Julius Jones Jr. and Brother Andre Commit to Notre Dame

Notre Dame is continuing to strengthen it’s recruiting roots in Florida. The Fighting Irish have landed a commitment from big-time wide receiver Julius Jones Jr., with the Fort Lauderdale, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas standout choosing Notre Dame over Miami and Oregon — and giving the Irish an explosive, big-play talent at a position the program has been targeting hard in this cycle.

A Two-Year Pursuit That Finally Paid Off

Jones has been a top target for the Notre Dame coaching staff for almost two years, ever since he began dominating for the Raiders. The connection to the program existed from early in the process, but it was a spring visit to South Bend that truly shifted the trajectory of this recruitment. That trip gave Jones the chance to see firsthand that Notre Dame's offense was trending in a direction perfectly suited to his dynamic skill set. Coming out of that visit, Notre Dame became the team to beat — and that never changed.

An Explosive Playmaker With Elite Tools

At 5-10 and 175 pounds, Jones doesn't have prototypical size, but what he lacks in length he more than makes up for with elite athleticism, big-play ability and tremendous hands. He has shown that combination for two full seasons at St. Thomas Aquinas, establishing himself as one of the most explosive offensive weapons in the state of Florida.

Jones is the kind of player who can change a game in an instant. He has the suddenness to be a dangerous threat after the catch and the pure speed to separate from defenders at every level of the field. That speed isn't theoretical — Jones ran a blistering 10.52 in the 100-meter dash this spring, and that timed speed translates directly to his tape. His acceleration in space is outstanding, and when his vision and quickness combine with the ball in his hands, he becomes a legitimate home-run threat from anywhere on the field. Despite his smaller frame, Jones also possesses big-time pass-catching skills, with tremendous concentration and strong hands that allow him to win contested catches that bigger receivers often struggle with.

Big-Game Production When It Mattered Most

The numbers from Jones's junior season speak for themselves. He hauled in 58 passes for 876 yards — a 15.1 yards-per-catch average — and 14 touchdowns, while leading St. Thomas Aquinas to a state championship.

What stands out most is how Jones performed on the biggest stages against the toughest competition. He opened the 2025 season with six catches for 72 yards against national powerhouse Mater Dei (Calif.). He caught two touchdowns in the semifinal win over Riverdale. And in the state championship game against Lakeland, he delivered seven catches for 126 yards — exactly the kind of performance you want from your top receiver when the season is on the line.

What He Brings to Mike Denbrock's Evolving Passing Attack

Notre Dame's passing offense under Mike Denbrock has been built around versatility, explosiveness and the ability to threaten defenses at every level of the field — and Julius Jones Jr. fits that vision precisely. His blend of legitimate track speed, sudden acceleration after the catch and the toughness to do the dirty work as a blocker gives Denbrock a receiver who can line up across multiple formations and create issues from any alignment.

A receiver who averages over 15 yards per catch while also embracing blocking assignments is exactly the kind of complete offensive weapon that elevates a passing game beyond what raw talent alone can provide. As Notre Dame continues to add explosive, versatile pieces to its receiver room, Jones gives Denbrock another big-play threat who can stretch the field vertically while also contributing after the catch in the short and intermediate passing game — precisely the multidimensional skill set that makes a modern Power Four passing attack difficult to defend.

The Recruiting Profile Matches the Production

Jones grades out as a Top 50 caliber prospect with a 4.5-star rating on the Irish Breakdown board, and carries an easy 5.0-star upside grade. Nationally, he's ranked the No. 50 overall player in the country by ESPN and No. 84 overall by Rivals/On3.

The offer list reflects just how coveted Jones was on the recruiting trail. Beyond Notre Dame, Miami and Oregon, he also held offers from Ohio State, LSU, Florida, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Florida State, Tennessee, Indiana, Penn State, Auburn, Missouri, UCLA, NC State, Pittsburgh, Kentucky, West Virginia, Syracuse and Colorado, among others — a list that reads like a who's who of college football's most prominent programs.

Building a Loaded 2027 Class

Jones becomes the second wide receiver to commit to Notre Dame in the 2027 class, joining Highlands Ranch, Colo./Valor Christian standout Jackson Coleman. He's also the fourth player from Florida to choose the Irish, joining safety and St. Thomas Aquinas teammate Zayden Gamble — giving Notre Dame a pair of committed teammates from one of the most successful high school programs in the country.

Jones is the 19th commitment in Notre Dame's 2027 class, joining quarterback Champ Monds, running backs Lathan Whisenton and Isaiah Rogers, wide receiver Jackson Coleman, tight end Titus Hawk, offensive linemen Olu Olubobola, James Halter, Richie Flanigan and Jackson Hill, defensive linemen Abraham Sesay, Jackson Vaughn, Aidan O'Neil and David Folorunsho, cornerbacks Xavier Hasan and Ace Alston, safety Zayden Gamble, nickel John Gay III and long snapper Sean Kraft.

With Jones now in the fold, Notre Dame's passing game has another dynamic, explosive piece to build around for the future — and the Irish coaching staff's two-year investment in this relationship has paid off with one of the most electric playmakers in the 2027 class.

Full circle for julius jones sr and sons

Notre Dame's recruiting trail produced one of the most emotional and historically resonant moments of the 2027 and 2028 cycles this week, as elite wide receiver Julius Jones Jr. announced his commitment to the Fighting Irish — and moments later, his younger brother Andre followed suit, pledging to Notre Dame as well. The brothers made their announcements live on "The Pat McAfee Show," with Julius Jones Jr. choosing Notre Dame over finalists Miami and Oregon.

For most recruits, a commitment of this magnitude would be the headline on its own. For the Jones family, it was something even bigger — a full-circle moment that brought two sons back to the exact program where their father built his legacy more than two decades earlier.

A Father's Legacy, Continued

Julius Jones Jr. is the son of former Fighting Irish running back Julius Jones Sr., who led Notre Dame in rushing three times from 1999 to 2003. The elder Jones was one of the most productive running backs to ever wear the blue and gold — he ran for 3,018 yards across four seasons with the Irish, including a 1,268-yard campaign in 2003, and remains the sixth-leading career rusher in school history. Jones went on to be selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the second round of the 2004 NFL Draft, also playing for the Seattle Seahawks and New Orleans Saints during a lengthy NFL career. He is also the brother of former Virginia All-American and 2008 Pro Bowler Thomas Jones.

For Julius Jones Jr., the connection to Notre Dame was never just historical — it was personal and deeply felt. "It's just the mystique of Notre Dame — there's only one in the world," Jones Jr. told McAfee. "When I was up there, I felt it, and it felt different from what they can do for me now to when I'm done with football."

