Notre Dame 2025 Opponent Portal Recap: USC and Boston College Bring In Potential Impact Players

In this day and age of college football, every team is impacted by the transfer portal for different reasons. Some teams build solely through the transfer portal, some programs use it to supplement their roster and other programs refrained from portal additions entirely. This upcoming season, all 12 opponents for the Irish were impacted in different ways by the transfer portal. Here's a breakdown of the impact additions and departures of every Notre Dame regular season opponent.

USC TROJANS

247Sports Portal Ranking: 18

USC had some impactful departures between the winter and spring portal windows. They had nine players exit in the winter portal who played over 150 snaps in 2024. Most notable among them was wide receiver Zachariah Branch, wide receiver Duce Robinson, wide receiver Kyron Hudson, running back Quinten Joyner, offensive tackle Emmanuel Pregnon and defensive end Sam Greene. In the spring portal, the Trojans only lost one player who played over 150 snaps in 2024 and that was defensive end Solomon Tuilaupupu. 

USC countered by bringing in 17 players between the winter and spring portals. Most notably, they brought in Prince Strachan from Boise State. The 6-5, 2120pound boundary receiver will likely be the replacement for the 6-6 Robinson who hauled in 396 receiving and three touchdowns last year. At running back, they brought in community college transfer Waymond Jordan and New Mexico running back Eli Sanders. Both put up good production at their previous stops but will have big shoes to fill replacing Joyner and Woody Marks. 

Defensively, they brought in a linebacker from Penn State, Ta'Mere Robinson who played in six games last season for the Nittany Lions and totaled 11 tackles and 0.5 sacks. They also snagged Kennedy Urlacher from rival Notre Dame in the portal as well. Urlacher was buried on a loaded safety depth chart for the Irish and has a lot of special teams experience to bring to the table. He's a solid pickup for the Trojan's defensive backfield. 

BOSTON COLLEGE EAGLES

247Sports Portal Ranking: 64

The majority of the portal moves for the Eagles came during the winter portal. They lost three players in cornerback Ryan Turner, wide receiver Jerand Bradley and quarterback Thomas Castellanos who all played over 150 snaps a season ago. Castellanos was edged out of the quarterback job last season after suffering an injury which allowed Grayson James to step up and and perform. James is now in a competition with Alabama transfer Dylan Lonergan for the starting role in 2025. Lonergan transferred to Boston College during the winter portal and remains their most notable pick up. 

In an effort to help try and a replace defensive end Donovan Ezeiruaku's 16.5 sacks from last season, the Eagles picked up four defensive ends in the winter portal. Valparaiso transfer Onye Nwosisi has the most experience and production. He has tallied 68 total tackles and 4.5 sacks in his two years with the Beacons. They also picked up Merrimack transfer Favor Bate, Barton transfer E'Lla Boykin and West Virginia transfer Makai Byerson. The three combined for three sacks last season at their respective schools. 

NAVY MIDSHIPMEN

247Sports Portal Ranking: N/A

Like we normally see with the service academies, the Midshipmen have not brought in any transfer portal players between the winter and spring portals. They had five outgoing transfers with cornerback Greg Johnson finding a home at South Alabama, quarterback Trey Dunn heading to Marshall and cornerback Lorenzo Vitti heading to Hope. The two other players, Jackson Runyan and Matt Appel, have yet to find homes.

Navy returns a stout starting lineup offensively with quarterback Blake Horvath and running backs Eli Holstein and Alex Tecza returning from a season ago. The five players they lost in the portal played little to no minutes for the Midshipmen in 2024, so their roster remains intact with the exception of the players who graduate this spring.