Notre Dame guard Sam Pendleton enters NCAA transfer portal
Notre Dame’s first player to enter the transfer portal after the national championship game is sophomore guard Sam Pendleton, On3’s Pete Nakos has learned.
He has three years of eligibility remaining and is in the portal with a “do not contact” tag, according to Nakos. This likely means he knows where he’s going.
Pendleton started Notre Dame’s Week 1 win over Texas A&M, earning the left guard role in a surprising fall camp development. He won the job over two seniors in Pat Coogan and Rocco Spindler, who had both started double-digit games in 2023.
“The type of toughness and lead by example, physicality, kind of that aura that you want surrounding your offensive line, I think [Pendleton] embodies that very well,” Irish offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said at the time. “And [he] kind of helps bring that to the other guys on the line, if you will, along with those other two guys that are out playing on the inside.”
The three-star prospect out of Pfafftown (N.C.) Reagan had played just 15 snaps in 2023, but he impressed in preseason practices and the Irish gave him a shot on the big stage. He held his own in College Station, Texas, making the key block on junior running back Jadarian Price‘s 47-yard touchdown run.
However, a season-ending knee injury to junior center Ashton Craig and a several-week ankle injury to junior guard Billy Schrauth forced Coogan and Spindler into the lineup by Week 4. Both of them played the best football of their career. When Schrauth returned in Week 9 at Navy, Coogan remained at center and Spindler remained at right guard, where Schrauth had previously played. Schrauth moved over to left guard.
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Pendleton, after starting the season’s first seven games, went back to the bench.
According to Pro Football Focus, Pendleton received above-average grades of 63.2 overall, 64.0 as a run blocker and 65.9 as a pass blocker this season. He allowed 6 quarterback pressures, including just 4 in the games he started. However, PFF agreed with Notre Dame’s coaching staff that Coogan and Spindler had played better, with grades in the 70s.
Moving forward, Pendleton was likely going to be a victim of a crowded interior offensive line room. In addition to Schrauth almost certainly coming back, Coogan and Spindler potentially doing the same and Craig returning to full health, the Irish could move one of freshman Anthonie Knapp or sophomore Charles Jagusah — who started games at left tackle this season — to guard.
Of those six, only four can start (Aamil Wagner should remain the right tackle). By the end of the 2024-25 season, Pendleton was buried behind all six on the depth chart.
Pendleton is the first portal entry out of Notre Dame following its national championship loss to Ohio State, but he will not be the last. Stay tuned to Blue & Gold as several more players say goodbye to South Bend in the coming days.
