Portal Roundup: Former Notre Dame walk-on Zac Yoakam commits to Houston

The latest round of portal-mania is underway.

The spring transfer portal window for FBS football players opened Wednesday and will remain open through Friday, April 25. Players wishing to transfer will need to enter during that window but don't have a deadline for choosing their transfer destination.

Inside ND Sports will use this Portal Roundup to track all of Notre Dame's outgoing and incoming transfer from the 2025 spring window. Click here for the portal roundup from this past winter.

A condensed version with all the 2024-25 offseason movement can be found in our Notre Dame Football Transfer Portal Tracker. Our 2025 scholarship chart can also be a useful tool to see what Notre Dame still has on its roster.

Rivals also has a National Transfer Tracker with rankings of players who entered the portal.

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The last two season of college eligibility remaining for Zac Yoakam will begin at Houston.

The former Notre Dame kicker, who was a walk-on for the Irish, announced Thursday his commitment to complete a graduate transfer to Houston. It's unclear if Yoakam will be on scholarship with the Cougars.

The 5-foot-8, 196-pound Yoakam entered the transfer portal in mid-April. He finished his Notre Dame career 2-of-5 on field goals and 20-of-20 on extra points.

Yoakam started his Notre Dame career as its kickoff specialist during his freshman season. He didn't hold onto that starting position in the two seasons since then. He finished with 81 kickoffs and 52 touchbacks in a Notre Dame uniform.

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Steve Angeli needed less than a week to find his transfer portal destination. It’s one that could lead to him playing against Notre Dame twice in his final two seasons of eligibility.

Angeli, who will graduate from Notre Dame in May, announced Wednesday he signed to transfer to Syracuse. Angeli entered the transfer portal Thursday and made a visit to Syracuse earlier this week.

Notre Dame will host Syracuse on Nov. 22 for its final home game of the season, which is typically Senior Day. Syracuse is scheduled to host Notre Dame in 2026, but a date for that game in JMA Wireless Dome has not yet been announced. Angeli will be eligible to play in both of those games, because he redshirted as a freshman in 2022.

Syracuse quarterbacks coach Nunzio Campanile is the brother of Vito Campanile, who was Angeli’s head coach at Oradell (N.J.) Bergen Catholic. Nunzio Campanile coached Ohio State transfer quarterback Kyle McCord last season, which resulted in McCord completing 66.0% of his passes (391-of-592) for 4,779 yards and 34 touchdowns with 12 interceptions. Syracuse finished 10-3 last season under first-year head coach Fran Brown.

Syracuse previously added former LSU quarterback Rickie Collins in December after he spent two seasons as a backup under head coach Brian Kelly. Angeli should be the favorite to win the starting position for the Orange in the fall.

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Long snapper Rino Monteforte spent three seasons with Notre Dame football as a walk-on player. His transfer portal entrance last week led him to a scholarship to continue playing at California.

Monteforte announced his transfer commitment to Cal on Tuesday. He entered the portal as a graduate transfer on Wednesday. Monteforte is set to graduate from Notre Dame next month.

The 5-foot-7, 209-pound Monteforte served as Notre Dame's long snapper on field goals and extra points in all 16 games last season. But the Irish pushed sophomore-to-be Joseph Vinci, who finished last season as Notre Dame's long snapper on punts, ahead of Monteforte on field goals/extra points this spring.

The days of Kennedy Urlacher playing in Notre Dame Stadium aren't over after all, it appears.

The former Irish safety, who entered the transfer portal this past Wednesday on the first day of the 10-day spring window, has solidified his landing spot, ND's arch-rival, USC. That puts the 5-11, 197-pound sophomore-to-be on track to return to South Bend for an Oct. 18 matchup between the Irish and the Trojans.

The son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher played in 14 games as a freshman in 2024 for the Irish (14-2), primarily on special teams, and totaled 12 tackles. He'll have three years of eligibility with the Trojans.

