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Notre Dame football continues to be a consistent program under second-year head coach Marcus Freeman, who is only 38 years old. He took the Irish from 9-4 in 2022 to 10-3 in 2023 and now has two bowl wins under his belt with two top-25 finishes as well. Freeman, like a lot of young coaches in college football, has been able to do so by his use of the transfer portal, which looks to be the case for the 2024 season.
Freeman hasn't quite gone to the lengths that other coaches in college football have gone to build their team rosters, but the portal pickups he has made have been significant in their own right. The most notable of these transfers were Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman and Ohio State edge Javontae Jean-Baptiste in last year's cycle.
Hartman and Jean-Baptiste covered two very important positions for Notre Dame football last season and now they'll be gone. So what did Freeman do? He went right back into the portal this year and got himself another ACC quarterback in Duke's Riley Leonard, but he also brought with him edge rusher RJ Oben.
Committing just a day apart from each other, it seemed as if the former Blue Devils players were a two-for-one deal. Leonard was definitely a highly sought-after quarterback in the portal, though he was from the jump considered an automatic favorite to be headed to South Bend. Oben is a bit of a sneaky surprise here.
RJ Oben transfers to Notre Dame football
With only eight incoming transfers to 14 outgoing, Notre Dame football ranked as the No. 36 transfer portal class, according to 247sports. Six of those players are ranked as three-star transfers while the other two are four-stars. Oben is one of those four-stars.
RJ Oben was originally a three-star prospect in the Class of 2019. He was ranked as the No. 62 defensive end in the country and No. 21 player in the state of New Jersey. As a transfer, he was bumped up to a four-star, ranked No. 35 overall and the No. 6 edge rusher.
Before he decided to transfer to Notre Dame, he spent five years at Duke playing in a total of 31 games. In that time, he accrued 31 tackles, 18.5 tackles for loss, 13.5 sacks, one interception, and four forced fumbles.
The 2023 season wasn't Oben's best season, as it was a bit of a slip from his mostly impressive 2022 season where PFF graded him with a 78.8 defensive grade compared to last season's 68.5. Nonetheless, surrounded by better talent at Notre Dame and a chance to prove himself could make Oben a much-welcomed addition to the Fighting Irish in 2024.
What's notable about his transfer is that he looks to be an instant replacement for Jean-Baptiste, meaning he'll be playing on the strong-side end.
