Inside Notre Dame’s process for scouting, recruiting the transfer portal

This story appears in the Blue & Gold Illustrated 2024 Notre Dame Football Preview. To order your copy of the 160-page, full-color, glossy magazine, which includes opponent previews, Fighting Irish position previews and exclusive features like this one, click here .

On April 28, 2021, the game changed for every college football team. Notre Dame was no exception.

The NCAA gave all athletes a one-time transfer exemption that day, meaning that anyone could enter the transfer portal and be immediately eligible with their new team. Then-Irish defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman — who would be named head coach a little more than five months later — reacted like most coaches did at the time.

“I think when the portal first opened, [I thought], ‘Oh my God, this is like free agency,’” Freeman said. “‘Let’s go into the portal and find guys.’”

As he quickly learned, though, it’s not that simple. Particularly at Notre Dame.

As a high-academic institution, Notre Dame can find it difficult to take undergraduate transfers. The two exceptions so far — safety Brandon Joseph in 2022 and quarterback Riley Leonard this season — came from similarly prestigious universities in Northwestern and Duke, respectively.

“You realize, ‘OK, one, you can’t get everybody into school,’” Freeman said. “And then two, you’re like, ‘Is this what’s best for our football team?’”

Freeman, who became head coach around the time the portal began to explode, was charged with shaping Notre Dame’s approach to the transfer market. Sitting out meant falling behind.

Two winters later — armed with his right-hand recruiting man and a seasoned scout focused solely on evaluating college targets — Freeman’s Irish identified and secured commitments from six potential starters within 19 days after the end of the regular season. Two more came aboard in January.

Alongside much of the sport, the Irish developed a systematic process for scouting and recruiting the transfer portal. They did it while sticking to a roster-building philosophy that’s right for Notre Dame.

Building The Board

The funny thing about scouting, Matt Jansen told Blue & Gold Illustrated , is that the majority of his work never sees the light of day.

That’s especially true for those who evaluate transfers.

Jansen, Notre Dame’s director of scouting, has already turned on the tape for players at other schools who could help the Irish in 2025. Many of them will never enter the portal. His job is to make sure Notre Dame is prepared for those who do.

“We want to make sure that whoever goes in, we’ve at least done the homework behind why we would want or not want that player,” Jansen said.

He came to South Bend from West Virginia, where he worked as the Mountaineers’ director of personnel and scouting, in June 2023. But Jansen’s background is in the NFL. He was the Houston Texans’ college scouting coordinator from 2015-18, and he kept a close eye on the way the pro personnel team — which judges potential free agents and trade targets — operated.

Many college teams, including Notre Dame, have adopted the same approach.

“When I first got in college football [in 2019], it wasn’t that way,” Jansen said. “We were, at West Virginia, completely missing an area that a lot of college teams were, which was the pro personnel department.

“What free agency prep was is now portal prep. You don’t know if that guy’s gonna re-sign or not; you have to be ready in case he doesn’t.”

Because Notre Dame’s available player pool is inherently smaller than most, the Irish don’t have or need a full college scouting department. Jansen receives input and assistance from the coaching and recruiting staff, but in terms of people devoted to scouting the transfer portal, he’s a one-man show.

Starting in the summer, Jansen crafts a big board of players deemed likely to enter the portal after the upcoming season. It runs by position and is typically 40-50 prospects deep at each spot.

Building the board is, in large part, a guessing game. But the Irish can make a pretty good guess.

“The same type of player seems to enter the portal year after year,” Jansen said. “Maybe they’re in a competition where only one guy plays the position. There could be some situations where guys are performing at a high level from a different level of competition than we play at.

“So when they get their opportunities, they’re shining. They’re making their mark, and they want to do that week by week.”

Jansen will monitor the board throughout the season, rearranging and cutting it based on each week’s results. New names could pop up, too, based on performances that exceed expectations or players receiving fewer snaps than Notre Dame assumed.

Later in the fall, when the Irish know what their offseason needs will be, Jansen’s process amps up. He’ll dive deeper into the tape, watching full games with the spotlight on the potential target. All leading up to one decision: Yes or no.

To make that call, the Irish have to answer several questions. Is he an upgrade over what they already have at that position? Does he complement their returning players, and does he bring a skill that they don’t have or fill a role that they can’t? Does he fit Notre Dame’s system, perhaps better than he fits his current school’s? (When transfers come with underwhelming numbers, this is often the explanation.)

Above all, Jansen is looking for traits. He firmly believes traits translate, regardless of the competition level. It’s an idea he learned in the NFL, where one draft card can say “Toledo” and the next one at the position can say “Alabama.”

Freeman feels the same way.

“Maybe not look at who’s he going against, but let’s watch him,” Freeman said back in December, discussing Florida International transfer wideout Kris Mitchell. “How can he separate? How does he catch the ball in contested situations? … Is he running by guys or is he struggling to get by guys?”

