorney: FACT. Unless Will Campbell from LSU or Kelvin Banks from Texas go No. 1 overall which is probably unlikely, it’s pretty safe to say that a transfer will go No. 1 in the NFL Draft. If it’s a quarterback, Shedeur Sanders, Cam Ward and Quinn Ewers are all transfer quarterbacks so we would be covered there. It’s unlikely New England or Jacksonville would take a quarterback that high but Carolina or the New York Giants certainly could. I still feel Travis Hunter is such a special player on both sides of the ball that he warrants a No. 1 pick. He can be of immediate help anywhere on the field and so that’s going to be intriguing, plus he’s going to test incredibly well. The more NFL people see him in person, the more they’re going to like him at No. 1. And he’s a transfer so the odds are very much in favor of a transfer player being the top pick.
3. Notre Dame will look to add a quarterback in the transfer portal this cycle.
Friedman: FACT. Notre Dame will be in the market for a quarterback when the transfer portal opens and its need for another arm intensified earlier this week when it lost Deuce Knight, its quarterback in the 2025 recruiting class, to Auburn.The Riley Leonard experience may have turned some Notre Dame fans off in regards to the transfer portal but the fact of the matter is that the three remaining quarterbacks after this season – Steve Angeli, Kenny Minchey, and CJ Carr – will be in a battle for the starting spot. Whoever feels like they’re going to finish third or if one of the three knows they’ll start elsewhere, they will likely look at transferring. Notre Dame can’t allow itself to suddenly not have enough depth at the most important position on the field.
Hansen: FICTION. For now — and with an asterisk. Notre Dame third-year head coach Marcus Freeman would like nothing more this offseason when it comes to the transfer portal than getting off the hamster wheel of importing starting QBs from other programs in three of the past four offseasons. And the Irish believe the 2025 starter and home-grown/developed successor to Duke transfer Riley Leonard is already on the roster, and did so even before 2025 four-star prospect Deuce Knight flipped to Auburn earlier this week.
The question is whether QBs 2 and 3 will still be here come spring practice and whether ND can flip a quality prospect to fill Knight’s void in this recruiting cycle over the next two months. Right now the depth chart order is 1) junior Steve Angeli, 2) sophomore Kenny Minchey and 3) freshman CJ Carr, but that could change quickly after the regular season and prompt a portal exit – or two.
Freeman could probably live with one departure, but not two, without having to dip into the transfer ranks for at least some depth. But that’s risky, because it could trigger a subsequent exit from the roster.The good news is Freeman has some contingencies. Walk-on freshman QB Anthony Rezac gives ND some depth, and so does former starter and lacrosse moonlighter Tyler Buchner. Buchner is currently a walk-on wide receiver for football after transferring back from Alabama, but he could move back to his natural position if needed for numbers.