That sense of legacy doubled when Andre Jones — a four-star safety in the 2028 class — committed to the Irish in the very same broadcast. The 5-foot-11, 175-pound defensive back is the No. 285 overall prospect in the SC Next Junior 300 and becomes Notre Dame's second commit in the 2028 cycle. Two sons, one father's alma mater, one unforgettable broadcast. Few recruiting moments carry the kind of generational weight that this one did.

The Zayden Gamble Connection

The Jones family's path to Notre Dame runs through more than just Julius Sr.'s playing career — it also runs through a close friendship forged at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale. Julius Jones Jr.'s teammate and close friend, safety Zayden Gamble, had already committed to Notre Dame earlier in the cycle, giving the Irish a foothold inside one of the most talent-rich high school programs in the country.

That existing relationship mattered. Gamble's commitment gave Jones a teammate, training partner and close friend already locked in to the same Notre Dame program — and the kind of trusted, firsthand perspective on the Irish coaching staff, culture and vision that can carry significant weight in a recruitment of this magnitude. Watching a close friend and teammate fully commit to and embrace Notre Dame is the kind of organic, lived-experience endorsement that no recruiting pitch from a coaching staff can fully replicate. With Jones Jr.'s commitment, Notre Dame now has two St. Thomas Aquinas standouts in the 2027 class — a tandem that will allow the friendship built in Fort Lauderdale to continue for years to come in South Bend.

The Production That Built an Elite Recruiting Profile

Julius Jones Jr.'s commitment isn't just a sentimental story — it's a significant talent acquisition for a Notre Dame offense that has been aggressively retooling its receiver room.

As a junior in 2025, Jones earned MaxPreps Junior All-America second-team honors, finishing the season with 58 catches for 876 yards — a 15.1 yards-per-catch average — and 14 touchdowns, helping St. Thomas Aquinas capture its seventh-straight state championship. That kind of efficiency, averaging better than 15 yards every time he touches the football, reflects a receiver who creates explosive plays as a matter of course rather than as an occasional highlight.

The trajectory has been building for years. As a sophomore in 2024, Jones caught 51 passes for 750 yards — a 14.7 yards-per-catch average — and eight touchdowns, and he was already getting varsity snaps as a ninth-grader in 2023, earning a selection to the FBU Freshman All-American Bowl. He also participated in the Under Armour All-America Game as an underclassman in 2026 — a showcase reserved for the most elite prospects in the country, regardless of class year.

The track numbers confirm what shows up on his football tape. Jones recorded personal bests of 10.52 in the 100-meter dash and 21.93 in the 200-meter dash as an 11th-grader — elite, legitimate speed that translates directly into his ability to separate vertically and turn short completions into long touchdowns. Evaluators project him as a potential high-volume target at the Power Four level who can be positioned around formations and move the chains with his burst and effort, and he has also embraced blocking and special teams work dating back to his early days in the program — the mark of a complete, team-first player rather than a pure numbers accumulator.

The Rankings Reflect the Talent

Jones is ESPN's No. 9 wide receiver in the 2027 class, and the recruiting industry's other major services have him squarely in the same range. 247Sports rates him a four-star prospect, reflecting a receiver whose blend of speed, production and big-game performance has made him one of the most sought-after pass catchers in his class nationally.

Building Notre Dame's 2027 Class

Julius Jones Jr.'s pledge gives Notre Dame its 19th commitment in the 2027 class, continuing what has become one of the most productive recruiting cycles of the Marcus Freeman era. Florida has become an increasingly fertile recruiting pipeline for Notre Dame under Freeman, and Jones lands as the program's fourth pledge from the state in the 2027 cycle. He took an official visit to Miami June 5-7 before traveling to Notre Dame this past weekend and ultimately choosing his father's alma mater.

For the Jones family, the decision closes a circle that began more than 25 years ago when Julius Jones Sr. first arrived in South Bend as a freshman running back. Now, two of his sons will walk the same campus, wear the same blue and gold, and write the next chapter of a family legacy that started with one of the most productive running backs in Notre Dame history.

The mystique that Julius Jones Jr. described feeling on his visit wasn't abstract. It was generational. And now, it's his to carry forward.

Loren Landow wins nsca award after transforming Notre Dame

Notre Dame Trematerra Family Director of Football Performance Loren Landow has been named the recipient of the 2026 National Strength and Conditioning Association Impact Award, the organization announced Friday morning — a national honor that arrives at a moment when the transformation he has overseen in South Bend has become impossible to ignore.

Awarded since 1997, the NSCA Impact Award recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions that have impacted a segment of the overall strength and conditioning field. For Landow, the recognition caps a career of elite-level athlete development — but it also shines a national spotlight on exactly what has changed inside Notre Dame's program since he walked through the door in January of 2024.

"I'm deeply honored to receive the NSCA Impact Award," Landow said. "Any impact I've made throughout my career is a reflection of the incredible athletes, coaches, mentors, and colleagues who have trusted me, challenged me, and inspired me. I've been fortunate enough to surround myself with so many outstanding people, and this recognition is as much a testament to them as it is to my own contributions. I'm truly grateful for the opportunity to serve this profession and the recognition of this award."

The Results Since January 2024 Tell the Story

The most direct and undeniable evidence of Landow's impact at Notre Dame is the record. Since his arrival in January of 2024, Notre Dame has compiled an outstanding 24-4 overall record, including an appearance in the College Football Playoff National Championship game — a level of sustained success that represents one of the best two-year stretches in modern Notre Dame football history.

That kind of record is never the product of one single factor, but the timing is impossible to overlook. Landow's hire marked a fundamental shift in how Notre Dame approaches the physical development, conditioning and durability of its roster — and the results on the field followed almost immediately. A program that has long preached a line-of-scrimmage, physically dominant identity under Marcus Freeman finally had the performance infrastructure to match that vision, and the transformation has shown up everywhere from health and availability to fourth-quarter execution to the program's ability to compete physically with the most talented rosters in the country.

What Changed Inside the Program

Landow's career-long specialty has always been bridging the gap between collegiate development and professional-level performance training — and that is precisely the standard he imported to Notre Dame's strength and conditioning operation. His résumé prior to South Bend includes preparing countless NFL Draft prospects for the Combine and Pro Days, the most scrutinized athletic evaluation events in professional sports, along with coaching more than 70 NFL All-Pro players and more than 25 first-round selections over the course of his career.

