Meet Notre Dame’s Top Ranked 2025 Recruiting Class

What must the Irish still add to make this class great?

It’s early in the 2025 recruiting cycle still but recruiting for Notre Dame tends to play out a lot like a quote from New York Yankees legend Yogi Berra:

“It’s getting late early out there.”

When it comes to football recruiting Notre Dame is a team that tends to start hot and then usually have to hold on to secure a high ranking.  They’re rarely if ever a program that soars up the rankings late in the process.

That’s why it’s so important that Notre Dame gets off to hot starts in recruiting and that is something they’ve certainly done to date with the 2025 recruiting class.

Notre Dame now has 16 commitments in the class which gives them the top ranking according to both 247Sports and Rivals.

Below are the currently committed 16 members of Notre Dame’s 2025 recruiting class and a little about each player.

Please note: Prospects are listed according to their public commitment dates

Notre Dame Football: Social Media Reacts as Irish Land Massive Offensive Lineman Commitment

Big time get — LITERALLY

Notre Dame football 2025 recruiting class is off to an incredible start, viewed by most as the best class in the nation to date.

That class got even better this week when Owen Strebig, a mountain of a young man at 6-8, 295-pounds announced his commitment to the Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame won the commitment of Strebig over the likes of Florida State, Miami (FL), Wisconsin, and USC among others.  Stregbig comes from Catholic Memorial High School in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

As you can probably imagine, Notre Dame fans were plenty excited to learn of Srebig’s commitment.  Below is some of the best social media reactions to Notre Dame landing the commitment from the offensive tackle.

Notre Dame Football: Wide Receiver Set To Announce Commitment on Saturday

Another son of an NFL star headed to Notre Dame?

A key Notre Dame target in the 2025 recruiting class is set to announce his college decision.

Elijah Burress, a wide receiver from Wayne, New Jersey will announce Saturday where he intends to play his college football.

The 6-1, 170-pounder seems headed to Notre Dame, but stranger things have certainly happened.  He currently lists having seven offers with Duke, Cincinnati, Liberty, East Carolina, UMass, and Temple also being in on him.

Burress is the son of former Michigan State and NFL star Plaxico Burress who caught what wound up being the game winning touchdown reception in the Giants upset win of the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.

Will Elijah be joining Notre Dame’s 2025 class on Saturday?

We are certainly expecting good news on this one.

Add Coach Prime and Colorado to Those Trying to Poach Notre Dame Quarterback

Hands off, Buffs!

The biggest name to date in Notre Dame’s star-studded 2025 recruiting class is quarterback [autotag]Deuce Knight[/autotag].  Knight committed to the Irish back in September and has been a vocal leader in helping recruit more talent to Notre Dame’s 2025 class.

Despite this, other programs are trying to swoop in and get Knight to flip his commitment.  The latest to do so is none other than the Colorado Buffaloes and head coach Deion Sanders.

Colorado doesn’t yet have a quarterback commitment in the class.  They were in on top quarterback prospect Bryce Underwood, but he ultimately committed to LSU.

This past Friday, Knight announced on social media that Colorado had extended him an offer:

Knight is rated as a four-star prospect by the 247Sports composite.  The same outlet ranks him as the 62nd overall player in the class and fifth overall quarterback.

Marcus Freeman Checks Out Indianapolis Prospect’s Basketball Game

A huge in-state target for Notre Dame…

Notre Dame’s 2025 recruiting class is off to a fantastic start as most outlets have the Fighting Irish ranked as the top class nationally.  It’s clearly early and Notre Dame is a program that usually falls the closer to signing day we get, so the importance of stacking a strong class early is that much more important.

With all of that in mind, Marcus Freeman is doing his best to continue to load up the Fighting Irish secondary.  He was in Indianapolis on Friday night to take in Ben Davis High School’s basketball game.  There he watched Notre Dame target Mark Zackery.

Zackery is listed as a four-star prospect on 247Sports.  The outlet ranks him as the 62nd overall prospect in the 2025 recruiting class while the 247Sports composite ranks him 179th overall.

You can see Notre Dame cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens and offensive line coach Joe Rudolph seated next to Freeman.

Zackery named Notre Dame as one of his 10 finalists earlier this month and was on campus for junior weekend last weekend.

See it: Notre Dame Recruiting Targets Make You Feel Old

From Super Bowl fathers to Notre Dame?

It was two decades ago now that Jerome Bettis and Plaxico Burress were key cogs on the Pittsburgh Steelers offense.  Both would go on to win Super Bowls when they were no longer teammates and both had kids of their own now.

