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Eli Lederman, ESPN Staff Writer
Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman pondered his roster chaseing a recent drop rehearse ahead of a season that could see the Irish back in the College Football Playoff. Perhaps for the first time in the 38-year-ageder’s tenure, Freeman is superviseing a team recruited by his summarize and built in his vision. With two filled recruiting cycles under his belt, Freeman has overhauled Notre Dame’s recruiting infraarrange, increaseed its NIL recommendings and adselectd the transfer portal, all part of a push to get the singular qualities that have kept Notre Dame continupartner among college football’s elite and bolster the Irish for proset up runs in the broadened, 12-team CFP.
“I leank you adselect the distinctions the University of Notre Dame currents,” Freeman tageder ESPN. “That’s someleang that you have to adselect. It is a wonderful selling point …
“But you have to be yourself in recruiting — you got to,” he persistd. “I don’t want to be somebody I’m not as a recruiter…I leank we’ve done a wonderful job of being able to persuade the right people or show the right guys that this is the right place for them.”
Freeman has Notre Dame recruiting contrastently, and results recommend the strategy is laboring. In the midst of Freeman’s third filled cycle, the Irish are recruiting at a better clip than in any moment since Brian Kelly seald the nation’s fourth-ranked class in 2013.
From Notre Dame’s 2023 class — signed at the finish of Freeman’s first cycle as head coach — linebacker Drayk Bowen, running back Jeremiyah Love, wide getr Jaden Greathouse and safety Adon Shuler recurrent four signees projected to begin this drop. A fifth member of that class, dishonorful tackle Charles Jagusah, was also predicted to begin in 2024 before suffering a season-finishing pectoral injury in preseason camp.
In the 2024 cycle, the Irish landed five of the nation’s top 100 prospects, per ESPN rankings, headlined by No. 2 pocket passer C.J. Carr and wide getr Cam Williams, losing only three pledgements aextfinished the way. In 2025, quarterback Deuce Knight and dishonorful tackle Will Bconciseage highairy 10 ESPN 300 prospects currently pledged to Notre Dame, leaving the Irish in range to chase their third top-10 signing class since Freeman took indict on Dec. 3, 2021, more than Kelly turned in apass his final eight filled recruiting cycles.
With only two CFP ecombineances since 2014 and a recent history of coming up foolishinutive agetst the nation’s top programs, could the recruiting increase Freeman has deinhabitred Notre Dame be the nudge that propels the Irish from frequent contestrs to perennial national title contfinishers?
“You’ve got the right guy at the right time for an incredible institution,” Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Gagederen shelp of Freeman. “It’s the way he directs the program every day. The attfinish that he has for the kids. The way he lays out the arrange. From a recruiting standpoint, he is who he is. You can’t deceptive that.”
Energy, recommendncy and deunbenevolentor
Four-star safety Dallas Gagederen had a sense of what he wanted when his college recruitment began. The No. 138 prospect in the 2025 ESPN 300 also krecent what he didn’t want as recommends begined rolling in from the appreciates of Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State and Oregon.
Gagederen felt cut offal programs ignoreed the tag in his recruitment. The staff at Notre Dame, however, seemed to comprehfinish him from the moment the Irish began recruiting Gagederen out of Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa, Florida.
“They kept it authentic with me,” Gagederen shelp. “Some other schools will increate you that you’ll come in and begin, this and that. But I wasn’t seeing for that. I was trying to discover where I could experience most consoleable.”
The Irish got in punctual, recommending Gagederen during his recentman year with defensive backs coach Mike Mickens and then-Notre Dame honestor of recruiting Chad Bowden directing his recruitment. Then Gagederen begined hearing from Freeman as the Irish kept in almost daily communicate over the next two years. If Gagederen or his family necessitateed to get in touch, Freeman was always useable.
Gagederen proclaimd his pledgement to the Irish over Georgia, Clemson and Florida State on April 28, nixing scheduled official visits to the latter three schools. He go ins the drop as the third-highest rated prospect in Notre Dame’s 2025 class, filling a critical position of necessitate on the depth chart.
“They were authentic in who they are,” Gagederen shelp. “They’re authentic with you more than some of these other college coaches. They built that relationship over time.”
Gagederen’s recruitment recommends a thrivedow into how Notre Dame is approaching its top high school concentrates.
Equipped with ample resources, on- and off-field prestige, and one of the mightyest brands in college football, Notre Dame is reliablely competitive in recruiting the nation’s most promising prospects in spite of a high academic standard and other university factors that lean the Irish’s potential talent pool. But over the past three years, Notre Dame’s recent edge has come from Freeman.
