Notre Dame placekicker ready to leave his mark after graduate transfer

As Blake Grupe moved around the Notre Dame indoor practice facility last week during his first chance to meet with the local Irish football media, the 5-foot-8, 150-pound, graduate student looked more like a team manager than a player who will get a shot this spring to become the Irish’s new starting placekicker with Jonathan Doerer graduated and gone after three seasons in the role. 

But what Grupe lacks in size, he plenty makes up for in confidence, poise and performance history. Grupe recently arrived at Notre Dame as a graduate transfer from Arkansas State where he became a four-year starter and the school’s all-time scoring leader with 354 career points.

After converting 20 of 25 field goals and 31 of 32 extra points for the Red Wolves as a fifth-year senior in 2021, Grupe was looking for a fresh start and greater challenges. He explained how Notre Dame was the perfect fit, even if he had never been on campus prior to his sudden relocation. 

Grupe entered his name into the transfer portal on Jan. 10, Notre Dame contacted him on Jan. 11. His transfer plans were made official on Jan. 13, and he was on campus to start spring semester classes on Jan. 18.

“There were other schools that reached out but after Notre Dame reaches out, there is no reason to even talk to anybody else,” Grupe explained of his easy transfer decision. “It was over after that. They offered a scholarship and I was packing my stuff and heading to South Bend.”

Will Grupe start this fall?

With Doerer out the door, Grupe will compete through the spring and preseason with rising Irish sophomore Josh Bryan for starting placekicking duties in 2022. 

Bryan, the only other scholarship placekicker on the Irish roster and one of the top-rated high school players at his position in the 2021 recruiting class, kicked an extra point last season in a 55-0 rout of Georgia Tech. 

Grupe explained that having an opportunity to serve as an impactful bridge player to help ease youth and inexperience anxiousness at a program topped his consideration criteria, and after losing Doerer, Notre Dame fit perfectly.

“This sixth year is kind of a bonus year, essentially,” explained Grupe, who arrived at Arkansas State as a walk-on, prior to becoming a starter and scholarship holder. “You have to find a good place, a good fit for you. It makes no sense to leave where you’re at to go to a spot to where you’re really going to have to fight and claw just to play.”

And when asked what else Notre Dame can expect from its newcomer? 

“They’re going to get a guy who has been there and done that,” said Grupe, who appeared in every game for Arkansas State over the last four seasons and converted a career-long 50-yard field goal last season. “They’re going to get a guy who is not afraid of the moment, that does all of the preparation to have success. They’re going to get a guy who is ready to go out there and play with my teammates.”

A second-team All-Sun Belt Conference selection last season, Grupe actually enjoyed his best season with the Red Wolves in 2019 when he converted 19 of 22 field goals and 53 of 54 extra points, became a first-team all-league selection and was a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award, given annually to the nation’s best placekicker. 

Hoosier family ties to Notre Dame relocation

Small stature aside, Grupe comes from athletic lineage, with deep Hoosier roots. 

Grupe’s mother grew up in Marion, Ind., where she won an Indiana high school state championships in all-around gymnastics. Grupe’s grandfather played baseball at Indiana University, and Grupe’s aunt played basketball at Ball State.

Grupe’s parents met as students at Southeast Missouri State, where his mother was a gymnast and his father played soccer and football. 

From transfer portal entry on Jan. 10, to new surroundings about a week later, things are happening fast for Blake Grupe. 

But he’s handling all of it with a genuine smile and an ease the Irish coaches had to appreciate when they offered him a graduate scholarship to compete for a starting spot.

Grupe is enrolled in three graduate classes — Notre Dame and America being one of those — “I wanted to make sure and get some history of Notre Dame,” he said. 

Fittingly, Grupe shares an off-campus house with another Notre Dame graduate transfer, safety Brandon Joseph from Northwestern, and senior Michael Vinson, the Irish long snapper who’s already established himself as the king of the kitchen. 

“Blake likes to take a lot of naps, especially after he eats,” Vinson joked about his new roommate. “He’s kind of a smaller guy. We’re trying to give him a lot of food, but I kind of put him into a little bit of a food coma. He’s sitting in the recliner and he takes a nice little nap.” 

There’s something to be said for a placekicker without a pulse.