On July 1, college football is scheduled to be playing new rules — off the field, that is — but with major implications on it.
And yet that tsunami of change — most of it with the economic structure of college sports — still is technically steeped in the hypothetical as the House v. NCAA settlement creeps through the proverbial red zone on its way to a conclusion that seemed at one point on a trajectory to wrap in April.
The good news is that Notre Dame fourth-year head coach Marcus Freeman knows enough about the roster-limit part of the holdup that in seemingly every possible scenario, he knows that the fringes of his depth chart won’t be eroded and that Notre Dame’s rich and stories walk-on tradition won’t be impaled this summer.
If federal judge Claudia Wilken gets her way and existing walk-ons are grandfathered in, she’ll approve the rest of the settlement and ND’s roster won’t have to undergo summer cuts. And if she blows up the settlement she preliminarily approved last October, the old rules stay in place and no roster cuts would ensue.
And Wilken isn’t about to cave on that point.
“When they made the decision on grandfathering in the walk-ons, that kind of was a major decision that we needed to know — do we have to make cuts or not?” Freeman said. “Which was a huge decision we had to make.
“As far as the other things in the settlement, again, we’re moving forward as if it’s probably going to be approved here in the next week, days.”
The Notre Dame administration, by the way, is on record of no roster cuts if the grandfathering in process is more voluntary than mandatory.
As for the top and middle of the Irish depth chart, little has changed since the April 12 Blue-Gold Game and the two semi-clandestine spring practice sessions that followed it.
Until now.
The players on Notre Dame’s spring roster and two June-enrolling transfers who didn’t participate in spring ball — wide receiver Malachi Fields and tight end Ty Washington — start ND’s summer program on Monday.
The official start of summer school and more formal summer workouts ensue on June 9, with the addition of 12 larger-enrolling freshmen.
Coaches don’t track movement up and down the depth chart in the summer, but moves are made and then noted when training camp opens. This offseason that start date is July 31, with the report-back date one day earlier.
Inside ND Sports is providing a projection on what the position-by-position depth chart might look like when the Irish reconvene for summer school. Heights and weights were last updated in mid-March, when spring practices got underway. An update figures to come out sometime in June. Same with the uniform numbers for the June newcomers.
The y- designation is only for players whose availability for the start of the season is expected to be affected by injury.
At some positions, there’s a clear starter or a clear rotation. The linebacker group is a prime example of one where there isn't the former but there is definitely the latter, because Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa is not only one of the best in that position group, he’s one of the best players on the team at any position.
For the positions where there’s not a clear starter or clear rotation, we placed the player at the top of that depth chart who we think has the edge going into summer, not necessarily who we think will have the edge at the END of summer. We decided to move Tyler Buchner back to quarterback, even though that has not been formally finalized.
We've also changed the vyper end and field end designations to reflect new defensive coordinator Chris Ash's schematic preference of right and left ends that are more interchangeable in their roles.
The Irish, 14-2 and national runners-up in 2024, open the 2025 season at Miami on Aug. 31.
OFFENSE
DEFENSE
SPECIAL TEAMS
y-Denotes player whose injury rebab is expected to impact their availability to start the 2025 season.
+-Denotes player exercising extra year of eligibility through COVID exemption.
^-Rendell is guaranteed two years of eligibility by the NCAA and is petitioning for a third.
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