Before Notre Dame, Landow served as head strength and conditioning coach for the Denver Broncos from 2018 to 2023, working daily with professional athletes whose bodies and performance windows are their livelihood. He also owns and directs Landow Performance in Centennial, Colorado, where he has trained thousands of athletes across the NFL, NHL, MLB, UFC and WNBA, in addition to Olympic medalists and world record holders.

That is the standard of training, programming and athlete management that Landow brought to South Bend in January 2024 — and the strides have been visible across every dimension of the program since.

Durability and availability have been a hallmark of Notre Dame's roster over the past two seasons in a way that was not always the case previously. A program that wants to compete deep into the College Football Playoff every year needs its best players on the field in November, December and January — not just September — and the conditioning and injury-prevention programming Landow has implemented has been a critical factor in keeping Notre Dame's roster healthier and more available through the most physically demanding stretches of the season.

Physical dominance in the trenches has become a defining characteristic of Notre Dame football under Freeman, and the strength gains, explosiveness training and functional power development that Landow's program emphasizes are foundational to that identity. The offensive and defensive line improvements that have become a central storyline of Notre Dame's roster construction are inseparable from the physical preparation infrastructure that supports them every single day in the weight room.

Speed and explosiveness across the roster — the kind of timed, measurable athletic development that NFL teams scout for at the Combine — has become a more pronounced trait of Notre Dame's roster since Landow's arrival, a direct reflection of his background preparing draft prospects for the exact testing metrics that NFL evaluators prioritize.

A professional-caliber culture of training has taken hold inside Notre Dame's program, with players now operating under the same developmental philosophy and competitive standards that Landow used to prepare All-Pro players and Olympic medalists. That cultural shift — treating every Notre Dame player with the individualized attention and rigor of a professional athlete — has elevated the baseline expectation for what it means to be physically prepared as a Fighting Irish football player.

A National Award That Reflects a Program-Wide Transformation

The NSCA's recognition of Landow is a credit to an entire career of elite athlete development — but for Notre Dame fans, it also serves as external validation of something the program has felt internally since the moment he arrived. The Fighting Irish are stronger, faster, more durable and more physically dominant than they were before January 2024, and the 24-4 record with a national championship game appearance is the clearest possible evidence of what that transformation has produced on the field.

Marcus Freeman's vision for a line-driven, physically imposing Notre Dame program required a strength and conditioning infrastructure capable of delivering on that vision at the highest level. Landow has done exactly that — and the NSCA Impact Award is national recognition of a strength program transformation that Notre Dame has been experiencing in real time for the past two years.

five-Star Edge Abraham Sesay Commits to Notre Dame

Charlie Partridge has done it again — and this time, the commitment that landed in South Bend is one that will reverberate across the entire 2027 recruiting landscape.

Abraham Sesay, the five-star edge rusher from Exton, Pa./Downingtown East, has committed to Notre Dame, choosing the Fighting Irish over a finalist group that included LSU, Penn State and Florida State. The 6-foot-4½, 225-pound pass rusher is ranked the No. 27 overall player and No. 6 edge rusher in the class according to the Rivals Industry Ranking — and joins a Notre Dame defensive line class that is rapidly becoming one of the most celebrated position-group recruiting hauls the program has assembled in decades.

The commitment came just two days after Sesay's official visit concluded — a weekend so comprehensive, so genuine and so convincing that the decision required no further deliberation. Notre Dame showed Sesay exactly who they are, exactly what they are building and exactly why South Bend is the right place for a five-star edge rusher with his combination of physical tools, competitive character and academic standards.

The answer was clear. Sesay committed. And Notre Dame's defensive line future just got significantly more dangerous.

The Production

Before the recruiting rankings, before the official visits and before the national attention that comes with being one of the most coveted pass rushers in the 2027 class, Abraham Sesay earned every bit of his recruiting profile the old-fashioned way — by dominating on the field against some of the best competition Pennsylvania high school football provides.

As a junior at Downingtown East, Sesay produced 13 sacks and over 80 tackles — numbers that transformed his recruitment from a regional conversation into a national one almost overnight. After a stretch of campus trips and a near-finalized board, Sesay had narrowed his list to five schools following his breakout junior season, with programs from every major conference competing for his signature.

The production tells only part of the story. Sesay is a multi-sport athlete who also participates in track and field and basketball — a detail that matters enormously in the evaluation of an edge rusher because it speaks directly to the natural athleticism, body control and competitive temperament that translates most powerfully to the pass rush position at the college level. A 6-5 edge rusher who runs track and plays basketball is not just a football player who happens to be tall. He is an elite athlete who plays football — and that distinction changes everything about the ceiling projection.

Sesay earned first-team all-state honors at defensive end for his junior season efforts, along with first-team all-league and county recognition at both defensive end and tight end — a dual recognition that reflects both his defensive dominance and the kind of versatile athleticism that elite college programs covet at the edge position.

The film

Pull up Abraham Sesay's film and the first thing that registers — before the statistics, before the recruiting ranking and before the offer list — is the physical profile. At 6-5 and 225 pounds with a frame that projects to carry significantly more weight as he develops under Notre Dame's strength and conditioning program, Sesay is built like the kind of edge rusher that keeps offensive coordinators awake at night.

Sesay has plus length with arms over 33 inches along with 10.25-inch hands — measurements that give him the kind of natural leverage advantage that most edge rushers spend years in a college weight room trying to manufacture. That length is not a passive attribute on Sesay's frame. It is an active weapon — the kind that allows him to keep offensive tackles at arm's length, disrupt their punch timing and win the initial engagement before blockers can establish their sets.

He explodes out of his stance with impressive burst, quickly threatening the edge and forcing offensive tackles into uncomfortable positions. His combination of size and speed allows him to win with raw athleticism, often beating blockers before they can properly set their feet.

Sesay shoots out of both a two and three-point stance with little wasted motion as he builds speed and cuts down escape paths for both quarterbacks and running backs. He efficiently redirects with his agility and play recognition. That ability to operate effectively from multiple stances gives Notre Dame's defensive staff the flexibility to deploy him in a variety of alignments without asking him to sacrifice his effectiveness — a versatility that elite edge rushers bring to defensive fronts and that makes the entire unit more difficult to scheme against.

Sesay tends to win with speed on the corner but can also play through contact, and further mass will only help improve his block destruction. He is already finding success on stunts and should offer some value as a situational interior rusher, especially as he adds weight.

Perhaps the most exciting physical element of Sesay's profile is what happens when his speed meets power at the point of contact. Sesay is a twitchy, fluid mover who looks to have the movement patterns suited for bending around the edge. He is loose and flexible in his lower body, flashes good first step quickness and easily converts speed to power — punching above his weight from a power perspective and capable of walking offensive tackles back to the quarterback with his bull rush.

