Three Years In, Notre Dame’s Armel Mukam Is Ready to Break Through

Armel Mukam entered the transfer portal. Then he came back to Notre Dame. Asked at the end of fall camp what made this the right fit, the senior defensive lineman did not spend long on it.

“You know, always loved Notre Dame, loved the locker room, loved the coaching staff,” Mukam said. “So, you know, for me it was easy to just come back home, and obviously when you hire someone like Coach Partridge, who has a ton of expertise and has coached up a lot of players at the highest level, it just made it even easier for me to come back home.”

Why Notre Dame Still Fit

Charlie Partridge, hired off the Indianapolis Colts staff to coach the defensive line, is the new voice in a room whose players are a mix of portal additions and players who have been in this program for years. Mukam is not new to anything here. He arrived as a project edge rusher and now plays inside. Getting from there to where he is now took a bit longer than he probably would have hoped, but he was always more of a developmental player versus and an instant impact one.

“I mean, it’s been a hard transition,” Mukam said. “I’ve been playing D-tackle now for three years. So, I would say it took me three years to get the gist of it, you know, change and transform my body in order to be able to sustain the double teams and the blocks inside. But, you know, I’m happy I made the transition and, it’s been a fun journey thus far.”

The payoff is only arriving now, with Wisconsin waiting at Lambeau Field in Week 1 and Mukam firmly in the rotation inside.

Three Years Inside

Mukam spent his first two years on the scout team before the snaps ever came. He had five tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss last season, four tackles in 2024, and 11 tackles across his career.

“Yeah, I think you come in as a freshman, you know, obviously you expect to play, and then, you know, you get put on scout team, year one, year two scout team,” Mukam said. “Coach Freeman always talks about delayed gratification, and I think it’s something I truly had to embrace. You know, putting my head down, working, waiting for my opportunity, but while you wait, you have to work, and I think that’s exactly what I did. And I’m hoping that it’s going to pay off in the next couple of years.”

Freeman talks about delayed gratification constantly. Mukam reached for the phrase without being asked and applied it to two years of scout team, which is what happens when a player has been in a program long enough to describe his own career in the coach’s vocabulary.

Camp Growth on the Interior

The camp reports on Mukam have centered on his work in the interior, and he credited the work he does every day against the other side of the ball.

“I think having great teammates, like I said, a good position coach, and playing against the best O-line in the country every single day; you’re bound to get better,” he said. “But like I said, the locker room and my guys in the room are just asking for the best of me every single day. We just push each other, and I think that’s what makes us a great team.”

Chris Ash, back for a second season as defensive coordinator, was asked how the defensive line has grown over camp.

“Yeah, I would say the chemistry of the group has been exceptional,” Ash said. “They really have bonded together. I think the players and Coach Partridge have invested a lot of time to get to know each other.”

Mukam pointed to the same room from the inside. “I think just more buy-in for the whole defense,” he said. “You know, we met more on the system. I think the guys are understanding more what Coach Ash wants out of us. So, yeah, I think the guys are just more bought in. We have more walkthroughs, more meeting times, and I think it’s going to make a difference this year.”

Mukam has waited three years to be in the position he is now – firmly entrenched in the rotation at defensive tackle. He’s been running with the first unit at times in camp, but regardless of who starts, Mukam is going to see more snaps this year than any time in his career. Freeman said last week the Irish are almost three deep on the inside of the defensive line, and Mukam is a major component of that. Next week we should get to see the fruits of all of his labor when the Irish open the season in Lambeau Field against Wisconsin.