In change of plans, Maryland grad transfer OL Mason Lunsford will not visit Notre Dame
Notre Dame was apparently not done examining transfer additions to the 2023 roster, to the point where it scheduled a March 3-5 visit to host Maryland grad transfer guard Mason Lunsford. The Irish and Lunsford are moving on, though, and scrapping the trip.
Lunsford will not visit this weekend, a source told BlueandGold.com Tuesday. It’s a reversal of the plans he tweeted Monday afternoon. He was set to arrive Friday and leave Sunday.
Notre Dame’s initial interest in Lunsford made sense on paper because of his experience. He started 23 games at left guard for Maryland from 2021-22. He had a Pro Football Focus overall grade of 64.6 in 2022 and 63.7 in 2021. His pass protection in 2022 was his best work. He allowed zero sacks and 9 pressures in 11 games last season, an improvement from 4 sacks and 16 pressures in 2021. He has two seasons to play at his next stop.
The 6-foot-7, 305-pound Lunsford quickly became a coveted recruit upon entering the portal Feb. 18. He has reported offers from Arkansas, Buffalo, Charlotte, Houston, James Madison, Louisville, LSU and Tulane. If Notre Dame offered, though, he never announced it. The LSU offer is his most recent one. Arkansas hired Dan Enos, his offensive coordinator at Maryland the last two years, to the same position in January. He told BlueandGold.com he has a visit to Arkansas set after his trip to Notre Dame and is scheduling one to see LSU.
Lunsford signed with Maryland in the 2019 class out of Olney (Md.) Good Counsel, where he was teammates with Notre Dame cornerback Cam Hart. He was the No. 1,418 player in the class, according to the retroactively applied On3 Industry Ranking.
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The initial news of Lunsford’s visit comes on the same day that Notre Dame identified its next offensive line coach. The Irish are expected to hire Joe Rudolph, who held the same title at Virginia Tech last year and spent 2015-21 in that job at Wisconsin.
Rudolph inherits a Notre Dame offensive line that lost starting guards Jarrett Patterson and Josh Lugg. It returns junior-to-be tackles Joe Alt and Blake Fisher for what could be their final seasons before declaring for the NFL Draft, as well as rising fifth-year senior center Zeke Correll.
The internal options to replace the guards start with grad student Andrew Kristofic, junior Rocco Spindler and sophomore Billy Schrauth. Kristofic has started eight games in his career, and Schrauth drew effusive praise from teammates for his performance during the fall. The Irish not seriously pursuing a guard transfer earlier in the offseason seemed to suggest they were comfortable moving forward with those options. Ending pursuit of Lunsford does too.
As it stands, Notre Dame has 94 scholarship players on the 2023 roster. That’s nine above the 85-man limit that the Irish must reach by the first day of fall classes.
This story has been updated.
