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Transfer portal: Former Notre Dame safety Kennedy Urlacher commits to USC

IMG_9992by:Tyler Horka•04/19/25•

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urlacher
Former Notre Dame safety Kennedy Urlacher. (Photo by Mike Miller)

Notre Dame’s annual rivalry game vs. USC just got a little more interesting. Former Fighting Irish safety Kennedy Urlacher is joining the Trojans via the transfer portal. On3’s Hayes Fawcett broke the news Saturday morning.

Urlacher was the first Notre Dame player to enter the portal when it opened Wednesday, April 16. He went in with a “do not contact” tag, which tends to mean a student-athlete has a pretty good idea of where he wants to go.

Former Notre Dame general manager Chad Bowden holds the same position at USC as of February. He was a major recruiting presence for the Irish for a handful of years. Many of the players like Urlacher who ended up in South Bend during the Marcus Freeman era could be traced back in some way to Bowden during the recruitment process.

How much Urlacher is on the field when the Trojans travel to South Bend on Oct. 18 remains an unanswered question. As a true freshman at Notre Dame, he only played 65 defensive snaps across all 16 of the Irish’s games. His individual defensive usage was spread across six games.

Urlacher, though, did log 110 special teams appearances. That amounted to the 11th most of any Notre Dame player all season. He was out there for 85 kickoffs, which tied for the second most kick coverage unit appearances of anyone in an Irish uniform.

Urlacher is the son of former Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher, an NFL and College Football Hall of Fame inductee. He’s getting closer to home; Urlacher attended Chandler (Ariz.) High School. He was a special teams warrior and hard-hitting safety there as well.

Notre Dame has plenty of players who buy into special teams via the culture that’s been set in the Freeman era, and the Irish are loaded with talent in the secondary, too. Urlacher’s upside would’ve been fun to monitor in South Bend but it’s not overly surprising he ended up somewhere like USC that has tended to need all of the defensive help it can get in recent seasons.

Last year, Notre Dame beat USC, 49-35, in Los Angeles in the final game of the regular season. Urlacher did not get on the field in a defensive capacity. He was out there for eight kickoffs and 5 punt returns. Those numbers could be significantly bumped up coming off the other sideline given the help USC needs in comparison to where Notre Dame is coming from.

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