Notre Dame Faces Modern College Football Challenges & Changes

Notre Dame is navigating key challenges in today’s college football era—what it means for the Fighting Irish moving forward.

The Notre Dame Leprechaun wears offensive lineman Rocco Spindler's (50) helmet after winning a NCAA college football game 52-3 against Florida State at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024, in South Bend. / MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Irish offensive line depth taking a hit

Notre Dame is undergoing personnel changes regarding its roster, coaching staff, and support staff just like every team in the country. It feels like these changes are more intense for Irish fandom at the moment due to the timing of it all.

Since the Irish played in the last game of the year that stretched the season out to January 20th and ended in frustration, these changes just feel a bit overwhelming to be greeted with coming just days after a bitter title game defeat everyone is still trying to process.

The biggest hit for Notre Dame depth-wise has come along the offensive line where Sam Pendleton, Rocco Spindler, and Pat Coogan have all entered the portal and will be leaving South Bend. On the surface, this seems like a big hit to Notre Dame, but in reality is simply a sign of the modern times.

From Rocco Spindler’s IG account: pic.twitter.com/0FiOq8bSfL

— Mike BerardinoNDI (@MikeBerardino) January 25, 2025

Things have changed in the modern portal era

In the modern era of college football and the transfer portal era, maintaining quality depth along both lines will be harder than ever to do.

The reality is, there's a likelihood that none of the players leaving from the offensive line room are likely to start next year, potentially being unseated by younger players with high upside such as Will Black, and players that would have played more this year but didn't due to injury such as Charles Jagusah and Ashton Craig.

When looked at through this lens, it makes total sense that these players are heading elsewhere. The last thing older players want to do is not start and sit behind younger players to end their college careers, and this is totally understandable.

This is not just a Notre Dame concern, this is a concern for every team. Players who have chances to start somewhere else are much more likely to transfer and do so rather than stick around at their current school receiving less playing time.

This is simply a modern reality in the sport and will make building high-quality depth along the lines a real challenge for every program.

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