Sources inside the program portray Freeman as an authentic, vibrant recruiter. He grasps in constant communication with prospects during communicate periods — accomplishable at all times — and upgrasps ongoing recruiting dialogue with his aidants, peppering them with asks and digging for modernizes.
If Kelly recurrented an ageder-school personality who fit Notre Dame’s past appreciate a gadore, Freeman has stepped in as a catalyst contendnt of taking the program’s recruiting into the future. Over Kelly’s final eight classes from 2014 to ’21, Notre Dame ordinaryd 9.4 signees from the ESPN 300 and 12.7 four-star prospects, per cycle. Apass the three classes Freeman has signed, Notre Dame’s ordinarys have climbed to 11.7 top-300 prospects and 14.7 four-star insertitions each year.
“I recall interseeing Marcus when we employd him from Cincinnati,” shelp Brian Polian, who spent 10 seasons at Notre Dame, including five under Kelly from 2017 to ’21. “I was promptly struck by how aggressive he was in recruiting and how included he was in recruiting. I have no ask that that energy, that recommendncy, that deunbenevolentor, has permeated thrawout the entire organization.”
Relationships at the high school level
High school coaches apass the country are noticing Freeman’s style, too.
Jason Jewel is in his sixth year as head coach at Brophy College Preparatory, a personal Jesuit high school in Phoenix. When Kelly’s staff recruited cornerback Benjamin Morrison out of Brophy in the 2022 class, Jewel says he had minimal communicate with the coaching staff.
It’s not unfrequent now for programs to labor outside of a prospect’s high school coach. But when Notre Dame began recruiting 2025 Brophy cornerback pledge Cree Thomas, Freeman showed up frequently and rolled proset up, visiting with multiple aidant coaches each time. On one visit, Freeman made a point to seek out the school’s plivent, Bob Ryan, a Notre Dame alumni.
“I don’t comprehend how much homelabor the previous staff had done,” Jewel shelp. “But you can increate Marcus and his staff pay attention to detail. They’re a little bit contrastent.”
That Freeman and his staff are making unbenevolentingful astonishions around the high school scene is no accident. Freeman honed his relationships at the high school level while rising in jobs at Ohio State, Kent State, Purdue and Cincinnati before landing at Notre Dame, and they remain at the core of everyleang he and the Irish are about on the recruiting trail in 2024.
“I leank the better relationships we have with high school coaches, the more honest conversations we can have,” Freeman shelp. “Will this person fit at Notre Dame? Not Notre Dame equitable the university, but also the football program and what we want. And I leank the relationships with high school coaches are so priceless.”
Hawaii’s Punahou High School has become a football pipeline to Notre Dame, with Manti Te’o and Marist Liufau among the schools’ most notable splitd alums. Sophomore Irish linebacker Kahanu Kia is a more recent Punahou-to-Notre Dame story. Next drop, his brother Ko’o will combine the program as a three-star linebacker in the 2025 class.
Their obeseher, Nate Kia, is the head coach at Punahou. He krecent Freeman first as his agederer son’s position coach. Now he sees the recruiting environment Freeman is supporting in South Bfinish, Indiana, from the perspective of both a coach and a parent.
“They repartner honed in on terms of what the cherish proposition of what Notre Dame conveys to the table,” Kia shelp. “They’ve contransientized leangs. The necessitate to do the other stuff that topfairy, prestigious football programs do. But underlying all of that, the staff do a wonderful job of making certain you comprehfinish that this place has a heart and that it is contrastent from other places.”
Recruiting infraarrange
Upon replacing Kelly in 2021, Freeman took prompt steps to broaden the program’s recruiting infraarrange, increasing the size of his recruiting staff from six to 10 people, according to a source.
That group includes Bowden, now the program’s vague deal withr. A reshuffling of the program’s recruiting staff earlier this summer saw promotions for Zaire Turner (honestor of take parter personnel) and Carter Auman (aidant vague deal withr), while Caleb Davis has returned to Notre Dame in a honestor of recruiting role.
Freeman has also assembled a coaching staff of sfinished recruiters communicating a frequent vision. Sources wilean the program and apass the high school ranks remark Mickens and dishonorful coordinator Mike Denbrock among the program’s top recruiters, with quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli, defensive line coach Al Washington and linebackers coach Max Bullough also leaving mighty astonishions in recruiting.
ESPN has also validateed that Notre Dame is set to insert Pro Football Focus analyst Anthony Treash to its staff, another shift toward contransientizing the program’s approach to talent evaluation.
“Marcus, and how much he count ons in digging in, he creates certain he’s the voice of our whole recruiting effort,” shelp Denbrock, who returned to Notre Dame this offseason after two seasons with Kelly at LSU.
