Notre Dame football eyeing visit from mammoth transfer portal defensive tackle who brings risky boom or bust upside
Notre Dame is in the running for the biggest defensive tackle on the transfer portal market.
Head coach Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame football are busy trying to fill their biggest need with the transfer portal: defensive tackle. With Charlie Partridge set to take over as defensive line coach, filling that group with as much raw talent as possible is a great idea. That room is completely overhauled after losing five of the top six defensive tackles from the rotation a season ago.
We have already seen a few talented interior players linked to Notre Dame, but a new name is now a target. Former UCF defensive tackle Horace Lockett Jr. reportedly will visit South Bend on Jan. 5-6. According to Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports, Lockett will also visit Nebraska, Ohio State, South Carolina, and Ole Miss.
The 6-6, 355-pound defensive tackle brings imposing size that would fit perfectly inside at nose for the Fighting Irish. Over the last two seasons, however, Lockett has missed a total of 16 games due to injury, which does make him a big risk. This is the ultimate debate of talent versus availability, and it will be a boom-or-bust addition for whoever ends up with the talented defender.
As of today, it is way too early to know just where Notre Dame stands in this portal recruitment. There will be a much better gauge when Lockett does make it to South Bend. From there, the fit will make a lot more sense, or none at all.
Horace Lockett’s career background
Lockett originally began his college career at Georgia Tech. He spent three seasons with the team before transferring to UCF prior to the 2025 season. In total, the Georgia native played in 17 games between the two programs. During that stretch, he managed to record 38 total tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, and one sack.
A member of the 2022 recruiting class for Georgia Tech, Lockett was considered to be a three-star player by each of the major recruiting platforms coming out of Atlanta (Ga.) Westlake. On the 247 Sports Composite ranking, Lockett finished rated as the No. 675 overall player, the No. 94 defensive lineman, and the No. 71 player in the state of Georgia for the 2022 class.
Despite those modest rankings, the demand for Lockett was very high. Some of his top offers coming out of high school included Georgia, Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee, Penn State, Ole Miss, Florida State, Nebraska, Louisville, Kentucky, Arizona State, Mississippi State, Georgia Tech, West Virginia, and Kansas, among others.
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