Portal Season Beings for Notre Dame: Trio Enters Portal After Title Game Loss

Notre Dame did a remarkable job keeping everyone on the boat during the run to the national title game without a single member of the 2024 Fighting Irish entering the portal. It was inevitable that once their season ended, that would change. On Wednesday, a trio of Notre Dame reserves started the movement by entering the portal: wide receivers Jayden Thomas and Deion Colzie and offensive lineman Sam Pendleton. 

Sam Pendleton started the season in the starting lineup when the Irish went into Kyle Field and knocked off Texas A&M to start the season. He stayed there until the seventh game of the season when he was replaced by Rocco Spindler whom he beat in camp for the job.  Spindler jumped into the starting lineup when Billy Schrauth was injured against Purdue and seized the opportunity. Pendleton did not start again the rest of the season but did see action against Indiana when Spindler got hurt as well. 

Every offensive lineman who started the national championship game for Notre Dame has eligibility to return in 2025 which meant it would be an uphill battle for Pendleton to regain his spot in the starting line. He enters the portal with four years of eligibility remaining. 

Jayden Thomas scored a touchdown in Notre Dame’s win over Indiana but only logged more than 30 snaps twice this season – the regular season win over Georgia Tech and Notre Dame’s thrilling victory over Penn State in the Orange Bowl. Thomas entered 2023 looking like a primary option for the Irish passing attack, but an early season hamstring injury derailed his season and things never fully got back on track for the Georgia native. 

The emergence of Jaden Greathouse in the slot limited Thomas’s opportunities as did the addition of Beaux Collins on the boundary in 2024. Notre Dame added former Virginia Malachi Fields in the portal for 2025 as well.  Thomas entered the portal as a graduate transfer with one year of eligibility remaining. 

Deion Colzie enrolled at Notre Dame with Thomas, his fellow Georgia native, as a heralded recruit after a rollercoaster recruitment. He flashed promise at Notre Dame in 2022 as a sophomore with 9ninecatches for 192 yards but struggled to find any regular playing time in the wide receiver rotation since then. 

Colzie only logged more than 20 snaps twice this season – the blowout of Purdue and Senior Day against Virginia – and logged his only touchdown of the season against Florida State. Like Thomas, there wasn’t a clear path to playing time for Colzie in 2025, and he enters the portal with one year of eligibility remaining. 

There will likely be more additions to the portal from the Notre Dame roster now that the season has ended and players have exit interviews with the coaches and understand their opportunities for next season. None of today’s additions should be overly surprising to any Notre Dame fan with how the season played out. It is surprising that Pendleton’s season ended the way it did, however, given his meteoric rise in fall camp.

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