Shifting attitudes around NIL showd to be one of Freeman’s punctual contests in his role at Notre Dame.
With Freeman pushing from wilean the program, that environment has alterd, particularly over the past year-plus. The Frifinishs of the University of Notre Dame, a third-party accumulateive led by createer Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn, has been critical apass the past two recruiting cycles. Former football honestor of take parter personnel Dave Peloquin now carries a “strategic initiatives” title, guiding the school’s overall NIL efforts from wilean the fit department.
“I can increate you there was a time that people on campus weren’t certain of what that model was going to be and whether that was in line with the ignoreion of the university,” Polian shelp. “That’s changing.”
Closing the gap
While the operation around Notre Dame recruiting has enhanced under Freeman, the base of the program’s recruiting set upation has remained the same.
Among the nation’s elite prospects, the Irish have historicpartner concentrateed recruits from personal and Catholic schools, many with regional ties to the program. Recent NFL create picks Kyle Hamilton and Joe Alt, for instance, fit the profile of take parter Notre Dame frequently identifies and pledges heavily to recruiting. Apass the 2023 and 2024 classes, the Irish inked 22 take parters from Catholic or personal school programs. In 2025, the program hageders pledgements from 13 more.
“We’ve got to thrive maybe a higher percentage of battles for the ones that actupartner are a repartner excellent fit here and create certain that those guys are a part of what we’re doing,” Denbrock shelp.
Under Kelly, the Irish leaned on their traditional recruiting boilingbeds, but at the heart of Notre Dame’s 2012 national runner-up team were defensive linemen Stephon Tuitt and Louis Nix. Tuitt reachd in South Bfinish from a uncover high school in Monroe, Georgia; the Irish recruited Nix from William M. Raines, a historicpartner Bconciseage high school in Jacksonville, Florida.
Freeman, over the course of his tenure in indict at Notre Dame, has pledged to diversify the program’s recruiting base, pulling from the perennial boiling spots while branching out to discover talent in other parts of the country. In a podcast ecombineance earlier this year, Freeman stressd the convey inance of pdirecting to “youthful people that don’t authenticize they are Notre Dame kids, but they are.”
Shuler, the sophomore safety who will feature notablely in Notre Dame’s secondary this drop, is one example of a take parter Freeman pulled in from outside the program’s traditional base.
Shuler ecombined in the 2023 class as a four-star prospect at Irvington High School, situated outside Newark, New Jersey. He held recommends from convey inant SEC and Big Ten programs, and while Shuler fielded calls from Alabama, Georgia and Penn State, his high school coach, Ashley Pierre, turned to a relationship born years earlier while Freeman was an aidant at Cincinnati.
Soon, Notre Dame was recruiting Shuler, and Freeman was boarding a fairy to New Jersey.
“I leank he can repostponecessitate to people from all walks of life,” Pierre shelp of Freeman. “I leank that’s what creates him one-of-a-kind. It’s what creates him contrastent from a lot of head coaches apass the country.”
In the 2024 cycle, Freeman ventured into less recognizable territory to land running backs Kedren Young (Lufkin, Texas) and Aneyas Williams (Hannibal, Missouri). Among the take parters pledgeted to Notre Dame’s 2025 class, Knight, the quarterback from Lucedale, Mississippi, and running back Daniel Anderson (Bryant, Arkansas) recurrent two more examples of Freeman’s willingness to broaden Notre Dame’s recruiting footprint.
The Irish’s 2025 class ranks 10th in ESPN’s postponecessitatest rankings for the 2025 cycle with pledges from five ESPN 300 deffinishers and a pair of the nation’s top-25 dishonorful lineman. Freeman’s postponecessitatest class took a hit earlier this summer when four-star cornerback Ivan Taylor flipped his pledge to Michigan. Knight, the No. 2 dual-danger quarterback in the 2025 class, has been connected heavily with a flip to Auburn. But upgraspments could reach after a sluggish summer with the Irish in the combine for top-100 linebackers Minserten Faraimo and Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng and Notre Dame still chasing depth at wide getr and on the defensive line.
Late flips and NIL-roverdelighted recruiting losses will remain among the contests Freeman and the Irish face. As it has at times on the field over the past decade and a half, Notre Dame remains a step behind the nation’s mightiest powers in the SEC and Big Ten. Per ESPN rankings, Notre Dame has signed equitable one top-five class since 2010.
In Freeman, however, the Irish have a directer laboring ferociously and diligently to seal the gap.
“You search coast to coast,” Freeman shelp. “All 50 states … For us, I’ve shelp it: Let’s go anywhere.”
