Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman delivered hardly surprising news Monday afternoon when he announced junior receiver Quincy Porter will undergo season-ending surgery.
The 6-foot-4, 215-pounder signed with Notre Dame out of the Transfer Portal in January, making him a high-risk, high-reward addition for the Irish.
Multiple programs told ISD during Porter’s portal recruitment that his camp did not provide medical information when those schools inquired about the New Jersey native. As a result, several programs removed him from their recruiting board.
Porter did not participate during spring practice but was on the field doing individual drills on Notre Dame’s first day of fall camp. While he didn’t appear close to being ready to play at the time, simply being back on the field was a step in the right direction.
At the end of camp, Freeman said Porter would undergo another procedure designed to speed up his recovery. A month later, Notre Dame announced Porter would miss the entire 2026 season.
“Tough news with Quincy,” stated Freeman. “He came to Notre Dame post patella surgery and it was a pretty long, tough healing process. And probably about a month ago, we had another procedure that we thought was gonna be the last thing that he needed to get him back to game-ready.”
Porter had recently returned to practice but was limited to individual work. Freeman remains hopeful the talented receiver can eventually get back on the field and contribute to the Irish offense.
“He was getting really close and had a little flare-up,” explained Freeman. “Ultimately, they had an MRI this weekend, and the doctors decided that he'll have to have season-ending surgery to get his patella where it needs to go.
“He's a great young man who has really done everything right and he's got another setback, but his mind is in the right place. He'll be back at some point here before we know it.”
The good news for Notre Dame is that junior receiver Micah Gilbert has emerged as a major weapon during the 2026 season.
Through four games, Gilbert leads Notre Dame with 334 receiving yards on 15 receptions, along with two touchdowns.
Notre Dame could also get a spark from tight end Cooper Flanagan, who caught two passes for 29 yards and a touchdown in Saturday’s win over Purdue.
“If the opportunity presents itself, I'm sure CJ (Carr) will throw it to the tight ends like he did last week,” Freeman said. “It is important because what you don't want is a defense to look at that offense and go, ‘OK, those tight ends are only threats blocking and in the run game.’
“We want to make sure that they respect our tight ends in the pass game. Coop did some really good things to make sure that he has to be respected in the pass game.”
While Notre Dame will have to adjust without Porter, Freeman is encouraged by the run game as it’s shown progress over the last two weeks.
The Irish have made some changes to their blocking approach, but Freeman believes the improvement is also a product of a young running back room becoming more comfortable with game reps.
“It's improving and some of those things are schematic things we're doing,” stated Freeman. “We're coaching a little bit different based on what we believe the O-line and the running backs do well. Again, our guys getting comfortable with each other, those five offensive linemen working together, the backs understanding how they can read certain blocks, but it's improving.
“I told you guys last Monday that Sunday meeting was important that we had, and maybe that was two weeks ago, but it is definitely improving.”
One change has been Notre Dame using more gap-scheme concepts than zone schemes.
Freeman was quick to state the Irish haven’t completely changed their identity in the run game. The goal is to use whichever concepts create the most favorable matchups against the defense they are facing that week.
“As we game plan, it's based off of angles,” said Freeman. “You'll hear me say it all the time, angles. If we think we're better for this game to be a zone team, we can do them both. We can zone, we can run gap schemes, but it's like, what's best for what the defense presents?
“I'm not saying it's just all game plan based. It is some of what our guys do well. In the last two weeks, we've kind of done a little bit more gap scheme stuff because their guys are performing it pretty well.”
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