Category: Notre Dame Recruiting

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.

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.

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.

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Notre Dame Football: Irish Get Special Teams Jolt Through Transfer Portal

Notre Dame special teams got better today.

The transfer portal has been good to Notre Dame so far this winter and they came up with another catch from it Tuesday.  Former Marshall wide receiver and kick returner [autotag]Jayden Harrison[/autotag] is on his way to play for the Fighting Irish.

Harrison is coming off a year where he hauled in 28 receptions for 410 yards and a touchdown which came against North Carolina State, but on kickoff return is where he has done most of his damage.  Returning 23 kickoffs for 705 yards (over 30 yards per return), Harrison returned two for scores and was named a First Walter Camp All-American as a Kick Returner as a result.

This is a major boost for the Notre Dame special teams unit and a win for the Irish over Deion Sanders and Colorado as the Buffaloes were Harrison’s other finalist.

And before you ask, yes, Harrison was on the Marshall team that beat Notre Dame in 2022.  He led the Thundering Herd with 38 receiving yards that day but did not return any kicks.

Harrison originally enrolled at Vanderbilt and played the 2020 season there before spending the last three seasons at Marshall.  He’ll have one year of eligibility remaining with Notre Dame.

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Notre Dame Stays Hot in Recruiting – Lands East Coast Safety

There is still almost a year until the early signing period but Notre Dame already has 13 commitments. Find out about the latest one here!

Notre Dame added to their currently top-ranked 2025 recruiting class just hours before the national championship game Monday when they received a commitment from safety Ethan Long of Connecticut.

Long checks in at 6-2, 185-pounds and chose Notre Dame over some big-time programs such as Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, and plenty of others.

Long shared the following with 247Sports in regard to his commitment:

“You don’t choose Notre Dame, Notre Dame chooses you,” said Long to 247Sports ahead of his commitment. “I feel like I’m at home every time I step on that campus. My heart has been telling me that this is it. God has guided me. Freeman, O’Leary and Golden are building something special and they want me a part of it and that’s all I can ask for.”

The 247Sports composite rankings list Long as a four-star prospect and the No. 317 overall player in the class.  He joins four-star Ivan Taylor of Florida as safeties in Notre Dame’s 2025 recruiting class that now has 13 members.

Key Notre Dame target for 2025 sets commitment date

Is Notre Dame going to stay hot on the recruiting trail on Monday?

Notre Dame received good news on Saturday when four star defensive end Christopher Burgess, Jr. of Chicago (Simeon) announced his commitment to the Irish.  Now could more good news be on the way for Marcus Freeman and company?

Four-star safety Ethan Long (’25) of Connecticut announced on Saturday that he will be making his commitment on Monday.  Notre Dame is among the finalists that also includes Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, and Wisconsin.

Long has been a key target of Notre Dame’s for some time and is coming off a junior season that saw him record 56 tackles, three interceptions, and force three fumbles in nine games.

Will he end up in Notre Dame’s already stacked 2025 recruiting class?

We’ll all know in just a few short days.

Former Notre Dame wide receiver heads west – to ACC

Head west young man…

Former Notre Dame wide receiver Tobias Merriweather has announced his next plans and they include playing football at an ACC program.

Well, a soon-to-be ACC program.

Merriweather, a member of Notre Dame’s 2022 recruiting class, entered the transfer portal just days after the Irish concluded this regular season at Stanford.  On Thrusday evening he announced that he plans to attend California to continue his college football career.

Merriweather came to Notre Dame with exceptional speed and size but didn’t put things together with consistency for two seasons.  He finishes his Fighting Irish career with 15 receptions for 325 yards and three touchdowns.

All the best at Cal.

Notre Dame lands top-rated receiver in 15 years

Highest rated in 15 years!

Notre Dame had an uneventful Wednesday to open the early signing period and that is meant in the best way possible.  Just hours after the window opened, every single player Notre Dame expected to sign their national letters of intent did exactly that.

As a result Notre Dame moved up in the majority of industry rankings as teams such as Florida saw star commitments choose to sign elsewhere.

One star player that Notre Dame signed is wide receiver [autotag]Cam Williams[/autotag] of Illinois.  Williams enters Notre Dame having the distinction of being the first five-star Irish wide receiver in over a decade.

In fact, he’s the first five-star wide receiver Notre Dame has landed since getting [autotag]Michael Floyd[/autotag] in the 2008 recruiting class.

Michael Floyd went on to play four seasons at Notre Dame and set essentially every program receiving record.  If Williams can come even close to touching what Floyd did as a player then it’s going to be a very special couple of years ahead for Williams and the Notre Dame offense.

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Watch: Notre Dame’s epic signing day announcement video

Must watch video of the day…

Two seasons into Marcus Freeman’s tenure as Notre Dame head football coach the Fighting Irish are 18-7 (18-8 if you count the 2021 Fiesta Bowl) on the playing field.  They may however be unbeaten when it comes to video content created by their in-house media team.

That perfect record stayed intact Wednesday as Notre Dame had a rare, quiet morning as the early signing period for the 2024 recruiting class opened.  Within just a couple of hours every anticipated commitment had sent in their national letter of intent and drama was avoided.

In doing so, Notre Dame was able to release a short movie they created based on unlocking the talented members of the class.  I don’t know if Marcus Freeman or any of the other assistant coaches are going to be nominated for Academy Awards after their coaching careers are done, but for what this is it’s an epic three-minute production.  Take a watch below:

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Former Notre Dame top recruiting target flips his commitment

A lot of people claim to have seen this one coming…

At one time it seemed like it was just a matter of time before Chicago defensive tackle [autotag]Justin Scott[/autotag] announced his commitment to Notre Dame.

That commitment never came however as Scott announced this past summer that he would be playing his college football at Ohio State.

That remained true until Wednesday when Scott announced that he was changing his commitment.

Before you ask – no, the St. Ignatius product did not flip to Notre Dame.  He instead flipped from the Buckeyes to Miami in a move that sent the Hurricanes soaring up the national recruiting rankings for 2024.

Check out the announcement graphic below:

If the amount of cash shown here isn’t perfectly representative of college football today then I’m not sure what really is.

Miami finished the 2023 regular season at 7-5 overall in what was head coach Mario Cristobal’s second season in charge.