The portal mess continues to spread like wildfire. With the last few days of spring, the programs are biting the bullet in retaining their cornerstone for another season up ahead. Notre Dame and Marcus Freeman aren’t outside the trap. Freeman mounted a historic season as the runner-up in the national championship game last year. The coach is striving to close the gap and win the prize this time. But reality speaks differently. He held spring practice until April 12th. However, by the time they reached the peak of their losses, the situation had deteriorated significantly. A flurry of players have opted out, with a few still hanging in the air.

In the last 30 years, Notre Dame has faced an existential crisis due to a lack of proper administrative action to protect and support football, along with certain loopholes in the coaching room. Freeman single-handedly changed the dynamic on various fronts. It was not just about posting a successful year after a long time. It’s more about re-injecting faith into a doomsday fanbase about what they are capable of. However, the most disturbing thing that continues to haunt that dream is that the old Notre Dame roster is no longer in effect. During the winter portal, they lost a slew of players, including Sam Pendleton, Rosco Spindler, and Pat Coogan. What would be the mantra heading to the spring? Regroup and reunite. Sure. But before they could set it into motion, another bombarding reality struck harder.

“11 players over the total,” insider Brian Smith gave away the exact number that the spring portal has taken away from the Irish. He asked analyst Tyler Wojciak how much it should take a toll on their newfound growth. “It is a lot, and they are going to have some really difficult conversations here soon,” Tyler reasoned their misery with ‘time.’

Why? “Because they officially wrap up spring practice on Wednesday, and the timing is a little odd to end spring practice like smack dab in the middle of the transfer portal window, but considering their season didn’t end until January 20th, like they had to reshuffle some things with this year’s spring practice, and they probably didn’t want to go up to this point. But that’s just kind of how it happened with the amount of time they needed in between the end of last season and the start of spring practice.” 

However, if the settlement doesn’t pass, Notre Dame will probably continue pushing through their improved walk-on room. Some walk-on guys really have showcased enough potential to play as a scholarship player shortly. So, that can be a little placebo to their woes! Optional? Yes. Starting from Zac Yoacam and Rino Monteforte, to Kennedy Urlacher, the Irish locker room looks like a nightmare. But hold your nerve! Nothing came off as awful as Steve Angel’s portal decision.

While it was shocking, it wasn’t at all a surprise. After the team made their two-quarterback competition stance clear, featuring C.J. Carr and Kenny Minchey, the three-year-old veteran didn’t like to be a third wheel in his fourth year at South Bend. So, he did what he could do best. But the threats are coming from the outside as well.

USC GM Chad Bowden tries to drain out talent from its fiercest rival 

With the consistent emergence of the NIL market, the words poaching and tampering became more common than ever. But what the Trojans’ new GM did doesn’t easily fit into any of these categories. He slyly played a trick on the Irish and left no crumbs behind. Time for Freeman to tighten his guards? A no-brainer-—yes. But how did the Trojans snap at them?

The USC has relentlessly pursued its 2026 recruiting class. Lincoln Riley and the staff have already bolstered the class to a second rank nationally, but they are still lurking behind the Irish key targets. Chad Bowden is widely known for his go-getter quirk. He doesn’t want to compromise an inch regarding strengthening the roster. But sneaking into another program’s strength is probably the sickest measure one can follow.