Recapping Notre Dame's June recruiting moves (2024)

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — It was the business end of June and Notre Dame wanted to put the finishing touches on recruiting’s month of movement. The Irish had staged about a half-dozen evaluation camps, hosted 16 official visitors and landed six commitments spread across two classes. And still, there was work to do on June 22, four days before the recruiting calendar moved into a dead period.

In the second-floor lobby of the Guglielmino Center, Notre Dame’s recruiting directors — Chad Bowden and Dre Brown — mixed with two of the final prospects to see Marcus Freeman’s program before the summer break. Ethan Long, a ’25 safety from Connecticut with offers from Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan, was leaving the coaches’ offices with assistant Chris O’Leary close behind. Cornerback Devin Williams, a top 100 prospect from Georgia in the ’25 cycle with offers from Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State, walked through the lobby, too.

Both visits were a reminder that recruiting progress isn’t always about commitments or offers.

When it comes to the summer schedule, simply logging visits can be a win. Sometimes that’s an introduction for an elite prospect who’s entering his junior year. Sometimes that’s taking a big swing with a rising senior. There’s a belief around the program that if Notre Dame gets a prospect to campus three times, its chances of landing that player increase exponentially. And one of those visits almost always happens in June, regardless of the recruiting class.

Notre Dame worked toward that end the past four weeks, with this Irish class of 21 commitments slotted third (Rivals), fifth (247Sports) or eighth (On3) depending on where you get your rankings.

What comes next may be a heavier lift if Freeman plans to improve on last year’s class that finished with a blue-chip ratio of 82.6 percent (only Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State were better) but lost two potential five-star prospects late and finished No. 12 in the 247Sports Composite team rankings, which mirrored many of Brian Kelly’s classes. A year ago, the big recruiting question heading into camp was if Notre Dame could sign a top-five class. This year, staying in the top 10 would be an accomplishment.

Here’s what we learned about Notre Dame recruiting in June and what those lessons could mean moving forward.

Notre Dame recruited a durable floor in ’24

As much as the Irish enjoyed being ranked No. 1 nationally last summer, there was no certainty about staying there thanks to five-star defensive end Keon Keeley and four-star safety Peyton Bowen looking around. Once a recruit starts down that path of taking visits as a committed prospect, the process rarely ends well for the original program. Notre Dame was no exception.

This class feels different.

Notre Dame has lost two verbal commitments — four-star defensive linemen Owen Wafle and Brandon Davis-Swain. It’s not clear if the Irish lamented either departure, certainly not like Keeley or Bowen.

It’s been eight years since Notre Dame went an entire cycle without a de-commitment, although the Irish basically did it four years ago until cornerback Landen Bartleson ran into legal trouble after signing and was released from his NLI. The point is, de-commitments are part of the process, even if they’re not all created equally.

But, last year’s eight de-commitments were an all-time high. This cycle, it would be a surprise if Notre Dame finished with much more than the two previous defections. Some of that might be a reversion to the norm. Some may be the NIL impact in recruiting becoming clearer as Notre Dame presses forward in that realm. And some might be Freeman recruiting a kind of prospect that fits Notre Dame more easily than last cycle.

Whatever the mixture of reasons, Notre Dame emerged from June confident in the cohesion it recruited in the Class of 2024. It’s hard to quantify that value — the Irish would prefer to have five-star defensive tackle Justin Scott committed and have to fight to keep him — but it should let Notre Dame’s staff be more all-in on the few remaining prospects available and potentially get ahead on next cycle.

Did the Irish move the needle?

Notre Dame has done well with quantity this cycle — its 21 commitments trail only Stanford, Michigan and Minnesota — but the quality is off from a year ago, even with top 50 prospects Cam Williams and CJ Carr committed. Both committed to Notre Dame in June a year ago.

