SOUTH BEND — As Notre Dame football makes it first appearance in New England since the pandemic-marred season of 2020, the 12th-ranked Irish will face unranked Boston College with a heavy dose of local talent on the roster.
Four starters hail from Massachusetts or Rhode Island: defensive end Boubacar Traore, defensive tackle Jason Onye, right guard Guerby Lambert and long snapper Joseph Vinci.
A pair of key special teamers, Preston Zinter of North Andover (Mass.) Central Catholic High and two-sport standout Matt Jeffery (Chesire, Conn.), are New England products as well.
Four more Notre Dame players schooled in the region are in the pipeline toward prominence, including freshman quarterback Blake Hebert (Boxford, Mass.) and highly rated offensive lineman Will Black, a Canadian who played at Connecticut’s Choate Rosemary Hall.
In all, nearly 9% of this year’s 113-player roster has a direct connection to New England.
“That area has been good to us,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “There’s talent in that New England area up there, that upper East Coast. It’s an important area to us.”
The hiring of athletic director Pete Bevacqua, who took the reins in March of 2024, only added to the connection.
Having matriculated to Notre Dame in the late 1980s from Brunswick School in Greenwich, Conn., the former three-sport standout (football, basketball and golf) saw three members of his old school sign with the Irish in the 2025 recruiting cycle: Hebert, offensive tackle Matty Augustine and safety Ethan Long.
“We have a strong presence there,” Freeman said of New England in general. “We’ve got to continue to have a strong presence there.”
A quick scan of Boston College’s roster reminded Freeman there would be several former high school teammates facing some of his most prominent players at Alumni Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Catholic Memorial High School in West Roxbury, Mass., where Traore and Lambert played together for coach John DiBiaso, has five connections on this Eagles roster, not including quarterbacks coach Jonathan DiBiaso, son of the Catholic Memorial coach.
Five more BC players prepped at Brunswick School, where Bevacqua sits on the board of directors.
“I looked up their roster a little bit,” Freeman said of the Eagles. “There are some teammates of Bouby and Guerby and Preston, and it’s going to be important to them. Yes, because we’re going back to Boston, but more so because that’s what the team needs from them.”
From ‘dream school’ to something better
Of the 29 states and three foreign countries represented on Notre Dame’s roster, four states are tied at nine with the most players: Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and California.
Connecticut and Massachusetts, with five products each, are tied for ninth with Georgia in sending players to this year’s Irish. Virginia, Texas, New Jersey and North Carolina each have six products on the 2025 team.
For Boston College, in its second year under former NFL coach Bill O’Brien, the Bay State claims 17 members of the current roster. Connecticut has sent 10.
Onye, coming off a breakout game against USC, expects 10-15 friends and family members to make the 55-mile drive from North Providence, R.I., to Chestnut Hill for his homecoming.
“It should be a fun game,” said the former Bishop Hendricken star. “I’m excited.”
Growing up, Boston College was Plan A for Onye. In the end, it was Notre Dame that won out over the likes of Penn State, Michigan, Nebraska and Kentucky.
“I’m pretty familiar with Boston College,” Onye said this week. “It was basically my dream school until I found better. … This was something I couldn’t pass up.”
For Traore, it helped that he was recruited by former Boston College defensive lineman Al Washington, now his position coach.
“He knows the player I can be, so he just wants me to put good stuff on tape every day,” said Traore, tied for eighth nationally in sacks per game. “I wouldn’t say this was my mindset in high school. I mean, high school was just, like, kind of easy.”
He smiled.
“Well, not easy,” said Traore, a third-year sophomore who had to overcome a season-ending ACL tear early last season. “At this level, you’re going up against the top guys in their class every down, so it’s not just going to come as easy. … Just continue to elevate every day.”
Long-snapping wizard of Westwood returns home
Vinci, who took over long-snapping chores around this time last season, has been looking forward to Saturday’s game for months.
“Oh, I’m going to have a lot of people there,” Vinci said in August. “I think the family already bought up a bunch of tickets, and we’ll see what I can scrape from the team. We have 20 guaranteed that we’ve purchased already. There will be a whole Vinci section somewhere, so it should be fun.”
A redshirt freshman from Westwood High, 13 miles southwest of the BC campus, Vinci laughed when asked if his cheering section might be vocal.
“Maybe a little bit,” he said. “It may be a little nerve-wracking for them. I’m sure it is. It should be good. BC’s right down the road. Got a lot of friends and family. I’ve had people text me: ‘Hey, I’m going to the game.’ Definitely looking forward to that one.”
The heavy New England flavor of Saturday’s game is not lost on Vinci, who has made two downfield tackles already this season. At 6-foot-4 and 232 pounds, he was a pass-rushing defensive end at Westwood.
“I was considered one of the best linemen there,” he said. “Definitely not the greatest (competition level). We played in Division 4. One is the highest.”
Catholic Memorial was playing a different brand of ball.
“Guerby and Boubacar, their league is higher,” Vinci said. “Love Westwood. Love my school. But we’d get steamrolled by them.”
That’s why Vinci had to laugh when asked about his adjustment to the athletic ability on daily display at Notre Dame.
“You definitely see some stuff in practice where you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m not in high school anymore,’ “ he said. “You just see some stuff that I would say is absolutely insane. Definitely a different type of athleticism than you normally see every day.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
