Amended earlier transfer window among multitasking tests for ND's Freeman
It’s probably safe to assume that Marcus Freeman has someone do his income tax returns for him and that they’ve probably been filed long ago. If not, there’s a three-day grace period that bumps the normal April 15 deadline back to April 18 this year.
The Notre Dame second-year head football coach still better be an expert multi-tasker Saturday and in the days that follow.
Consider what’s ahead with spring practice resuming Wednesday after a five-day hiatus:
► Saturday is the first day of the amended spring window for the college football transfer portal, ending on April 30. Initially, the NCAA designated a May 1-15 time frame.
The reason for the shift?
“The Football Oversight Committee proposed the change to allow participation discussions to occur at the conclusion of spring football,” an NCAA release said, “while also providing football student-athletes with more time to go through the transfer process and arrive at a new school before the start of summer activities.”
That means if the Irish are going to add a safety or interior defensive lineman or offensive guard — the three most probable considerations — the new inventory to track starts flowing Saturday. Players don’t have to choose a school during the window, but they have to have their name submitted before the April 30 deadline.
That also means outgoing transfers could take the portal plunge as soon as Saturday, a week before the spring football-concluding Blue-Gold Game on April 22. Many schools have or will have concluded spring football by this Saturday.
For the Irish, it compresses transfer decisions, coming and going, during an already loaded calendar.
You can check out our scholarship chart to see where Notre Dame stands with relation to the NCAA maximum of 85, which doesn’t have to be met until the first day of fall-semester classes.
ND had seven outgoing transfers, including starting QB Drew Pyne, and brought secured commitments from seven incoming transfers, including potential starting QB Sam Hartman, during the earlier portal window (Dec. 5-Jan. 18). Three of the seven will enroll in June, with two of them being walk-ons.
► Saturday starts the clock on the spring recruiting evaluation period, which runs through the end of May. Within it, assistant coaches are permitted to visit high schools of prospects. Notre Dame can wait until its spring practices end to put its plan in motion, but there’s little downtime for them once the Blue-Gold Game ends.
► Schools continue to be able to host prospects on campus through the end of May, though the Irish will condense that to conclude Blue-Gold Game weekend to provide the best atmospheres for the visitors.
Saturday’s visitors list is growing, and the head count of Blue-Gold invites even more so with committed 2024 prospects, QB CJ Carr and WR Cam Williams, set to do some recruiting for their own that weekend.
Then Notre Dame will resume in June with official visits for the 2024 class and unofficials for the 2025s.
► Speaking of recruiting, Freeman this weekend may also be learning a whole new recruiting calendar if the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee goes through with its intentions, as expected, in meetings Wednesday and Thursday.
If passed, the changes would go into effect Aug. 1.
►Remember when Freeman came up with the idea of a legacy weekend last spring and drew more than 300 former players that proved to be a boon for alumni relations, recruiting and for current players?
An encore is in the works, and one that is expected to draw even more former players.
Freeman has his hand in the planning of that, but fortunately for him, former offensive lineman Hunter Bivin took the lead both last year and this year.
He was the director of player development for the football program last year at this time. He’s since been promoted to assistant director of alumni engagement. Inside ND Sports will have more details on this year’s event later this week.
► Freeman will meet with the media Saturday, after practice No. 11 of 15 this spring, for the first time since March 22, following practice No. 1.
After a five-day break for Easter, the Irish resume spring football with practice No. 9 on Wednesday morning. The final seven practice sessions have been compressed into a busy 11-day window, concluding with the April 22 Blue-Gold Game at Notre Dame Stadium.
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