A speed-to-power conversion at 6-5 with 33-inch arms is one of the most dangerous combinations an offensive tackle can face — and Sesay already does it naturally, before years of Notre Dame strength development have had the chance to add functional mass and power to a frame that is still growing into its full potential.

The Visit That Made Everything Official

Sesay arrived on campus for his official visit with a clear purpose — to use the weekend as a direct comparison tool against every other school at the top of his list. By the time the visit concluded, the comparison had produced a decisive and unambiguous answer.

The current players made the first impression. Bryce Young, Ebenezer Ewetade and Rodney Dunham — three of Notre Dame's most impactful defensive line contributors — spent significant time with Sesay during the visit, walking him through what it actually looks like to be a defensive lineman in Notre Dame's program. They showed him the culture of the room, the standard the program demands and what a player with his talent can become under Partridge's coaching. The message was direct — Sesay would be a great addition to the defensive line room and to the Fighting Irish program. Coming from players already living the experience, that message landed with an authenticity that no coaching staff pitch can replicate.

Partridge sees Sesay similarly to current star Boubacar Traore — playing off the edge and doing what No. 5 has done and what No. 5 is going to do. For a prospect evaluating his developmental path at the college level, hearing a position coach articulate a specific, vision-driven comparison to one of the program's most productive pass rushers is exactly the kind of concrete development promise that transforms interest into commitment.

The fellow official visitors added another compelling dimension to the weekend. Sesay raved about the other recruits on campus — describing them as amazing people whose character and quality immediately reflected the standard Notre Dame maintains in the kinds of individuals it recruits and wants in the program. Seeing the caliber of person that Notre Dame attracts reinforced that the commitment he was considering was about more than football — it was about the teammates, the community and the environment he would be surrounded by for four years.

The new facility tour gave Sesay a tangible look at the investment Notre Dame is making in its football future. The renderings of the finished product showed him not just where the program is right now but where it is going — the financial commitment, the administrative support and the vision of what Notre Dame football's infrastructure will look like throughout his college career. Seeing that investment communicated something that words alone never fully deliver — Notre Dame is serious about competing at the absolute highest level for a very long time.

And then there was Marcus Freeman — present not for the scheduled moments where head coaches traditionally appear, make their pitch and move on, but for the entire visit. Sesay specifically highlighted the combination of great education and resources, along with amazing football development, as central to his decision — and Marcus Freeman's genuine care for the program as a key factor in his choice. Freeman put in the work to get to know every family on campus personally — a level of head coach investment that Sesay specifically noticed and specifically valued because it is not the standard at every program he visited.

Charlie Partridge Closes Another Elite Pass Rusher

The Sesay commitment is the latest and perhaps most significant testament to what Charlie Partridge has built at Notre Dame in a remarkably short time. Notre Dame beat out Duke, Florida State and LSU for Sesay, with Partridge serving as a key piece whose long-time reputation for defensive line development gave Sesay the confidence that his path to elite college pass rusher ran through South Bend.

Partridge did not just win this recruitment with a facilities tour or a depth chart presentation. He won it with a relationship — built through multiple visits, genuine football dialogue and the kind of specific, vision-driven development promise that only coaches who truly understand the position at the highest level can make credibly. The extended conversations Sesay had with Partridge during the official visit proved just how strong the relationship between coach and prospect had become — and that relationship is now the foundation upon which Sesay's Notre Dame career will be built.

An impressive Defensive Line Class

Sesay's commitment pushes Notre Dame one step closer to their best overall defensive line recruiting haul in decades. He joins David Folorunsho — the No. 9 overall player and No. 2 defensive lineman nationally according to Rivals — as the second five-star defensive line commit in Notre Dame's 2027 class. Sesay will also join edge rushers Aidan O'Neil and Jackson Vaughn in what is becoming a loaded edge class, with all three commits embracing the competition that the room will demand.

Three edge rushers with legitimate pass rush credentials, complemented by Folorunsho's interior dominance — the defensive line class Notre Dame is assembling in 2027 reflects exactly the kind of trench-first, talent-driven recruiting philosophy that Marcus Freeman has preached since his first day as head coach.

Sesay becomes the 19th overall commitment in Notre Dame's 2027 recruiting class — and arguably the most impactful defensive addition yet in a class that keeps growing in both size and quality.

The Bottom Line

Abraham Sesay produced 13 sacks and over 80 tackles as a junior at Downingtown East. He earned first-team all-state, all-league and all-county honors on both sides of the ball. He brings a 6-5 frame with 33-inch arms, an explosive first step, elite speed-to-power conversion and a relentless motor that makes him a havoc-creator on every passing down. He is a five-star prospect, the second-ranked edge rusher in the 2027 class according to Rivals, and the No. 3 player in the state of Pennsylvania.

He chose Notre Dame over LSU, Penn State and Florida State — because of Charlie Partridge's development vision, because of what current players showed him the room can become, because of Marcus Freeman's genuine personal investment in every family on campus and because of what Notre Dame offers on and off the field that no other program on his list could fully match.

As Sesay himself said about Notre Dame — it is the combination of great education and football, the Notre Dame brand, the long history, the tradition and the great moral values. That is a great place to be able to play.

Abraham Sesay is a Fighting Irish. Charlie Partridge is building something historic in Notre Dame's defensive line room.

And the 2027 class just got its most explosive pass rusher yet.

Notre Dame's 2026 Offensive Line Has the Makings of Joe Rudolph's Best Unit Yet

Marcus Freeman's vision for Notre Dame football has always started in the same place. Before the skill positions, before the quarterback, before the coordinators and the scheme and the recruiting rankings — it starts in the trenches. It starts with the offensive line setting a physical tone that makes everything else the Fighting Irish want to do on offense not just possible but inevitable.

That vision has been building toward something in South Bend. The recruiting has been elite. The talent in the room has been undeniable. And now, entering 2026, the pieces are finally aligned in a way that makes the question not whether Notre Dame's offensive line can be great — but whether this specific group, with this specific configuration, in this specific season, can be the best offensive line Joe Rudolph has assembled since arriving at Notre Dame in 2023.

The answer depends significantly on two players — Will Black and Guerby Lambert, a pair of bookend tackles with tremendous upside whose development in 2026 could define not just this season but the entire trajectory of Rudolph's Notre Dame tenure. If Black and Lambert fulfill the expectations that their physical profiles and recruiting pedigrees have always suggested were coming, this offensive line has the talent, the experience and the positional construction to be a genuinely dominant unit — the kind that powers a rushing attack, protects an elite quarterback and gives an offensive coordinator with Mike Denbrock's résumé everything he needs to operate at the highest level.

