Meet the eight Notre Dame transfer portal additions for the 2025 season

Notre Dame added four commitments from the transfer portal in December and four more in January.

Blue & Gold provides info on each of the incoming transfers below (in chronological order from the newest pledge to the oldest).

Virginia Tech S Jalen Stroman

Height: 6-1
Weight: 198
Hometown: Bristow, Va.
Commitment date: Jan. 12, 2025
Transfer portal entry date: Dec. 9, 2024
Eligibility: One year

Notre Dame loses superstar Xavier Watts to the NFL, and it appears the Irish have his replacement. Stroman has registered career 111 tackles across 36 games, including 55 solo stops, 2 tackles for loss, 4 pass break ups, and 2 forced fumbles. Stroman had a strong junior season for the Hokies and started seven of 11 games he played in, but in the season opener in 2024, he suffered a collarbone injury against Vanderbilt which sidelined him for the rest of the season.

Stroman used his redshirt year for 2024, leaving him with one season remaining. Stroman played in double digit contests in each of his first three seasons of college football. The 2023 campaign was his best year, posting 55 tackles (24 solo), 2 tackles for loss, 4 pass break ups and a quarterback hurry. He had a career-high 14 stops against Purdue Sept. 9, 2023.

USC DL Elijah Hughes

Height: 6-3
Weight: 294
Hometown: Arlington, Va.
Commitment date: Jan. 11, 2025
Transfer portal entry date: Dec. 17, 2024
Eligibility: Two years

Hughes hasn’t played his best football yet; the Fighting Irish staff is really excited by this interior defensive lineman. He’s a rare underclassmen addition for Notre Dame as a former class of 2023 prospect who spent his first two seasons at USC. He played in 15 games for USC across two seasons with the Trojans. Hughes had three tackles for loss, including 1.5 sacks, during his two seasons there. He played in just seven games for the Trojans in 2024, recording 6 tackles and 1 sack.

North Carolina K Noah Burnette

Height: 5-10
Weight: 174
Hometown: Raleigh, N.C.
Commitment date: Jan. 11, 2025
Transfer portal entry date: Dec. 12, 2024
Eligibility: One year

For a fourth year in a row, Notre Dame is going to the transfer portal for a kicker. Burnette is playing a sixth year of college football, and he’ll do it in South Bend. He’s made 49 career field goals (fourth most in UNC school history) with a 79 percent success rate in 37 career games. Burnette will enroll at Notre Dame for the spring semester and is expected to handle the kicking duties for the 2025 season.

His best season was 2023 when he made 19 of 20 attempts and had a long of 48. He redshirted in 2020 and did not record any statistics for the Tar Heels in 2021. He’s been North Carolina’s kicker for the past three seasons, though, and he’s made over 70 percent of his field goals each season. In 2022, he made 15 of 21 attempts with a long of 47. He had the same make and attempt numbers in 2024 but with a long of 52. He’s only had two kicks blocked in his career. Burnette was named to the Second-Team All-ACC, AP Second-Team All ACC and All-ACC Academic teams in 2023.

Louisville DL Jared Dawson

Height: 6-1
Weight: 302
Hometown: Collierville, Tenn.
Commitment date: Jan. 11, 2025
Transfer portal entry date: Dec. 14, 2024
Eligibility: One year

It was crucial for Notre Dame to add an instant impact 300-pounder for the interior of its defensive line, and the Irish are getting just that in Dawson. The sixth-year senior will immediately help a group that loses key players Rylie Mills and Howard Cross III.

In 2022, Dawson played in all 12 games for Louisville as a reserve defensive tackle, posting 16 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 1 forced fumble and 2.5 sacks on the year. In 2023, his role was similar as a depth player and had 12 tackles, 3 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks in 10 games. During the 2024 campaign, Dawson suited up in 10 games and had 19 stops, 6.5 tackles for loss, 4 sacks and 1 forced fumble. He can play a sixth year by taking advantage of a redshirt and the 2020 season not counting towards eligibility due to COVID-19.

Arkansas TE Ty Washington

Height: 6-4
Weight: 247
Hometown: Leesburg, Ga.
Commitment date: Dec. 25, 2024
Transfer portal entry date: Dec. 9, 2024
Eligibility: Two years

Notre Dame added depth to its tight end room with Washington, who wasn’t overly productive at Arkansas but has two years of eligibility left to play in South Bend. In three years and 21 games played with the Razorbacks, Washington caught 14 passes for 212 yards and 4 touchdowns. His best season was his redshirt freshman year in 2023, when he hauled in 11 receptions for 170 yards and 2 scores.

Washington was used primarily as a run blocker in 2024. The Leesburg, Ga. native played 116 snaps, 37 on pass plays and 79 on run plays, according to Pro Football Focus. Washington was dismissed from the Arkansas team in October due to a “violation of team rules” per Razorbacks head coach Sam Pittman. Click here for more information on that story.

Wisconsin WR Will Pauling

Height: 5-10
Weight: 190
Hometown: Chicago, Ill.
Commitment date: Dec. 24, 2024
Transfer portal entry date: Dec. 17, 2024
Eligibility: One year

Pauling is on his third stop during his collegiate career, and when he suits up for the Fighting Irish this fall, he’ll have had Mike Brown as his position coach at a third university. Pauling signed with the Bearcats out of high school and played for Cincinnati in 2021 and 2022 and at Wisconsin in 2023. He remained a Badger in 2024 even after Brown took the Notre Dame job, but he has followed his former position coach to South Bend for his final year of eligibility.

Pauling has 129 catches, 1,372 yards and 9 touchdowns in his career. His breakout season came as a redshirt sophomore in 2022 when he accumulated 74 receptions, 837 yards and 6 touchdowns. Pauling brings the ability to play in the slot or to the field in Notre Dame’s offense.

Virginia WR Malachi Fields

Height: 6-4
Weight: 220
Hometown: Charlottesville, Va.
Commitment date: Dec. 23, 2024
Transfer portal entry date: Dec. 17, 2024
Eligibility: One year

Notre Dame gets a No. 1 wide receiver in Fields, who picked the Fighting Irish over Penn State out of the portal. Fields is attended the same high school and is from the same hometown as Irish receivers coach Mike Brown, a connection that surely helped Notre Dame land the talented boundary receiver who has totaled 129 career catches for 1,849 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Fields hauled in 55 passes for 808 yards and 5 touchdowns this past season, following a 58-catch, 811-yard, 5-score campaign in 2023. He strongly considered entering the NFL Draft before deciding to enter the transfer portal.

Alabama CB Devonta Smith

Height: 6-0
Weight: 194
Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio
Commitment date: Dec. 14, 2024
Transfer portal entry date: Dec. 16, 2024
Eligibility: One year

Make it three straight years of Notre Dame landing a portal player at the nickel position. The Irish grabbed Oklahoma State’s Thomas Harper in 2023 and Arizona State’s Jordan Clark in 2024, and it’ll be Alabama’s Smith for the upcoming season.

Smith started all 12 games for Alabama in 2024 — his first year as a full-time defensive contributor — and finished the season with 30 tackles, a forced fumble and 5 passes defended before entering the transfer portal on Saturday. He excels in coverage, allowing 19 receptions on 29 targets this past season for 123 yards (4.2 yards per attempt) and zero touchdowns this past season. Smith was a heavy contributor on special teams as a freshman in 2021 and a sophomore in 2022 at Alabama before missing most of his junior season in 2023 due to injury.