Tennessee Receives Prediction To Land Notre Dame Offensive Line Transfer

Photo via Pendleton’s Instagram/@sampendleton72

Tennessee football looks to be closing in on a transfer portal addition to its offensive line. On3’s Pete Nakos put in an expert prediction for the Vols to land Notre Dame offensive line transfer Sam Pendleton on Thursday morning.

Pendleton entered the transfer portal on Wednesday morning, just two days after Notre Dame’s season came to a close with a loss to Ohio State in the National Championship game. The offensive guard entered the portal with a non contact tag before arriving at Tennessee for a visit on Thursday according to reporting from Volquest’s Austin Price.

The combination of the non contact tag, the visit to Tennessee and the prediction outlines Tennessee as the clear leader to land the Notre Dame transfer.

Pendleton began the 2024 season as Notre Dame’s starting left guard and served in that role for the Fighting Irish first seven games. The redshirt freshman lost that spot in October when starting right guard Billy Schrauth returned from injury bumping Rocco Splinder over to left guard.

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With both players returning for the 2025 season, Pendleton was poised to be Notre Dame’s top reserve interior offensive lineman and not a starter.

Pendleton played 492 snaps during his redshirt season, earning a 63.2 PFF grade. He earned a 65.9 grade in pass protection and a 64.0 grade in run blocking. For comparison, Tennessee’s starting left guard Andrej Karic earned a 69.2 grade while right guard Javontez Spraggins earned a 64.2 grade during the 2024 season.

Tennessee football has been looking to add help at left guard in the transfer portal this offseason. Northwestern guard Josh Thompson visited Tennessee before committing to LSU as did USC guard Emmanuel Pregnon before committing to Oregon.

The Vols left guard spot is up in the air entering the 2025 offseason due to the uncertainly of Karic’s status. The former Texas transfer is out of eligibility but is appealing to the NCAA for a medical redshirt from the 2023 season when he played five snaps over the redshirt limit.

Tennessee added Arizona right guard Wendell Moe to fill the void at right guard left by Spraggins running out of eligibility.

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