Roughly two weeks ago Notre Dame landed a commitment from defensive end Loghan Thomas, adding to their recent run of attracting talent from Texas. Roughly two weeks later we’re already updating and re-releasing this story because another Texas product has committed to Notre Dame.
This time its running back [autotag]Kedren Young[/autotag], who announced his commitment on Monday night. With that at the front of your mind, let’s review how [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] and his staff have changed Notre Dame’s Texas narrative in short order.
Notre Dame football is well known for recruiting coast-to-coast. It makes sense as the recruiting hotbed in their home state of Indiana struggles in comparison to the Florida, Georgia, California, and Texas-types of the football world.
Now, about that Texas thing. Notre Dame is doing something in the Longhorn State that they simply haven’t done in a very long time. They’re establishing roots and making the high school football hot bed a priority.
Since 2000 and with the recent addition of 2024 recruits Loghan Thomas, and Young, 30 players have ultimately signed to play at Notre Dame after playing high school ball in Texas. I’m no math wizard but that’s just over a player per year on average.
Considering it’s the state that annually puts more talent in the NFL than any of the other 49, it’s a place you’d probably like to get talent from regularly. That largely didn’t happen for Notre Dame from 2015-2021 when just five players in a seven-year recruiting cycle came from Texas.
It is however changing in large part to the efforts of wide receivers coach [autotag]Chansi Stuckey[/autotag]. Stuckey was key in landing three receivers alone from Texas in the 2023 class and the Irish already have one commit while they’re working on more for 2024.
Here are Notre Dame’s high school commits from Texas since 2000. Although the numbers aren’t huge, the percentage of them who turned out to be significant contributors at Notre Dame is impressive.