Notre Dame football: Two walk-on defensive linemen no longer with program
Walk-on Notre Dame defensive linemen Kobi Onyiuke and Quentin Autry are no longer with the program, a team spokesperson confirmed to Blue & Gold. Their names have been removed from the official roster.
Neither is expected to enter the transfer portal, according to the spokesperson.
Walk-ons around the nation are in flux, with 105-man roster limits potentially coming to college football. While it’s unclear whether Onyiuke and Autry’s exits are related to the impending House vs. NCAA settlement, Notre Dame is no exception.
“It’s going to be difficult, obviously, if you have to make some difficult decisions in terms of cutting your roster to 105,” Freeman said April 5. “It’s going to be difficult, because you care about every person in that room who has given everything they’ve got to Notre Dame. But we also know that could be a possibility.”
Freeman also added that he would not worry about cutting the roster down to 105 until if and when that number was finalized.
Onyiuke, a senior defensive end and vyper, played 61 in garbage time from Weeks 8-13 in 2024. He picked up 1 tackle.
Around that time, he became a valuable special teams contributor. Onyiuke played 55 snaps on special teams for the Irish, starting in Week 9. Nineteen of them came during the College Football Playoff. Onyiuke served as a personal protector on Notre Dame’s punt team during the CFP, and he contributed 42 snaps on kickoff coverage throughout the second half of the season.
Onyiuke had been with the program for three seasons, starting as a freshman in 2022, and at least the beginning of spring ball in 2025.
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Autry joined the Irish in 2024 as a graduate transfer from Columbia, where he totaled 18 tackles and a sack in 10 games in 2023. He missed the 2024 season with a shoulder injury, but he was a full participant in winter workouts and expected to do the same in spring practice.
Onyiuke and Autry are the third and fourth walk-ons to leave the Notre Dame football program in recent weeks. Long snapper Rino Monteforte and kicker Zac Yoakam entered the transfer portal this past Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
Two scholarship players — quarterback Steve Angeli and safety Kennedy Urlacher — have entered the portal in the spring window as well. Angeli’s next destination is undecided, while Urlacher committed to USC.
As of Monday, Notre Dame has 93 scholarship players and 22 walk-ons, for a total of 115. If that number needs to get down to 105, 10 more players — scholarship or walk-on — must leave the Irish one way or another by the start of the 2025 season.
