Notre Dame football once again has a roster that many are envious about, and on Wednesday ESPN confirmed just that as they released their top-100 players of the 2026 season.
Three Irish stars made the list, with the lowest being offensive tackle Anthonie Knapp. Coming in at No. 51, the junior allowed just two sacks last fall. Andrea Adelson did the write up for him, saying that the move to guard will help him in the long term. The fact that Knapp can also play tackle should be pretty appealing to NFL teams as well.
The second Notre Dame player to make it was quarterback CJ Carr, who cracked the top-10 at No. 7. Adelson compiled his bio as well, as she said “his performance, growth and potential headed into this season are one of the biggest reasons
the Irish are preseason choice to make it to the CFP after coming up short in 2025.” A solid ranking for Carr, as he’s above other quarterbacks like Texas’ Arch Manning and Oregon’s Dante Moore.
Leonard Moore was the top rated defensive player, as No. 2 overall just behind Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith. Again, Adelson broke it down for us, as she said that Moore is “arguably the best cornerback in the country.” I don’t think there is much of an argument here, I think he is the best nationally.
It does seem like ESPN missed a few players that are more than worthy to be on this list like safety Brauntae Johnson and linebackers Drayk Bowen and Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa. It will be fun to go back and look at this list when the season ends, to compare with others on the final rankings after the campaign concludes.
WRs Jeremiah Smith and Malachi Toney made our top 5.
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) August 26, 2026
Who joins them and who else ranks among our experts' best 100 players in college football? https://t.co/264inhoG4i
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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Which Notre Dame stars made ESPN top-100 players of the 2026 season