Notre Dame's quarterback competition gained a little bit of clarity Thursday when Steve Angeli entered the transfer portal. Angeli, who will graduate from Notre Dame in May, entered the portal with two seasons of eligibility remaining.

Angeli played in 21 games in three seasons at Notre Dame, which included one start in the 2023 Sun Bowl. Angeli completed 58 of his 80 pass attempts (72.5%) for 772 yards and 10 touchdowns with one interception.

Angeli was battling sophomore-to-be CJ Carr and junior-to-be Kenny Minchey for Notre Dame's starting spot heading into the 2025 season.

Click here for a full story on Steve Angeli.

Zac Yoakam’s career at Notre Dame was defined by filling in when needed.

The preferred walk-on from Upper Arlington, Ohio, became Notre Dame’s kickoff specialist as a freshman in 2022 after an injury prevented fellow freshman Bryce McFerson, who was on scholarship, from fulfilling the role he won. Yoakam held onto the kickoff job the rest of the season before falling back into a reserve role each of the past two seasons, though he still had moments in the spotlight.

Yoakam will be looking to continue his kicking career elsewhere after announcing Thursday his plan to enter the transfer portal. Yoakam, who is set to graduate in May, has two seasons of eligibility remaining.

Yoakam finished his freshman season as Notre Dame’s kickoff specialist with 49 touchbacks on 78 kickoffs and an average of 62.8 yards per kick. Yoakam made just two game appearances as a sophomore in 2023. He kicked the final extra points in blowout wins over Tennessee State and Pittsburgh and kicked three touchbacks on three kickoffs in the two games combined.

When starting kicker Mitch Jeter suffered an injury in 2024, Yoakam was thrust into action again. This time Yoakam wasn’t asked to perform kickoffs. That role went to Eric Goins instead. Yoakam was asked to fill in on field goals and extra points. Though he was perfect on 15 extra points in a three-game stretch in October, he made only half of his field goal attempts with makes from 42 and 32 yards and misses from 46 and 36.

Yoakam finished his Notre Dame career 2-of-5 on field goals and 20-of-20 on extra points.

Without Yoakam, Notre Dame still has two kickers who participated with the Irish this spring: projected starter Noah Burnette, a graduate transfer from North Carolina, and walk-on Marcello Diomede, who will be a junior in the fall. The Irish also recruited Erik Schmidt as a scholarship kicker/punter in the 2025 class. The fourth-ranked kicker in the country, per Rivals, will join Notre Dame’s roster in June.

The three players at the heart of Notre Dame's field goal/extra point unit will be different than last season. Kicker Mitch Jeter and holder Chris Salerno wrapped up their college careers following the 2024 season. Now long snapper Rino Monteforte will likely leave Notre Dame after entering the transfer portal Wednesday.

Monteforte, who's set to graduate from Notre Dame in May, will have two seasons of eligibility remaining after transferring. The 5-foot-7, 209-pound snapper joined Notre Dame's program in 2022 as a preferred walk-on.

Monteforte snapped in all 16 games for the Irish last season on field goals or extra points. But the Irish appeared ready to move on without Monteforte this spring. Joseph Vinci, who became Notre Dame's long snapper on punts in late October last season as a freshman, has been working with holder Anthony Rezac and kicker Noah Burnette as the top unit this spring.

Notre Dame still has Andrew Kros, who will be a junior in the fall, as a second long snapper on the roster. Vinci replaced Kros on the punt team last season after seven games.

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Notre Dame football showed this spring it has several options to replace two-time All-American Xavier Watts in the starting lineup at safety. Kennedy Urlacher, who will be a sophomore next fall, wasn't a guarantee to be one of the top options.

Urlacher may be able to find a quicker path to a starting role elsewhere after entering the transfer portal Wednesday. The son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher played in 14 games as a freshman and totaled 12 tackles.

Click here for a full story on Kennedy Urlacher.

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