Running a college football program is a constant balancing act. Head coaches make hundreds of decisions each week, but in today’s evolving landscape, staying current with structural changes in the sport is just as critical.
Right now, every coach in the country is paying close attention to the House Settlement, which is expected to significantly impact how programs recruit, manage rosters and allocate NIL resources.
The Transfer Portal would likely be a close second, as coaches need to retain players while also improving their current roster with new talent.
Marcus Freeman has made it crystal clear that Notre Dame won’t live in the Transfer Portal, but will use it to fill in holes and create depth.
In 2025, Notre Dame brought in Malachi Fields (receiver), DeVonta Smith (defensive back), Jared Dawson (defensive lineman), Will Pauling (Wisconsin), Ty Washington (tight end), Jalen Stroman (safety), Elijah Hughes (defensive lineman) and Noah Burnette (kicker).
All eight players were graduate transfers and Notre Dame landed all of them in December while preparing for a College Football Playoff game and the Early Signing Period.
Freeman has seen the benefits of the December portal recruiting, but is softly advocating for one window in the spring.
“If you made me vote, I would vote for the spring, but I wouldn't be upset if it were the winter or the spring,” stated Freeman. “I'm a big proponent of one transfer portal window, but if you made me choose one over the other, I would choose the spring.”
Why the spring? There are several reasons and one is decreasing the workload in December. Finalizing a high school recruiting class always has twists and turns in the final hours, which happened to take place four days after the regular season finale.
"Probably more than anything, not dealing with that distraction during your postseason play, the ability to get people into school,” explained Freeman. “After the spring semester is an advantage for us, but I'm not opposed to some of the other times, like the winter. I'm not overly opinionated about it, but if you made me choose, I would choose the spring, but I truly understand the viewpoint from the winter.”
The winter makes sense for a number of reasons, the primary one of which is that student-athletes can participate in spring football at their new school.
Former Notre Dame quarterback Steve Angeli is a good example of where this comes into play, as he decided to wait until after spring practice was completed to enter the portal.
Now, it was his decision, but if he had enrolled at Syracuse in January, Angeli would have 15 practices with his new teammates and a new playbook, which is significant, especially for a quarterback.
Big picture, Freeman’s reasoning for the portal window to be in the spring makes a lot of sense as impulse decisions by student-athletes would likely decrease during the yearly coaching carousel.
"The other side of it is the minute there's uncertainty, they pack up and go somewhere else, right,” Freeman said. “I think about it, as a lot of coaching changes happen, right? It might be best for that young person to stay there and if there's no option to get up and leave, when the coaching changes, maybe they say, "Well, I do like this new head coach. I do want to stay here. I do want to get my degree from here’ - instead of getting up and leaving the minute there's uncertainty with who's the head coach.
"If you put it in the spring, at least, it gives that new coach a chance to convince that player it's the best thing to do to stay at the university because I'm a proponent of our young people getting degrees. That's so important and not just making decisions based on what's going to be best football-wise, but also, like the longevity of my life. Education is so important."
At this point there isn’t a right or wrong answer. Well, retaining your roster is always the answer and Notre Dame has done a phenomenal job of doing that.
Freeman refused to take credit for his program's lack of departures for greener pastures and was quick to credit the culture across Notre Dame for keeping his team together.
”I think that just speaks to the value of the education,” Freeman stated. “I wish I could go and say, 'It's because of our culture. It’s because they love our football program.' No, it speaks to the university and a lot of our young people seeing the bigger picture and the game of football is going to end for the majority of them here with their college football careers.
“They have a chance to earn a Notre Dame education that, to me, will continuously open doors for them for the rest of their life. I think that's what that's a reflection of, is that people don't make just football decisions. They make long-term decisions.
"It speaks to the university, the network, the education and young people who choose this place, having the maturity to see beyond just the instant gratification of football."
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