Everything starts up front. In 2026, Notre Dame's offensive line has the chance to prove that the vision and the reality are finally the same thing.

Experience

The foundation of Notre Dame's 2026 offensive line case is a combination that championship units are built on — experienced interior players providing stability and continuity alongside new starting tackles with the kind of upside that changes what a unit can become at its ceiling.

Anthonie Knapp returns with two years of starting experience, now settled into the left guard position where his power, anchor and starting-caliber development project most powerfully. Ashton Craig — healthy and back from the injury that kept him out of spring practice — anchors the unit at center, the position most responsible for the communication and cohesion that separates good offensive lines from great ones. Sullivan Absher brings redshirt junior experience and genuine competitive hunger to right guard, a player who has waited for exactly this starting opportunity and arrives with the kind of chip-on-the-shoulder energy that produces the best seasons of college careers.

The experienced interior trio of Knapp, Craig and Absher gives Notre Dame's offensive line a proven, battle-tested core that first-year starting tackles can build around rather than carry. That structural advantage is enormous — because it means Black and Lambert do not have to be immediately dominant in order for the unit to function at a high level. They need to develop, grow and improve as the season progresses while the interior handles the communication load and sets the physical tone that the entire unit runs through.

That is the exact formula that produces breakthrough offensive line seasons — proven interior stability giving young, high-ceiling tackles the space to develop without the unit's effectiveness depending entirely on their immediate mastery of the position.

starting LT Will Black

The most consequential individual decision in Notre Dame's 2026 offensive line construction is Will Black's installation as the starting left tackle — and everything about Black's physical profile suggests it is exactly the right decision at exactly the right time.

Black arrived at Notre Dame as a five-star recruit whose combination of length, athleticism and raw pass protection tools projected to the blindside tackle position from the moment he stepped on campus. The left tackle spot is where his ceiling is highest, where his physical tools are most naturally expressed and where his development under Rudolph's coaching has always been pointed. Putting him there in 2026 — committing to the position, committing to the growing pains that come with first-year starting experience and committing to the long-term development arc that makes the short-term challenges worthwhile — is the kind of coaching conviction that separates programs building for championships from programs managing for comfort.

The growing pains will come. First-year starting left tackles in the Power Four face a learning curve against elite edge rushers that even the most talented players cannot fully avoid. Black will have moments in 2026 where that curve is visible — moments where an elite pass rusher wins a rep, where a coverage sack happens because the protection broke down outside and where the raw tools have not yet been fully refined into finished technique.

But the ceiling at the end of that developmental process is what makes every one of those moments worth the investment. A Will Black who has navigated a full season of left tackle starting experience against Power Four competition — processing different pass rush moves, learning to handle speed-to-power combinations and building the confidence that only comes from sustained starting-level repetitions — is the kind of blindside tackle that makes Notre Dame's offensive line genuinely elite for two or three more years beyond 2026.

The investment begins now. The return on that investment will define what Notre Dame's offensive line becomes.

Starting Rt Guerby Lambert

If Black's story in 2026 is about a talented young player stepping into the most demanding position on the offensive line for the first time, Lambert's story is about a proven, elite-recruited player finally getting to play where his ceiling has always been highest.

Lambert is a five-star recruit who arrived at Notre Dame with the physical tools — the length, the athleticism, the power and the frame — of an elite college right tackle. The right tackle position is where Lambert's profile projects most naturally, and 2026 represents the first time in his Notre Dame career that he steps into that role as the full-time, unambiguous starting right tackle without positional questions complicating his preparation or his identity within the unit.

That clarity matters more than it might initially appear. A five-star tackle who knows exactly where he is playing, who his running mate is at right guard and what his specific assignments and responsibilities are within the unit's blocking scheme is a significantly more effective player than one navigating positional uncertainty on top of the normal competitive demands of Power Four starting experience. Lambert enters 2026 with that clarity for the first time — and the results of a full season at right tackle in his natural position could be exactly what his recruiting profile always suggested was coming.

Together, Black on the left and Lambert on the right give Notre Dame something the offensive line has not had since Joe Alt and Blake Fisher anchored the 2023 unit — a pair of bookend tackles whose individual ceilings, if realized, make the entire offensive line a different and more dangerous entity than the sum of its experienced interior parts.

Alt and Fisher are starting in the NFL right now. The standard has been set. Black and Lambert have the talent to approach it. Whether they do in 2026 is the central question of Joe Rudolph's defining season.

Fueling the Rush — Two Seasons of Production That Demand Protection

The case for Notre Dame's offensive line dominance in 2026 is not built on projection alone. It is built on a foundation of sustained rushing production over the past two seasons that reflects a ground game operating at a high level even when the offensive line's performance has been inconsistent — and that should produce even more explosive results when the line reaches the potential that the 2026 configuration makes possible.

Over the past two seasons, Notre Dame has established itself as one of the most consistent rushing offenses in the country, grounding its attack in a zone-blocking scheme that rewards intelligence, footwork and the ability to move defenders off the line of scrimmage. The production has been there even through the injury disruptions and positional uncertainty that have complicated Rudolph's previous two seasons — which means the floor of what this rushing attack can do is already established at a high level.

Now pair that established rushing foundation with the most positionally sound offensive line configuration Rudolph has built since 2023 — and add the most dynamic running back room Notre Dame has had in recent memory.

Aneyas Williams enters 2026 as the featured back in a backfield that has been reloaded with genuine talent after the departure of Jeremiyah Love to the NFL. Williams brings a quickness, burst and space-creation ability that makes him a natural fit for the zone-blocking concepts Notre Dame runs — a runner who understands how to set up blocks, identify cutback lanes and accelerate through holes before defenders can close them. His ability to threaten defenses horizontally as well as vertically gives the ground game a dimension that forces defensive coordinators to honor the perimeter before crashing the interior — creating the kind of pre-snap conflict that makes Notre Dame's inside zone and power concepts more effective than they would be against a purely downhill running threat.

The offensive line's job is to create the environment where Williams's natural abilities can be fully expressed. With Black and Lambert protecting the edges, Knapp and Absher controlling the interior gaps and Craig directing the unit's communication from the center position, the blocking structure that Williams runs behind in 2026 has the potential to be the most effective the Irish have fielded in years.

