Heading into the transfer portal period, the vibes around Notre Dame football were very, very strong. Head coach Marcus Freeman and the Fighting Irish are seemingly in a winning window, and there was an idea that this team would go all in to put this roster over the top. It is still early in the portal process, but things have gotten off to a bit of a rougher start.

This Notre Dame staff has plenty of time to recover and put together a tremendous haul of players, but a couple of the team’s top targets are already off the board. Former Michigan State wide receiver Nick Marsh is a player that this Irish staff was very high on, and was scheduled to head to South Bend on Monday morning for an official visit. Unfortunately for Notre Dame, that visit isn’t happening. Instead, Marsh committed to the Indiana Hoosiers while on his trip this weekend.

A similar situation happened with former Iowa State star cornerback Jontez Williams, a player that the Irish viewed as potentially the missing link to another elite secondary in 2026. Also scheduled to visit on Monday, Williams instead committed to the USC Trojans during his official visit this weekend. That is two players off the board before Notre Dame could even get them on campus, and make its final pitch.

So let’s dig a little deeper into the early issues for Notre Dame. With the idea that this staff was going to be ultra-aggressive, what are the real issues? What is the real reason for the early struggles?

Does Notre Dame have a money problem? 

Whenever something doesn’t go its way in Notre Dame Land, pessimistic folks tend to start screaming about money. It is understandable to a degree. The Irish leadership isn’t always the most aggressive team from a monetary perspective, but things have changed quite a bit over the last year or two. Notre Dame is a team that has never lacked money, but it is also a program that won’t pay well above market to completely sacrifice value. That is called bad business.

Do I believe that Notre Dame lost out on Marsh and Williams because of money? No, that is far from the most important reason. The Irish were going to be aggressive in that department, especially for someone like Marsh. The biggest issue here is an error in scheduling that doesn’t make a ton of sense when you break it down.

Why the early transfer portal struggles?

In the world of high school recruiting, you typically want the last visit. That whole process has a much longer timeline, so having the final pitch is usually very important. We have seen how successful Freeman and his staff were in the 2026 recruiting class, as they got players on campus and had a real opportunity to close. It is hard to bet against them as a staff in that type of setting.

Here is the problem: This isn’t high school recruiting. The transfer portal world is just so different. With such an abbreviated recruiting process, schools are better served by getting prospective players on campus first and trying to close while they are still there. In most cases, they will only have one chance to pitch. Notre Dame wasn’t on the table, made its pitch, and lost. No, it didn’t even get a seat at the table for either Marsh or Williams.

For whatever reason, Notre Dame chose not to host a single visitor this past weekend, like other programs, and it didn’t even push to do so. That cost them two of their top overall portal targets.

With a healthy list coming to South Bend Monday, including defensive tackles Xavier Gilliam, Horace Lockett, and Mateen Ibirogba, I expect Freeman and the staff to land several players over the next several days. Hindsight is 20/20, but that was a mistake by the Irish staff, and now they must have an almost flawless next few days to try and make up for it.

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Ryan Roberts