ND picked up a player this week, as Pat Kuntz and Will Yeatman rejoined the Irish, while Aaron Nagel has decided to transfer.

Kuntz’s return, though still ‘unofficial’, is huge for the Irish. On an extremely thin DL, Kuntz will be a senior leader. Despite a lot of talented reinforcements coming in with the incoming freshman class, this team needs Pat Kuntz. We’re glad to hear that he’s back on campus, and we expect Pat to make opposing QB’s pay regularly from the DE position while Ian Williams should be the Irish starting NT.

Yeatman’s return is good news as well, bringing back more experience at a position where there’s plenty of talent. It will be interesting to see if Luke Schmidt stays at TE, as the position is 5-deep with some serious incoming talent in frosh Joe Fauria and Kyle Rudolph.

On the flip side, Aaron Nagel’s transfer is a bummer, man.

Aaron was one of the earliest commits in his recruiting class (2nd in the class I think) and is a great kid. He came out of High School with a 4.4 GPA and was, to a tee, a “Notre Dame man”. But, Aaron wants to play. And I don’t blame him. He’s been stuck at #3 in the depth chart for a while at his inside linebacker position, and ND has some serious talent coming in this Fall in the frosh class. I think Aaron saw the writing on the wall, and has decided that he has a much better chance to play elsewhere. It doesn’t appear that this has soured the relationship with ND or Coach Weis, at least according to Aaron’s father.

“Coach Weis is a stand-up guy,” the elder Nagel said. “He said he thinks it’s a mistake. He thinks Aaron showed a lot this year…But Aaron said, ‘Coach, I’ve made up my mind.’ He wanted an opportunity to compete for the second (linebacker) position, and he didn’t really get a chance.”

“Charlie’s a good guy,” Ron Nagel continued, adding that he and Aaron will both remain fans of Notre Dame. “I think he’s very misunderstood by a lot of people…I don’t blame Charlie Weis.”

Aaron handled this like a man, for which he gets his due respect. Best of luck to you Aaron. Wherever you end up, you’ll have a few fans here at HLS.

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