Notre Dame Football: Five to Watch in 2026 Season
By Stiofán Mac Fhilib
After making the National Championship Game in 2024, the 2025 season ended in crushing disappointment for Marcus Freeman and his Notre Dame team as they had to watch the playoffs unfold from the outside, despite being one of the Vegas favourites to win it all before the final playoff selection committee vote.
‘Leave no doubt’ is Freeman’s mantra for 2026 as the Irish embark upon what some would term a ‘revenge tour’. How well they fare in their most hyped season in over three decades will depend a lot on how the following five players perform.
The grandson of Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr, CJ, carried a clipboard for Riley Leonard en route to the 2024 CFB national championship game before assuming the signal-calling duties himself in 2025. By all accounts, there was very little in the competition between him and Kenny Minchey, who subsequently transferred to Kentucky, but Carr repaid Marcus Freeman’s judgment call with an impressive Redshirt Freshman season.
He completed two-thirds of his passes for over 2,700 yards and a 24-6 TD-INT ratio. With the best RB room in the game, he was not called upon to carry the team on his back, but with the improvement on the OL and in the WR room in 2026, expectations are sky-high this season. Notre Dame hasn’t had a Heisman Trophy winner since Tim Brown in 1987, nor a national championship since the following season. Both are fairly short odds for 2026 right now, thanks to the hype around Carr and his team.
After finishing 2025 as ND’s leading pass-catcher, you could be forgiven for forgetting that Faison began his football career with the Irish as a walk-on WR. And I say ‘football career’ as his primary focus at that time was starring on ND’s lacrosse team. He played an integral role in the Irish lifting the 2024 national championship in that sport, before giving it up to focus on catching footballs and improving his NFL draft stock.
He will primarily feature as ND’s X (field) WR, but can be moved to the Slot, and he is a danger both with his long speed and with the ball in his hands in space on screens and slants. With almost 100 career receptions, over 1,300 yards and 9 TDs, he will likely be CJ Carr’s favourite target this season. In a WR room that was significantly upgraded from 2025, that is a measure of his ability and his importance to the Irish offense and ND’s 2026 playoff hopes and dreams.
After redshirting his freshman year and then picking up a season-ending ACL injury five games into the 2024 season, the Boston, MA, native had an impressive 2025 campaign for Notre Dame, logging 37 total tackles, a team-leading 7.5 sacks and 1 forced fumble.
The Irish should have impressive depth at the position in 2026 with Bryce Young, Alabama transfer, Keon Keeley, and highly touted incoming Freshman, Rodney Dunham, all in the rotation. But Traore is the one with the highest ceiling in the coming season, and if he can play his way into high NFL draft contention, then that would augur very well for ND’s playoff hopes in 2026.
2026 will be the last time Irish fans will see the player Jeremiah Smith described as ‘probably the best (CB) I went against last year’ in blue and gold. In 2027, he’ll be playing on Sundays for a team with four or five wins this coming NFL season. Though it’s often difficult for fans watching on TV to see Notre Dame’s best Cornerback in the last 30 years, because opposing QBs so rarely throw in his direction.
His total tackles dropped by a third in his sophomore season as QBs kept away from him, but he still snagged five picks, including one for a TD. That he can effectively shut down one half of the field is a huge help for DC, Chris Ash, as is his ability to play in the slot when needed. Ash can match him up against an opponent’s best WR, no matter where they position themselves. He shut down USC’s Makai Lemon last year; he’ll doubtless be asked to do likewise to Malachi Toney when Miami visit ND in November.
At a school famed for its national recruiting, the Fort Wayne, Indiana, native is one of the very few on the Irish roster from within 100 miles of South Bend. He arrived in the same recruiting class as Texas native Leonard Moore, but redshirted his freshman season before a breakout campaign last year. He led the team in solo tackles (35), and his four INTs were second only to Moore himself.
He combines the athleticism of Kyle Hamilton with the ball-hawking instincts of Xavier Watts, and to be able to be legitimately compared to the two best Irish Safeties in the last decade is no mean feat. If he continues to rise towards his ceiling in 2026, not only will Notre Dame have the best Safety tandem in CFB (alongside Adon Shuler), but Johnson could also hear his name called in Washington, DC, on a Thursday evening next April.
STIOFÁN MAC FHILIB
COLLEGE FOOTBALL ANALYST
A VERY LONG-DISTANCE SUBWAY ALUMNUS OF NOTRE DAME, COUNTY ANTRIM-BASED STIOFÁN HAS BEEN A FAN OF THE FIGHTING IRISH SINCE 2000. FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER @SMACFHILIB.