fall camp Position Battles on offense

Notre Dame is 42 days from kicking off its 2026 season against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field, and for the first time in Marcus Freeman's tenure, fall camp won't be defined by a quarterback competition. CJ Carr locked down the job a year ago and started all 12 games as a true freshman. But the absence of drama at quarterback doesn't mean fall camp will be quiet. Several other spots on this offense are wide open, and the players fighting for them have already left a data trail this spring worth digging into.

Running Back: A Crowded Room With a Wild Card

Junior Aneyas Williams enters fall camp as the presumptive lead back, and the numbers back up why. Over two seasons behind Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price, Williams has piled up 58 carries for 443 yards, 20 catches for 212 yards and seven total touchdowns, a career average north of 7.5 yards per carry. His 2025 season alone saw him rush for 224 yards and five touchdowns on 24 carries, a 9.3 yards-per-carry average, to go with two catches for 40 yards. He backed that up this spring: despite being limited for most of camp by an elbow injury, Williams led the team in rushing at the Blue-Gold Game and found the end zone, then followed it up with 38 yards on 10 carries, a touchdown and three catches out of the backfield in the spring finale.

The real intrigue is what happens behind him. Redshirt sophomore Kedren Young was a top-100 recruit out of Lufkin, Texas, and looked like a potential difference-maker as a true freshman before a torn ACL wiped out his entire 2025 season. As of late March, Young was seven months into recovery, had just begun running again and was targeting a return to game shape by summer workouts. Position coach Ja'Juan Seider has been careful with his timeline, but the belief inside the building is that a healthy Young could push Williams for the top job rather than settle for a complementary role. Some evaluators see his combination of size, power and explosiveness as the element capable of pushing this running back room from good to excellent if he's fully healthy.

Behind those two, the picture is murkier. In that same Blue-Gold Game, true freshman Jonaz Walton emerged as a legitimate factor, rushing for 33 yards on 11 carries with a touchdown of his own, with Williams and Walton combining for the bulk of the workload. Redshirt freshman Nolan James Jr. and newcomer Javian Osborne round out a room that is as deep as it is unsettled, meaning fall camp reps could carry real consequences for who's active on gamedays.

Boundary Receiver: Size and Pedigree, But No Clear Leader

With Malachi Fields gone, Notre Dame is turning to a boundary receiver competition built almost entirely around transfer talent and physical upside. Ohio State transfer Quincy Porter arrives as a former five-star recruit who was rated the No. 13 overall player nationally and the No. 2 receiver in the 2025 class, and at 6-foot-4 with a rare wingspan, he profiles exactly like the boundary target Notre Dame's staff covets. His production at Ohio State was limited by the depth chart, not lack of talent: he played roughly 57 offensive snaps as a freshman behind Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate and Brandon Inniss, one of the most talented receiver rooms in the country, finishing with four catches for 59 yards. Notably, Smith himself, one of the best receivers in college football, called Porter the "next one" at Ohio State before Porter ever left Columbus.

Redshirt sophomores Micah Gilbert and Cam Williams round out the competition, and while their spring production hasn't generated the same buzz, both have the size and physical tools the staff wants at the position. Given the uncertainty, offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock may lean toward a rotation rather than naming a clear-cut starter, which would make fall camp less about crowning a No. 1 and more about establishing snap share.

Slot Receiver: A Battle Shaped by Availability as Much as Ability

Few storylines are as tied to injury history as the slot receiver competition between Jaden Greathouse and Ohio State transfer Mylan Graham. Greathouse was electric during Notre Dame's 2024 College Football Playoff run, but 2025 was almost entirely lost to a hamstring injury: he played in only a handful of games and finished with just four receptions for 73 yards on the year, a steep drop from his 2024 season total of 43 catches for 576 yards and three touchdowns.

That opening is exactly what Graham capitalized on. A former five-star recruit who saw limited playing time in two years at Ohio State, Graham arrived at Notre Dame and, due to Greathouse's lingering hamstring issue, became the No. 1 slot receiver throughout spring practice, quickly turning into a go-to target for CJ Carr. Scouting notes from the spring were also quick to push back on a perceived weakness from his Ohio State tape: the drop issues some had flagged around Graham simply didn't show up this spring, as he looked like a sure-handed receiver throughout camp. That performance has fueled real hype that Graham could emerge as Notre Dame's top overall receiver in 2026, not just its top slot option.

Greathouse, for his part, is healthy again and has taken on more of a leadership role in the receiver room this offseason. But until he proves he can stay on the field for a full season, an uncomfortable question hangs over the position: is this actually a two-man competition, or is it Graham's job to lose?

Tight End: One Certainty, Four Question Marks

Redshirt junior Cooper Flanagan looks like the only true lock at any offensive skill position outside quarterback and running back. Flanagan missed almost all of 2025 recovering from an Achilles injury, but before that, he was already establishing himself as one of Notre Dame's best run-blocking tight ends, having played 262 snaps across 13 games in 2024, mostly as a blocker, and graded out by Pro Football Focus as one of the team's highest-rated run blockers over Notre Dame's final four games of that season.

With Eli Raridon off to the NFL, the receiving production at tight end is now up for grabs, and recent Notre Dame history suggests it's realistic for someone in this room to break out. Analysts have pointed to a clear pattern: Notre Dame tight ends have historically taken a modest role in year one before erupting the following season, as Raridon himself went from 11 catches for 90 yards and two touchdowns in 2024 to 32 receptions for 482 yards in 2025. Flanagan is the most likely candidate to follow that path in the run game, but the pass-catching questions are wide open behind him. Redshirt freshman James Flanigan flashed as a blocker last season but has yet to record his first collegiate catch, Arkansas transfer Ty Washington profiles as more of a steady depth option, and true freshman Ian Premer and Jack Larsen give the staff even more bodies to evaluate. Fall camp will likely determine less "who starts" and more "who earns the No. 2 tight end reps behind Flanagan.

Backup Quarterback: No Snaps, No Certainty

There's no competition atop the quarterback depth chart, marking the first time in Freeman's tenure Notre Dame enters a season with an established returning starter. But the No. 2 job is a legitimate three-way battle between redshirt freshman Blake Hebert and true freshmen Noah Grubbs and Teddy Jarrard, none of whom has thrown a competitive pass in college. Hebert did get spring game reps, connecting on an 8-yard touchdown pass during the Blue-Gold Game, giving him a small but real head start over the two true freshmen heading into camp. But Grubbs made his own case this spring, flashing some genuinely impressive throws mixed in with the expected freshman miscues. That combination of upside and inconsistency is exactly what you'd expect from a true freshman, but it's also enough to suggest he'll have a real shot at pushing Hebert for the No. 2 job once fall camp begins. It's an unusual dynamic: the most consequential backup quarterback battle of Freeman's tenure so far, decided entirely without a single game snap to lean on for any of the three competitors.

The Bottom Line

Without a quarterback competition to dominate headlines, this year's fall camp battles are more spread out, but arguably carry just as much weight for how Notre Dame's offense will look in September. The running back room has its floor set with Williams but a real ceiling if Young returns to form. The receiver competitions are shaped almost entirely by two Ohio State transfers who are already outproducing expectations. And the tight end room has its anchor in Flanagan, but no clarity behind him. All of it will get sorted out over the next six weeks, and how it shakes out will go a long way toward determining whether Notre Dame's offense takes a step forward or take a step back from a 2025 team that fell just short of the Playoff.