Notre Dame Football Places 3, Including Grad-Transfer on Medical Scholarship; At NCAA 85 Limit

If there is a football season this fall, Notre Dame football is down to 85 scholarship players as they start fall camp after placing three players on medical scholarship. Those three are offensive tackle Cole Mabry, wide receiver Isaiah Robertson, and Stanford grad-transfer running back Trevor Speights.

With that, Trevor Speights’s Notre Dame career ended before it ever began. He transferred to Notre Dame in the spring as a grad-transfer from Stanford with two years of eligibility. He was expected to add some experience to a crowded, but unproven Notre Dame backfield this fall. Instead, Speights won’t ever suit up for the Irish with his football career likely over.

With Speights out of the picture in the backfield, the chances of freshman Chris Tyree playing an even more prominent role increase. Juniors Jahmir Smith and C’bo Flemister also have a greater chance at fighting to carries behind presumptive starter Jafar Armstrong. That is, of course, if there is a season.

Offensive tackle Cole Mabry saw the field for the first time last year and was expected to compete for a backup tackle role this fall. He’s battled several injuries over his career though.

Isaiah Robertson was recruited as a defensive back before moving to wide receiver early in his career. He missed all of 2019 after playing some special teams in 2018. Robertson likely was not going to see the field much at receiver with all of the talented receivers the Irish have recruited recently. Still, he had the build to potentially move to running back if Notre Dame was really in a bind.

With the three medical scholarships, Notre Dame is now at the NCAA max limit of 85 scholarship players. Notre Dame was at 88 following the grad-transfer of NC State cornerback Nick McCloud, but as is the case every year, the numbers ended up working themselves out.

It seems like every year there is a lot of conjecture about how Notre Dame will get to 85, but we’ve seen this staff have a strong handle on the scholarship numbers as they make late offers or take on additional graduate-transfers.