Why Elite 11 coaches think CJ Carr might be best ‘pure passer’ Notre Dame has seen in decades

Good stuff from ⁦@BruceFeldmanCFB⁩ on what CJ Carr showed at the Elite 11 and who he compared most to at the event. https://t.co/aqZNuNzt3V

— Pete Sampson (@PeteSampson_) June 27, 2023

Of the five commitments in the ’24 class the Irish landed in June, only one is a top 200 prospect in four-star safety Brauntae Johnson. That gives Notre Dame four top 200 commitments, which includes four-star defensive end Loghan Thomas, who committed in late May. Compared to the programs Notre Dame is chasing in recruiting, the Irish appear to be losing ground.

Alabama has six top 200 prospects committed, including three five-stars. Clemson has five top 200 prospects committed, including two five-stars. Ohio State has nine top 200 prospects committed, including two five-stars. And Georgia has 13 top 200 prospects committed, including three five-stars. Not only do the Irish trail all four of those programs in top 200 commitments, but they also don’t have a five-star in the 247Sports Composite (Cam Williams was a five-star until a summer rankings update). The Buckeyes, Tigers, Tide and Bulldogs each have two.

Of the 32 five-star prospects in the 247Sports Composite, Notre Dame is a contender for Scott and was a player for defensive end Elijah Rushing, who will announce his commitment on July 6. Oregon and Tennessee are more serious players than Notre Dame, although the Irish got Rushing to campus for an official visit in mid-June.

Among the top 100 prospects still on the board, a perfect finish for Notre Dame would include Scott (No. 14) and offensive tackle Guerby Lambert (No. 50). While linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa (No. 101) just misses the cut, he’d be a coup for Notre Dame and a head-to-head recruiting win over USC and Ohio State. If Notre Dame swept those three to sign five top 100 prospects, it would top last year’s haul of just two top 100 signees (Charles Jagusah and Jeremiyah Love) and two near misses (Christian Gray at No. 103 and linebacker Drayk Bowen at No. 105).

If Notre Dame is going to move the needle this cycle, it’s going to require a few knock-down, drag-out recruiting wins between now and National Signing Day.

Notre Dame made progress on its ’25 board

The banner commitment of June for Notre Dame was actually a four-star tight end from Oklahoma now entering his junior year of high school.

There’s a big distance between Nate Roberts “the prospect” becoming Nate Roberts “the Notre Dame football player,” but he’s a top five tight end nationally and the nation’s No. 108 overall prospect in the 247Sports Composite. That ranking would make Roberts the highest-rated tight end to commit to the Irish since five-star Michael Mayer, and it’s a good thing for Notre Dame for anyone to be mentioned in the same sentence as the consensus All-American. The Roberts commitment is a major part of perhaps the most important part of the June recruiting calendar: identification, introduction and evaluation in the coming cycle.

Some of the top prospects Notre Dame hosted included receiver Derek Meadows (Nevada,), linebacker Madden Faraimo (California), receiver Taz Williams (Texas), defensive end CJ May (Alabama), offensive lineman Owen Strebig and offensive lineman Will Black (Connecticut). That’s on top of Devin Williams (Georgia) and Ethan Long (Connecticut). That national board requires more of an investment to get to South Bend for these junior prospects, which is why getting them on campus long before official visit season is so important.

In the case of Meadows, who plays for Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas, the visit came with a summer camp evaluation which convinced Notre Dame that the 6-foot-5, 185-pound athlete is a potential star at the college level more than he’s a three-star talent according to 247Sports. Now Notre Dame can recruit Meadows knowing his true value as opposed to waiting on more game tape.

Whatever next year’s recruiting class looks like, odds are the foundation of it will have been designed through these June visits.

(Photo: Matt Pendleton / USA Today)

Pete Sampson is a staff writer for The Athletic on the Notre Dame football beat, a program he’s covered for the past 21 seasons. The former editor and co-founder of Irish Illustrated, Pete has covered six different regimes in South Bend, reporting on the Fighting Irish from the end of the Bob Davie years through the start of the Marcus Freeman era.