Or I should say, both have kids that are being recruited to play football at Notre Dame now.

Jerome Bettis, Jr., and Elijah Burress are both recruits in the 2025 cycle and are yet to announce commitments to any program.  Both were on Notre Dame’s campus last weekend and seemed to have enjoyed their time.  They even posed for a staged photo together, one Burress posted to social media with a nod to both of their fathers.

No word yet on when either plans to announce their college plans but Notre Dame is clearly a player for both.  The Irish currently have the top-ranked 2025 recruiting class by multiple outlets.

SEC powerhouse offers Notre Dame quarterback commit

One of the nation’s top-ranked quarterbacks in the 2025 recruiting class picked up a big time offer despite being committed to Notre Dame.

In a story we’ve seen before, Alabama has offered a top-ranked Notre Dame commitment in an upcoming class.

This time it was quarterback Deuce Knight, the top-ranked dual-threat quarterback in the 2025 recruiting cycle. Alabama offered him on Monday.  Knight committed to Notre Dame in September 2023.

Knight checks in at 6 feet, 4 inches and 195 pounds. He has received offers from Auburn, Georgia, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington and plenty of others.

Knight hails from Lucedale, Mississippi, and has was on campus for junior weekend at Notre Dame this past weekend.  He has been a leader in the recruitment of other top targets in the 2025 class, but as we know all too well, an offer from Alabama tends to carry a lot of weight regardless of a commitment status.

Nick Saban not being head coach there anymore obviously takes away some of the bigness but certainly not all of it.

Huge Notre Dame target de-commits from Alabama

Major Notre Dame target opens things back up…

The Nick Saban fallout at Alabama continues as Sunday evening saw one of the Crimson Tide’s top-ranked recruits in the 2025 cycle withdraw his commitment.

Jamie Ffrench, Jr., a five-star rated receiver from Florida withdrew his commitment.  Ffrench named Notre Dame as one of his finalists when he announced his commitment to Alabama back in July.  Florida State, Ohio State, and Penn State were the other three finalists.

Ffrench is one of the nation’s highest rated recruits in the cycle as 247Sports gives him a five-star grade and ranks him as the 13th overall player in the cycle.

Time will tell where he ends up but it’d be safe to assume Marcus Freeman and Mike Evans will be in hot pursuit of his talents.

[lawrence-related id=81573,81563]

Former Notre Dame commitment to transfer from Michigan

Should Notre Dame circle back here?

Less than a week after being a part of Michigan‘s first national championship team since 1997, a former Notre Dame commitment is entering the transfer portal.

[autotag]Amorion Walker[/autotag] was a Notre Dame commitment in the 2022 recruiting class where he was set to play wide receiver.  He flipped his commitment to Michigan late in the process and ultimately switched to cornerback.

Walker battled an undisclosed injury this year and didn’t see the field much for the Wolverines, playing in just five games.

Walker starred at Ponchatoula High School in Louisiana before heading to the Midwest for college.

Will Notre Dame circle back here?  With the switch to defensive back I wouldn’t assume so but certainly worth at least keeping an eye on.

[lawrence-related id=81490,81478,79895]

Notre Dame Football: Irish Land Key Defensive Piece from Big Ten in Transfer Portal

Another day, another commitment for Notre Dame!

Another day, another commitment for Notre Dame.  Since Saturday the Fighting Irish have now seen four different players give the Notre Dame football program their pledge after Rod Heard announced his commitment to Marcus Freeman and company Wednesday.

Heard comes to Notre Dame via the transfer portal from Northwestern.  The veteran safety will bring plenty of experience as he enters Notre Dame ahead of his sixth and final season of eligibility.

Heard is coming off a stellar season for Northwestern as he helped the Wildcats to an epic turnaround.  Heard made 85 tackles in 2023, four of which came for a loss.  He also intercepted a pass and forced a pair of fumbles for the Wildcats who went from 1-11 in 2022 to 8-5 in 2023.

Heard told Irish Sports Daily:

“I can see that [Irish head coach Marcus Freeman] and the coaching staff are putting something together,” Heard said “I think it’s going to be a great year.

“I think it’s a great collective of guys who have already had success, but I think what’s coming next year and all the pieces that have been added to the team, me included, and the coaching staff that they have. I think it’s going to be a very successful year.”

Heard has played in 46 games at the collegiate level and should help provide support to All-American Xavier Watts on Notre Dame’s back-half in 2024.

[lawrence-related id=79895]