Notre Dame’s recruiting cycle was a very interesting one this year with so much “newness” surrounding the operation. Ranging from Marcus Freeman’s vastly different recruiting approach to Notre Dame than his predecessor combined with all of the national changes regarding NIL and the transfer portal, it’s been a wild run.
After the dust settled, the Irish exited NSD with a class ranging from 5th-9th depending on which service you follow, and held an 83% blue chip rate, which is very encouraging. While this is certainly progress towards a more athletic, deep, and talented program, there are still some recruiting frustrations regarding the elite of the elite. Most notable on this list is 5 Star Safety Peyton Bowen, a yearlong Notre Dame commit who dropped the Irish publicly at the finish line with very late and lucrative NIL deals “allegedly” playing a huge role in his decision.
Losing the highest-rated player in your class on signing day is simply a gut punch, and Notre Dame must protect itself as much as possible moving forward to prevent this from occurring every cycle. Let’s take a look at 3 lessons the Irish should have learned from this experience.