Notre Dame tight end George Takacs enters transfer portal
A crowded Notre Dame tight end room just lost its most senior player.
George Takacs has entered the portal, the rising fifth year tight end announced on Twitter on Monday. He will be a graduate transfer at his new landing spot, and he has two years of eligibility remaining.
Takacs recorded stats in three seasons with the Irish beginning in 2019. The 6-foot-6, 247-pound pass catcher totaled eight catches for 78 yards and two scores for the blue and gold.
He was Notre Dame’s No. 2 tight end in 2021 behind standout Michael Mayer but was targeted just four times over 407 snaps. Takacs caught three of those balls for 36 yards. His lone touchdown of the year came in Notre Dame’s season finale against Stanford.
The former four-star prospect was the No. 17 tight end, No. 60 player from Florida and No. 346 player nationally in the 2018 class according to On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He held offers from Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Oregon and Ohio State, among others, out of high school.
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The Irish will now have six scholarship tight ends in 2022: Mayer, Kevin Bauman, Cane Berrong, Mitchell Evans, Eli Raridon and Holden Staes. Mayer and Bauman will be juniors, Berrong and Evans will be sophomores, and Raridon and Staes will arrive this summer as freshmen. Mayer is the clear No. 1 for next season, but now another player has the chance to step into that second role.
Irish expected to hire Gerad Parker to oversee tight end room
Takacs’ departure is not the only change happening in the Irish tight end room ahead of 2022. Former tight ends coach John McNulty left Notre Dame for Boston College, and the Irish are expected to hire West Virginia co-offensive coordinator Gerad Parker to take his place.
The 41-year-old was set to share the offensive coordinator duties beginning this year, but he served as the sole offensive coordinator and receivers coach for the Mountaineers from 2020-21.
Parker has previously had stops at Penn State, Duke, Cincinnati and Purdue and briefly served as the interim head coach for the Boilermakers in 2016. He has coached several offensive positions: tight ends, receivers and running backs. Additionally, he was the recruiting coordinator at Purdue for four years from 2013-16.
The offensive-minded coach knows Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman from his brief stint as the running backs coach at Cincinnati in 2017 and from their time at Purdue.