When an offensive line dominates up front and a dynamic back like Williams is running behind it, rushing attacks do not just produce yards — they produce explosive plays, favorable down-and-distance situations and the kind of physical momentum that changes the entire complexion of a football game. Notre Dame's rushing attack has the ingredients for exactly that kind of production in 2026.

Protecting CJ Carr — The Most Important Assignment on the Roster

As important as the ground game is to Notre Dame's offensive identity, the offensive line's most critical assignment in 2026 is the one that directly determines whether the Irish passing offense reaches its enormous potential — protecting CJ Carr.

Carr enters his second season as Notre Dame's starter with the full benefit of a year of starting experience behind him, a deepened understanding of the offense and the weapons around him upgraded on every level. The wide receiver room is better. The tight end group is more experienced. The running back room gives him a genuine dual-threat dimension to work with in the passing game. The continuity of returning offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock and the same system Carr operated in throughout 2025 gives him a pre-snap processing advantage that second-year starters with returning coordinators enjoy in ways that are difficult to quantify but impossible to miss in the way they play.

But none of those advantages mean anything if Carr is running for his life on every passing down. The difference between a good quarterback and a great quarterback — between a solid season and a Heisman Trophy season — is almost always a function of how much time the offensive line gives him to go through progressions, identify coverage rotations and deliver the football to the right place with the timing and accuracy that his skill set demands.

Clean pockets do not just protect quarterbacks. They elevate them. When a quarterback can step into his throws, trust that his blindside is protected and operate through his full progression without the pressure of an unblocked defender bearing down on him, the entire passing game functions at a higher level. Routes develop more fully. Timing throws hit their windows. Check-downs become available when the primary read is covered. The entire mental processing load that second-year quarterbacks are still refining becomes more manageable when the physical environment the offensive line creates allows that processing to happen without the distortion of pressure.

Black and Lambert protecting Carr's edges in 2026 — if they perform at the level their talent suggests they can — give Notre Dame's quarterback an environment where his Heisman candidacy can develop naturally and fully. That is the assignment. Everything else the offensive line accomplishes in 2026 runs through whether they can consistently give CJ Carr the clean pocket he needs to maximize the talent surrounding him.

Mike Denbrock's Blueprint — Why Second-Year Quarterbacks Thrive Under His System

The offensive line's assignment in 2026 does not exist in isolation — it exists within the context of an offensive system designed by coordinator Mike Denbrock whose track record with second-year starting quarterbacks is one of the most compelling and relevant data points in Notre Dame's 2026 offensive preview.

Denbrock's résumé with second-year quarterbacks traces directly to the most celebrated quarterback performance in recent college football history. At LSU in 2023, Denbrock was the offensive coordinator for Jayden Daniels's Heisman Trophy season — a campaign in which Daniels, operating in his second year within a system that had been built around his strengths, produced one of the most statistically dominant quarterback performances the sport has ever seen. Daniels threw for 3,812 yards and 40 touchdowns while rushing for 1,134 yards and 10 more scores — numbers that earned him the Heisman Trophy and announced him as the most complete offensive player in college football.

The pattern that produced Daniels's Heisman season is directly applicable to what Carr and Notre Dame are building toward in 2026. A quarterback who has a full season of starting experience in the system. An offensive coordinator who has had a full offseason to study that quarterback's strengths, identify the plays and concepts that maximize his skill set and build a game plan philosophy that puts him in positions to succeed. A supporting cast that is upgraded from the previous season. And an offensive line assignment that is clearer, more positionally sound and more capable of providing protection than the one that existed in the quarterback's first year as a starter.

Denbrock has done this before. He has taken a second-year starting quarterback, built a system around his specific strengths and produced the kind of Heisman-caliber performance that changes careers. The offensive line's role in that process — keeping Carr clean, controlling the line of scrimmage in the run game and giving Denbrock's system the physical foundation it needs to operate at its ceiling — is the most direct and consequential contribution the unit can make to Notre Dame's 2026 championship aspirations.

If the offensive line delivers, Denbrock has everything he needs. If Denbrock has everything he needs, Carr has everything he needs. And if Carr has everything he needs — with the receiver room, the running back room and the system surrounding him in 2026 — the ceiling of what Notre Dame's offense can produce is genuinely limitless.

The Best Offensive Line of the Rudolph Era?

Stack all of it together — the experienced interior anchored by Knapp, Craig and Absher, the bookend tackle upside of Black and Lambert, the rushing production foundation that the past two seasons have established, the dynamic running back room led by Williams and the Denbrock-Carr connection that mirrors the blueprint that produced a Heisman Trophy at LSU — and the case for Notre Dame's 2026 offensive line being the best unit Rudolph has assembled at Notre Dame becomes genuinely compelling.

The standard was set in 2023 when Alt and Fisher gave Notre Dame two future NFL starters at the bookend positions. That unit is the measuring stick. Whether the 2026 group can approach or exceed that standard depends on Black and Lambert fulfilling the expectations their talent demands and the experienced interior delivering the consistency and physicality that championship offensive lines produce week after week.

The ingredients are there. The configuration is right. The assignment is clear. The supporting cast surrounding the offensive line — from Carr to Williams to the upgraded receiver room — gives the unit's performance a direct and immediate impact on Notre Dame's national championship aspirations.

This is Joe Rudolph's defining season. And for the first time in his Notre Dame tenure, he has the right players in the right places to make the definition one that every Fighting Irish fan will be proud of when the 2026 season is complete.

Will Black and Guerby Lambert. Protect the edge. Control the line of scrimmage. Fulfill the potential. Give CJ Carr the time to be great.

Do those things — and this offensive line does not just have the chance to be the best unit of the Rudolph era at Notre Dame.

It has the chance to be something that Notre Dame fans remember for a very long time.

Notre Dame's Most Painful and Embarrassing Losses-fan’s perspective

From gut-punch defeats to head-scratching upsets, these are the losses Irish fans can never forget

Every Notre Dame fan carries a mental list. The losses that still sting when you think about them too long, the ones that changed the trajectory of a season — or a program — and the ones so unexpected they still feel like a fever dream years later. The Lucky Lefty Podcast recently opened that wound for their audience, and the responses painted a vivid picture of decades of Irish heartbreak.

The conversation surfaced losses across multiple eras, each carrying its own specific flavor of pain.

The Embarrassments

Northern Illinois in 2012 sits near the top of almost every fan's embarrassment list — and for good reason. Notre Dame was riding the wave of an undefeated run toward a national championship appearance, and the NIU loss came at the worst possible time for the program's credibility. As one listener put it, every squirrel gets a nut eventually, but this particular nut cost the Irish dearly in terms of national perception.

