Notre Dame football is no stranger to offseason success. But heading into the 2025 season, head coach Marcus Freeman and his staff have taken the art of recruiting to an entirely new level. Quietly the Fighting Irish have turned the offseason into a showcase of their program. Notre Dame has outsmarted other blue-blood programs at every turn and built momentum that’s turned heads nationally.
Over the past few months, Notre Dame has secured numerous recruits, as any competent program would do. During any recruiting cycle, the top programs allocate a lot of resources for the top recruits and fewer resources to lower end recruits. It would stand to reason that finding a few lower end recruits that develop into top flight talents would be a coup for any program. Well, that’s exactly what the Fighting Irish have accomplished.
The latest Rivals rankings update dramatically illustrates just how well Notre Dame has played this game. According to recruiting reporter Mike Singer, Notre Dame now boasts six top-50 recruits after lower ranked recruits were adjusted, including:
- Edge rusher Rodney Dunham (rising from No. 7 to No. 6 nationally)
- Grayson McKeogh (leaping from No. 181 to No. 13)
- Ebenexer Ewetade (28 to 20)
- Ian Premer (steady near No. 24-26)
- Khary Adams (34 to 30)
- Joey O’Brien (soaring from No. 99 to No. 47, and ranked even higher elsewhere)
Recruiting isn’t just about getting highly-rated prospects; it’s about finding star potential where others might not think to look. Marcus Freeman’s approach has become to secure commitments from young recruits before national services or powerhouse programs shine a spotlight on them. Those commitments may be three stars today, but Notre Dame has bet they will grow into four or five stars. Getting a three star to commit generally takes fewer resources than a four star. So Notre Dame essentially ends up securing a four star recruit for the cost of a three star. That frees up other resources for Notre Dame to use to win other top recruits across the country.
This impressive strategy has been used extensively by Notre Dame this offseason. For example, Grayson McKeogh ascended from an under-the-radar recruit on the verge of top 300 status to a consensus top-15 player. Joey O’Brien’s transformation, from a borderline top-100 prospect to a 5-star on some boards, shows the same strategy in action.
This strategy is what separates Notre Dame from the other top recruiting schools. Freeman and his staff have shown the ability to secure diamonds in the rough. Notre Dame has proven itself elite at this, routinely identifying and securing commitments from future stars well before their breakout.
An extra benefit of this strategy is that by securing recruits before they are more highly acclaimed, the Fighting Irish are building loyalty. Once a player commits to Notre Dame, he typically stays locked in until Signing Day. So not only does Notre Dame get quality players using fewer resources, they also have a higher retention rate too.
Notre Dame is also capitalizing on its recent surge to a national championship game. That exposure has only made it easier to land, and then hold, highly-coveted prospects.
Notre Dame’s recruiting prowess isn’t limited to a specific region, either. A notably large chunk of this year’s surging prospects hail from lesser-known recruiting territories, such as Glenside, Pennsylvania. Notre Dame has always had a national appeal that they’ve leveraged to win recruits. The Irish aren’t abandoning that competency; they are pairing it with their new strategy. This has proven to be a potent combination.
Perhaps the most important hidden element in Notre Dame’s offseason has been stability. Marcus Freeman’s process is proving to not just be about splashes or one-off victories; it’s about sustained, system-driven excellence. As other schools see de-commitments or scramble to adjust to mid-cycle ranking changes, Notre Dame just quietly and effectively executes its strategy.
Notre Dame has been one of the biggest winners over this recruiting cycle. The combination of elite evaluation, early identification, and the program’s rising national prestige means an already impressive Fighting Irish program just got even better. And as these prospects turn into on-field contributors, the Irish are set to reap the benefits, not just this season, but for years to come.
Disclaimer: The content of this article was originally published as a YouTube video on the SMI College Football Show YouTube channel. With AI assistance, the publisher of the video created this article based on the content of that video.
