Transfer Tracker: ND adds a big piece to their OL

Mark Pszonak contributed to this report.

The transfer portal never stops grinding. Notre Dame hit an All-American home run when they added Marshall grad-transfer offensive lineman Cain Madden on Friday.

Recruiting: Given an opportunity to earn his way to play at a FBS program, Madden accepted a preferred walk-on position at Marshall.

At Marshall: Madden arrived at Marshall as a preferred walk-on and developed into a three-year starter at right guard who was named second-team All-American after the 2020 season. Earned his scholarship in the spring before the 2019 season.

Farrell’s Take: It was amazing to see how much interest there had been for Madden from his walk on status years ago. Interest continued to grow and he had his pick of some major programs. Watching him on film at Marshall, he's an aggressive mauler and an elite run blocker so a power running team like Notre Dame was certainly a fit. What's interesting is that Notre Dame has depth along the inside at offensive line compared to some of his other choices and perhaps he will snap center, who knows? But because of that depth his initial impact meter is lowered a bit.

Impact Meter: 8.3 out of 10

IMPACT METER

The Transfer Portal continues to change the way college football programs recruit and manage their rosters so we here at Rivals.com continue to evolve our coverage. Each time a player of note enters the portal, we will examine their potential impact on the college football landscape and assign an impact rating, both when they enter the portal and when they choose a destination. The scale is from 1-10 and the description below explains the scoring scale.

1.1-4.0 — Not a big impact expected, likely a non-starter and down the bench depth player.

4.1- 6.0 — A solid impact can be expected in the right scenario and has the potential to battle for a starting job.

6.1-9.0. — A high impact player who won’t change a program but will certainly be a very good contributor and starter.

9.1- 9.9 — A very high impact player who should start the moment he steps on the field and will change the outlook of a program immediately.

10 — A franchise transfer who has a chance to be an All American and one of the elite players in college football.