One of the high points of defensive tackle Jared Dawson’s career at Louisville in his five seasons with the Cardinals was recording four tackles at Notre Dame Stadium back on Sept. 28 in a 34-27 Irish victory.
On Saturday, the 6-foot-2, 305-pound Collierville (Tenn.) High School product committed to making more memories in South Bend, Ind., announcing that he’ll spend his sixth and final college season as a member of the ND football team.
Dawson and the rest of the Irish start spring-semester classes on Monday. The 2024 ND team will also be prepping this upcoming week for the College Football Playoff National Championship Game in Atlanta on Jan. 20.
The 7-seeded Irish (14-1) meet 8 seed Ohio State (13-2) at Mercedes-Benz Stadium a week from Monday, with a 7:30 p.m. EST kickoff on ESPN.
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Dawson and 17 other Cardinals skipped Louisville’s 35-34 Sun Bowl win over Washington last month to enter the transfer portal. Four other Cards opted out.
The former three-star prospect collected a career-high 19 tackles as a rotational player for Louisville this past season in 10 games, two of them starts. Six and a half of those tackles went for losses, including four sacks. He also recorded a forced fumble.
The Irish lose their two two interior linemen, sixth-year standouts Howard Cross III and Rylie Mills, to expired eligibility. Mills suffered a season-ending knee injury Dec. 20 in a first-round CFP win over Indiana.
Senior Gabe Rubio has been starting in Mills’ place and has already indicated he plans to exercise his fifth-year option and return to the Irish in 2025.
Beyond him and junior Donovan Hinish, the Irish have lots of numbers returning but not much experience. There are two incoming freshmen, Davion Dixon and Gordy Sulfsted and five other players with sophomore or freshmen eligibility for 2025 due to redshirting, but only sophomore Armel Mukam has logged more than 40 snaps this season, and he has 60.
Both Cross and Mills, even with injuries, amassed more than 500 apiece.
Senior Jason Onye also has a fifth-year option, but his future at Notre Dame or anywhere else is unclear. He exited the roster at the end of September for personal reasons and hasn’t played or practiced since.
Head coach Marcus Freeman indicated Onye would be welcomed back if he wanted to return to ND. He was a valuable rotational player in the five games he did play in this season.
Notre Dame got commitments from four transfers in December — tight end Ty Washington (Arkansas), Alabama defensive back Devonta Smith and wide receivers Will Pauling (Wisconsin) and Malachi Fields (Virginia).
The Irish are expected to add more in the next day or so.
The transfer portal opened on Dec. 9 and closed on Dec. 28, but that deadline is just to enter the portal, not for finding a landing spot. Ohio State and Notre Dame players will have an additional five-day window after the national championship game to enter the transfer portal.
There’s also a 10-day spring period, from April 16-25.
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