The Stanford loss under Marcus Freeman's early tenure carries a different kind of embarrassment — not just because of the defeat itself but because of the way it ended. David Shaw, coaching what turned out to be one of his final games, walked off the field with a smirk that said everything. A program that had been terrible that year had just handed Freeman one of the most stinging early losses of his tenure, and Shaw departed without so much as a handshake — walking slowly off the field as if he wanted every Notre Dame fan to absorb the moment fully. You can't fight the bully when he moves to another city. That slow walk became the enduring image of that afternoon.

The Michigan State fake field goal belongs in its own category entirely. Notre Dame's defense had every reason to expect it — the Spartans' kicker had missed two attempts from distance on the night, and the situation screamed fake. And yet when Michigan State ran it, the Irish fell for it completely. The image of Notre Dame defenders' faces in that moment — the sudden realization of what had just happened — captured something painfully familiar about Irish football in certain eras.

The Painful Ones

The 2014 Florida State game occupies a special place of pain for Notre Dame fans because of what it represented beyond the loss itself. The Seminoles were coming off a national championship, riding an unbeaten streak, and playing at home with full momentum. Notre Dame had the talent and the moment to make a genuine statement — and a controversial pass interference call late in the game swung the outcome. The what-if of that game lingers because the trajectory of Brian Kelly's program could have bent permanently in Notre Dame's favor with a victory. Instead, a fork in the road sent the program in a different direction.

The 2023 Ohio State loss — with ten men on the field — makes the embarrassing list for reasons that need no elaboration. Execution errors at the most basic level, on the biggest stage, against the most visible opponent. That one hurt in a way that felt institutional rather than situational.

The Northwestern Problem

Perhaps the most revealing discussion centered on a Northwestern loss that podcast co-host Malik Zaire experienced firsthand as a Notre Dame player. The pain wasn't simply that Notre Dame lost — it was how Northwestern played in that game. The Wildcats were dropping touchdowns, making plays that had no business happening against a Notre Dame roster with significantly superior talent. Trevor Siemian was throwing bombs. The Irish were getting beaten by a team that, as Zaire noted, probably could have won by more if they had simply caught every ball thrown their way. Losing to a team that wasn't at full capacity is its own particular brand of humiliating.

The Consistent Thread

What connects every loss on this list is not talent disparity — it is execution, circumstance and the painful randomness of college football applied to a program that carries enormous expectations into every single game it plays. Notre Dame fans don't just want wins. They want wins that match the standard the program sets for itself, and every loss on this list fell short of that standard in its own specific and memorable way.

The good news, as one podcast host noted, is that genuinely embarrassing losses — the kind where Notre Dame had no business competing — have been remarkably rare over the past 15 years. The 2012 Alabama national championship game is the only contest in that span where the outcome felt completely inevitable from the opening drive. Everything else has been competitive, consequential and winnable.

That is the standard Marcus Freeman is now carrying forward — and the 2026 season represents his best opportunity yet to ensure the painful losses remain in the past where they belong.

ESPN's College Football Future Power Rankings Have Notre Dame at the Top

When ESPN set out to rank all 68 Power Four programs in their future power rankings — evaluating quarterback situations, trench outlooks, roster management, star power and coaching staff quality with the kind of comprehensive rigor that separates serious analytical work from preseason speculation — the Fighting Irish came out on top.

Not second. Not in a group of three or four teams separated by fractions of evaluation points. First. Unambiguously, convincingly and with justification that holds up to scrutiny from every angle the evaluation touched.

This is not a sentimental ranking built on Notre Dame's brand, its history or the weight of its tradition. ESPN looked at what is actually on the field, what is being built in the recruiting pipeline, how the roster is being managed and who is coaching the program — and concluded that no program in the country is better positioned for sustained elite performance than Marcus Freeman's Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

The case begins with a quarterback whose growth and efficiency have already made him one of the most decorated signal callers in Notre Dame history. It runs through an offensive line that is finally deploying its elite talent in the right positions. It extends through a running back room with genuine dimension and a wide receiver group upgraded on every level. And it culminates in a defense that returns significant proven production while adding transfer portal talent to a revamped defensive staff that made the transition look seamless during spring practice.

Stack all of it together and the No. 1 ranking does not just make sense. It is the only honest conclusion.

CJ Carr — Growth, Efficiency and the Foundation of Everything

Every conversation about Notre Dame's 2026 ceiling begins in the same place — under center, with a redshirt sophomore quarterback whose growth from his first start to where he stands today represents one of the most impressive individual development arcs in college football.

CJ Carr did not arrive at Notre Dame's starting position through the transfer portal or through the kind of five-star recruiting coronation that precedes some quarterbacks before they ever take a college snap. He developed — through the program's system, under the coaching staff's instruction and through the accumulated experience of an entire season of starting at Notre Dame — into exactly what ESPN's Adam Rittenberg described as a national awards contender.

The statistical foundation that justifies that description is historically significant. Carr's 168.06 passer rating from the 2025 season was a Notre Dame program record — surpassing the previous mark held by Jimmy Clausen, a quarterback whose 2009 season is still discussed as one of the most polished individual performances in Notre Dame's quarterback history. Breaking a program record in your first year as a starter is not a product of circumstance. It is a product of genuine excellence sustained over the course of a full season against Power Four competition.

The efficiency numbers amplify the record even further. Carr completed 66.6 percent of his passes — fourth best single-season mark in Notre Dame program history across every era of Fighting Irish football. He threw 24 touchdowns against just six interceptions — and four of those six interceptions came in his first two starts, the natural adjustment period of a first-year starter navigating varsity speed for the first time. In his final ten starts of the season, Carr threw four interceptions across ten games — a turnover rate that matches the best decision-making quarterbacks in the country regardless of experience level.

The deep ball numbers are equally impressive and perhaps more revealing about what kind of quarterback Carr truly is. Eight touchdowns and zero interceptions on passes of 20 yards or more — a statistical combination that reflects both the arm talent to challenge defenses vertically and the decision-making discipline to never force throws in the most high-risk areas of the field. Zero interceptions on deep passes across an entire season is the kind of number that NFL scouts and Heisman voters notice immediately because it is so rare and so meaningful as a predictor of elite quarterback performance.

His yards-per-attempt average of 9.4 ranked second among all returning quarterbacks in the entire country — not second in the ACC, not second among independent programs, but second nationally among every returning signal caller in college football. That number reflects efficient, high-value passing that consistently moves the chains, creates explosive plays and maximizes the production value of every throw rather than accumulating yards through volume and check-downs.

