Notre Dame running back Gi'Bran Payne to enter NCAA transfer portal

Notre Dame senior running back Gi’Bran Payne will enter the transfer portal when it opens Jan. 2, he announced on social media. Payne has one season of eligibility remaining, but he could petition for a second after missing the entire 2024 season with a torn ACL suffered in the Blue-Gold Game in April of that year.

Payne carried 45 times for 168 yards and 2 touchdowns in 2023, good for 3.7 yards per carry. He served as Notre Dame’s short-yardage and third-down back for much of the season. Following his injury, though, junior Jeremiyah Love and redshirt Jadarian Price developed a stranglehold on the Notre Dame running back room.

Despite coming back quicker and more explosive than before his injury, Payne did not have a role in the Notre Dame backfield anymore. He fell behind sophomore Aneyas Williams and even true freshman Nolan James Jr., finishing the 2025 season with just 9 carries for 53 yards.

Payne did have a valuable role on special teams, serving as a blocker on Notre Dame’s kickoff return unit that earned Price second-team All-American honors at the position.

Payne had signed with Indiana in the 2022 class, but he followed his running backs coach after Deland McCullough left for Notre Dame. McCullough moved on from the Irish in February, taking the same job with the Las Vegas Raiders.

McCullough’s replacement, former Penn State running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider, recruited Payne to the Nittany Lions before securing commitments from Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen in the same class.

Seider had positive reviews for Payne when he spoke to reporters in March, saying you could never tell he had been hurt.

“I told him I got a couple guys I call them the easy button,” Seider said. “He just does everything right. He’s gonna be in the right fit on pro protection. He’s gonna be on the right read keys. He’s gonna know where he supposed to fit in the pass game. You can tell he’s a vet.”

However, Seider also believes running backs in a game plan is impossible. He explained that in the past, he’s tried to use four, and even that was difficult. In 2025, he stuck with only two: Love and Price.

Payne was No. 5 in spring practice, repping behind Love, Price, Williams and redshirt freshman Kedren Young. Young missed the 2025 season with a knee injury, but Payne dropped behind James when the freshman enrolled in June, too.

“The best players will separate,” Seider said. “Or it could be even, right? But we kind of know we gotta dude that’s pretty different here. We got another guy that played a lot of reps. You also got to play to their strength. If your kid can’t do this, don’t make him do that.”

Payne, a 5-foot-10, 205-pound back from Cincinnati, should have plenty of suiters in the transfer portal. Most teams in the country could use a running back who specializes in short-yardage and third-down situations, but Notre Dame is not most teams.