Notre Dame Bolsters DL for 2025 With Portal Additions

The 2024 Notre Dame football season is far from over, with the Irish set to square off with Ohio State for the National Championship next week. That hasn’t stopped the Fighting Irish coaching staff from working on its roster for the 2025 season. On Saturday, they added a pair of defensive tackles – Jared Dawson (Louisville) and Elijah Hughes (USC) – through the transfer portal, filling one of Notre Dame’s most glaring needs for next season.

Notre Dame needed at least two defensive linemen.

The Irish obviously had to address two positions in the portal: receiver and defensive line. Notre Dame already added Will Pauling and Malachi Fields at receiver and a pair of linemen. Howard Cross and Rylie Mills are both out of eligibility, and Jason Onye’s status is still undetermined. The door is open for his return, but he’s been away from the team and University since the fall while dealing with a personal issue.

The emergence of Gabriel Rubio and Donovan Hinish in the playoffs lessened the need for Notre Dame to add multiple players who could start via the portal. However, they still needed several linemen to round out the depth of the line heading into 2025. The Irish return several linemen with potential, but none of whom have been regular players to this point in their careers. The staff thinks highly of junior to be Armel Mukamm but he logged just 60 snaps this year. Sean Sevillano just 39. Devan Houston, a former 4-star recruit, only played 10 snaps. Brennan Vernon, one of the most highly rated linemen on the roster as a recruit, just 8. True freshman Cole Mullins hasn’t played a snap this year and is likely at least a year away from challenging for a regular role.

Notre Dame signed two interior linemen last month, Gordy Gulfsted and Davion Dixon. However, both are expected to be more developmental players than major contributors in 2025.

Add it all up: Notre Dame has many bodies but little experience heading into 2025. Injuries have stressed the Irish’s depth along the entire line in 2024, and with the team losing its best two linemen, adding help in the portal was vital.

Jared Dawson could walk into a starting role.

With Cross and Mills headed to the NFL, at least one starting role will be up for grabs, assuming Rubio doesn’t let go of his now that he has it. Dawson could step right into it, though he will have to earn it in spring ball. According to PFF, Dawson was Louisville’s fifth-highest-rated defensive player for the season, with a 79.7 grade. For comparison, Cross graded at 71.5 and Mills at 71.8.

Dawson was credited with five sacks on the season by PFF, although three came in Louisville’s first two games against Austin Peay and Jacksonville State. The other two came against Stanford and Boston College. From a grading perspective, he had one of his best games of the season against Notre Dame, though, with a game score of 83.0. His 85.1 against Jacksonville State was the only contest he graded out higher.

Dawson technically didn’t start this year for Louisville, but the Cardinals rotate their linemen more than most programs, and his snap count looks like that of a—arter – by the end of the season, he was logging close to 40 snaps per game. With Rubio more of a run-stuffer, Notre Dame needed pass-rushing help on the inside, and they got just that with Dawson.

Elijah Hughes added depth, maybe more.

Elijah Hughes comes to Notre Dame from archrival USC with two years of eligibility remaining (maybe three by the time all is said and done if the NCAA passes the proposed 5 years of eligibility rule) as a rare undergrad transfer for the Irish. He played as a reserve in his first two seasons with the Trojans and flashed some potential, but he will also need further development.

He had 2.5 TFL over his first two seasons and graded out relatively well in the 126 snaps he logged this year – most of which came in the second half of the season. He logged 17 snaps against the Irish in the regular season finale but didn’t register a tackle or pressure. PFF did credit him with two sacks (official stats 1.5) on the season. With some additional development, Hughes has all the tools to be a pass-rushing interior lineman for the Irish.

Hughes bulked up considerably between his freshman and sophomore seasons, packing on over 20 lbs. It will be interesting to see what he does this off-season now that he is in Loren Landow’s strength program. At a minimum, Hughes looks like a great depth addition with the upside of developing into an impactful pass rusher.