{"id":672097,"date":"2026-01-12T18:57:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T18:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/672097\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T18:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T18:57:11","slug":"notre-dame-dl-armel-mukam-returning-to-irish-football-after-entering-transfer-portal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/672097\/","title":{"rendered":"Notre Dame DL Armel Mukam returning to Irish football after entering transfer portal"},"content":{"rendered":"

On New Year\u2019s Day, news broke that Notre Dame defensive lineman Armel Mukam<\/a> planned to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal after three seasons with the Fighting Irish. He was being pursued by a handful of schools in the portal, but Notre Dame is bringing him back to South Bend, according to Notre Dame sources who informed Blue & Gold.<\/p>\n

Notre Dame begins classes on Monday, Jan. 12, and Mukam is enrolled at the university.<\/p>\n

He officially visited Georgia Tech on Jan. 5, the same day Notre Dame lost out on a few other transfer portal targets who were scheduled to visit campus but canceled. He also took a trip to Virginia.<\/p>\n

Notre Dame needs interior defensive linemen for the 2026 season, and Mukam will be a welcome addition back to the room.<\/p>\n

According to jgpvisuals on Twitter, the following schools expressed interest in Mukam as a portal prospect: Rutgers, Syracuse, Colorado, Purdue, Nebraska, Georgia Tech, UCLA, Virginia, Cal, Oklahoma State, Michigan State, Minnesota, Auburn, Kentucky, Northwestern, San Diego State, Oklahoma and North Texas.<\/p>\n

Mukam, a La Prairie, Quebec, native, played 135 snaps in his Notre Dame career, totaling 11 tackles, 7 quarterback pressures and a forced fumble. During the 2025 campaign, he posted 5 tackles (1.5 for loss) and 1 forced fumble. He\u2019s appeared in every game for the Irish the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

He played 69 defensive snaps last year, which was sixth-most among interior defensive linemen, according to Pro Football Focus (PFF). Of the five interior defensive linemen who played more snaps than Mukam, only Elijah Hughes, a former USC player, returns in 2026. The Irish are hoping to get Jason Onye <\/a>back for a sixth year, but that remains up in the air.<\/p>\n

Notre Dame has the following interior defensive linemen on its 2026 roster, as things currently stand: Christopher Burgess, Davion Dixon, Gordy Sulfsted, Elijah Golden, Tiki Hola, Sean Sevillano, Cole Mullins, Brenan Vernon, Elijah Hughes and Mukam. It\u2019s a room with 10 players but very little experience. The Irish will certainly be bringing in defensive linemen from the portal, even with Mukam\u2019s return.<\/p>\n

As a recruit, Mukam was a three-star prospect via the Industry Ranking but a four-star prospect by On3 itself. In addition to Notre Dame and Stanford, the\u00a0Woodberry Forest<\/a>\u00a0(Va.) High standout also had offers from Virginia, Cal and Virginia Tech.<\/p>\n

According to the Industry Ranking, Mukam was the No. 51 defensive lineman nationally, the No. 469 overall player and the No. 10 player in Virginia. On3\u2019s own rankings listed him as the No. 40 defensive lineman nationally.<\/p>\n

He flipped from Stanford to the Irish on Aug. 24, 2022, despite never visiting South Bend before his commitment. His first South Bend visit came three months later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say the people,\u201d he said after the visit about what stood out about the university. \u201cI knew that Notre Dame had a great football program with strong academics, but what stood out to me was the people. I had a lot of great conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On New Year\u2019s Day, news broke that Notre Dame defensive lineman Armel Mukam planned to enter the NCAA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[96300,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-672097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-armel-mukam-23-woodberry-forest","9":"tag-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115883661358424963","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}