Fit on the field is one box to check. Fit off the field is the other. Calling people who would know about a player’s character is a critical part of the evaluation. Jansen’s NFL connections help, too — they’re scouting many of the same prospects.

As the portal opens, Jansen will create a list of three to five players at each position of need and give it to the position coach. If a potential target gets a “yes,” he goes to the coordinator. If the coordinator signs off, the name goes to Freeman.

If Freeman approves, he gives the green light.

‘Quickly Attack’

When a player Notre Dame wants hits the portal, assistant athletics director for player personnel Chad Bowden and his recruiting office take over.

“You know those guys, they kill it,” Jansen said. “They go get the player, and it’s done. … Once they’re in, we’re able to quickly attack, rather than be caught on our heels on guys that go in.”

Bowden, known for his work on the high school recruiting trail, typically makes the first contact when the Irish reach out to a transfer. He gets the gears turning on an operation that, for a variety of reasons, Notre Dame is often confident will end in a commitment.

“First reaching out, [Bowden] called me and we talked and he was talking about getting up [to South Bend],” Marshall transfer wide receiver Jayden Harrison said in February. “You could hear it in his voice. He was eager to get me up here immediately. He was really ready.”

“Chad’s a monster, man,” Arizona State transfer defensive back Jordan Clark said. “He shows you what this place is about in a very short time.”

When the Irish get targets on campus, their pitch is usually simple. It’s not unlike, Freeman explained in December, what they tell current players deciding whether to return for one more year.

“There’s a specific reason these guys are looking to transfer for a year, so our job is to just show them, ‘Here’s our plan, and here’s what we can do,’” Freeman said.

Notre Dame almost always goes after graduate transfers, most of whom want a place where they can improve their chance of playing in the NFL. When that’s the case, precedent helps.

Exhibit A: Defensive end Javontae Jean-Baptiste , who had a career year in 2023 after transferring from Ohio State and was selected in the seventh round of the 2024 NFL Draft in April.

“We have a track record,” Jansen said the Irish will tell players. “Here’s a recent one with Jean-Baptiste. Why don’t you come on a visit and see if you like it?”

In the case of Clark, Notre Dame showed him tape from Thomas Harper’s 2023 season. The ex-Oklahoma State nickel also excelled with the Irish, and seeing a player do well in the exact situation he’s about to enter put Clark at ease.

“[Harper’s] game and mine kind of mirror each other a little bit,” Clark said. “He’s a savvy football player; I have a great deal of respect for him and what he was able to do on the defense last year.

“It’s definitely a role I see myself being able to make plays in as well.”

The Irish do their homework. Multiple incoming transfers, including Clark, pointed to that as a reason they maintained interest. Notre Dame knew his game, which meant they knew how to use him and how to make him better.

And, yes, name, image and likeness (NIL) money is a factor.

At least for now, college athletes’ NIL deals are not public information. But high-end transfers require high-end investment. Notre Dame is competitive in the NIL space, with Freeman saying in May the Irish are in a “great situation.”

Doubling Down

Aside from scouting individual returning players, if the Irish were considering watching their opponents’ 2023 tape to prepare for games in 2024, they might as well watch “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” back to back instead.

Louisville took a total of 31 transfers, which ranked second in the country behind Colorado (41). Texas A&M took 28. Purdue took 18, while Southern Cal and Florida State both took 17.

That will never be Notre Dame.

“We have a philosophy now: We’re going to double down on high school recruiting,” Freeman said. “I believe in that. We have to build our foundation on high school recruiting.”

It’s a belief, Freeman said, that he feels more strongly about than ever. The Irish will supplement their roster by filling needs in the transfer portal, but the focus will always be home-grown talent.

“One of the nice things about Notre Dame is the culture is so established,” Jansen said. “If you start bringing in 30 to 40 transfers per year, I think there may be something where you lose some of that culture that’s been built up.

“I don’t think you ever want to lose that at Notre Dame.”

While it’s easy to bemoan the near-inability to take undergraduate transfers, that culture is why Jansen sees it as a positive.

Part of his job, Jansen explained, is finding transfers who are in the portal for the right reasons. He feels more confident that’s the case when a player has finished their degree, fulfilling their obligation to their previous school.

What are the right reasons? Some, Jansen explained, might have accomplished all they can at the school they committed to.

Others might want to go to a place with upgraded resources — coaching, facilities, nutrition, strength and conditioning — and the Irish have more than most.

For many who come to South Bend for one season, including the likely starting quarterback, it’s an NFL dream.

“It’s like, ‘All right, I could go to Notre Dame or I could go to another school,’” Leonard said. “There’s no secret sauce, other than the fact that it’s just Notre Dame.”

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