The November elevation that Sporting News specifically cited in their No. 3 national quarterback ranking — a passer rating of 170.2 in the final month of the regular season — confirms what the full-season numbers suggest and then exceeds it. Carr was better in November than he was in September. He was better when the schedule was harder, the stakes were higher and the defensive preparation against him was most sophisticated. That late-season elevation is the single most reliable indicator that a quarterback's development is genuine, sustainable and pointed toward something significantly better in year two.

The growth from his first start against Miami in 2025 — when the country got its initial look at a talented but unproven first-year starter navigating an elite opponent in a high-pressure environment — to the polished, confident and statistically dominant quarterback who closed that season and walked into spring 2026 as the program's unquestioned leader is as dramatic an individual development arc as any quarterback in the country produced over the same period.

Entering 2026 with that foundation behind him — the record passer rating, the elite completion percentage, the zero deep-ball interceptions, the November elevation and a full offseason of development with Mike Denbrock building a system specifically around his strengths — Carr is not just one of the five best returning quarterbacks in the country. He is making a genuine and credible case to be the best. And the structure surrounding him in 2026 gives that case more supporting evidence than any other quarterback in college football can claim.

The Offensive Line — Elite Talent Finally in the Right Places

The offensive line evaluation is where ESPN's future power ranking for Notre Dame gets most specific and most optimistic — and for good reason. The unit that Joe Rudolph is sending onto the field in 2026 is the most thoughtfully constructed and positionally appropriate starting five he has assembled since his arrival in 2023, when Joe Alt and Blake Fisher gave Notre Dame a bookend tackle pair that now starts in the NFL.

The interior of this offensive line returns experienced, battle-tested starters whose collective knowledge of Notre Dame's blocking schemes and protection concepts gives the unit a communication and cohesion that young tackle prospects need around them to develop effectively. Ashton Craig returns at center as a legitimate Rimington Trophy contender — a distinction that reflects both the quality of Craig's individual performance and the critical importance of his role as the unit's communicator and pre-snap processor. Craig's ability to identify defensive alignments, make protection calls and ensure that every blocker on the unit is operating from the same information on every snap is the infrastructure that makes everything else on the offensive line function.

Anthonie Knapp returns at left guard — now settled into the position where Rudolph and the staff believe his ceiling is highest after two years of starting at left tackle. The move inside is not a demotion but a correction — putting a talented, experienced blocker in the alignment where his power at the point of attack, his ability to anchor against interior rushers and his two years of starting-caliber experience are most powerfully expressed. Knapp at left guard entering 2026 is a significantly more dangerous player than Knapp at left tackle — and the unit benefits immediately from having his experience and physicality deployed in the right place.

Sullivan Absher completes the interior at right guard with the competitive hunger of a redshirt junior who has waited for exactly this starting opportunity. Players who earn starting roles through development and patience rather than through recruiting star ratings tend to play with a chip-on-the-shoulder energy that makes them among the most consistently effective contributors on any offensive line — and Absher enters 2026 with every motivation to prove that the wait was worth it for both himself and the program.

The bookend tackles are where this offensive line's ceiling lives and where the most exciting development stories of the 2026 season will unfold. Will Black — a five-star recruit whose length, athleticism and pass protection tools have always projected to the blindside tackle position — takes over at left tackle for what should be a transformative first full season protecting Carr's blind side. The growing pains of a first-year starting left tackle against Power Four edge rushers are a normal and expected part of the development process — but the ceiling that Black is building toward as those growing pains accumulate into experience and confidence is the kind that changes what a program's offensive line can be for multiple seasons.

Guerby Lambert at right tackle is the complementary story — a five-star recruit from the 2024 class finally operating at the position where his physical profile projects most naturally for a full season as the unambiguous starting right tackle. Lambert's combination of size, length and athleticism gives Notre Dame a potential true bookend pair with Black on the left side — the first time since Alt and Fisher that Rudolph has had that configuration available — and the results of a full season with both tackles in their natural positions could finally deliver the dominant unit that the talent in this room has always suggested was possible.

The potential return of Charles Jagusah — a five-star recruit whose development has been delayed — adds yet another elite-recruited option to a depth chart that is already one of the deepest Rudolph has had since his arrival. The depth and quality of this offensive line room entering 2026 is genuinely exceptional — and the configuration finally matches the talent with the positional assignments that maximize every player's individual ceiling.

The Running Back Room — Dynamic Talent Ready to Carry the Load

The departure of Jeremiyah Love — the No. 3 overall pick in the NFL Draft — is the most significant personnel loss Notre Dame faces on offense heading into 2026. Love was one of the most dynamic running backs in college football, a unanimous All-American whose big-play capability and consistency defined Notre Dame's ground attack across two seasons and made him one of the most celebrated players in the program's recent history.

But the Irish are not rebuilding the backfield. They are reloading it — with a group of talented, complementary backs whose collective skill set gives Mike Denbrock's offense a multi-dimensional ground game that can attack defenses in ways that a single-back approach never allows.

Aneyas Williams steps into the featured role with the physical tools, competitive instincts and playmaking ability to make the transition from Love to the next era of Notre Dame running back excellence as smooth as the talent in the room allows. Williams's combination of acceleration, vision and contact balance gives the Irish a back who can operate effectively in Notre Dame's zone-blocking scheme — identifying cutback lanes, setting up blocks and accelerating through holes before defenders can close them with the quickness that makes him a natural fit for the concepts Denbrock calls most frequently.

Williams's versatility as a receiver out of the backfield adds a dimension to Notre Dame's passing game that forces defensive coordinators to honor the check-down and screen game on every snap — pulling linebackers and safeties into coverage assignments that open the intermediate passing windows where Carr's accuracy and anticipation are most devastating. A running back who can genuinely threaten defenses both between the tackles and in the passing game is one of the most valuable offensive assets any coordinator can have — and Williams brings both dimensions to Notre Dame's 2026 backfield.

The depth behind Williams gives Denbrock genuine flexibility in how he deploys the ground game. Multiple capable backs with different physical profiles and running styles creates the kind of schematic variety that keeps defensive coordinators from settling into comfortable run defense adjustments — because the same blocking scheme produces different looks when different runners are operating behind it.

The collective expectation for Notre Dame's 2026 running back room is not to replace what Love provided individually but to provide what the room as a whole can produce collectively — and the talent assembled gives the Irish offense every reason to believe that collective production will be more than sufficient to keep the ground game a genuine threat that defenses must account for on every single snap.

The Wide Receiver Room — More Weapons Than CJ Carr Has Ever Had

If the offensive line case for Notre Dame's No. 1 ranking is built on positional construction and the running back case is built on dynamic talent filling a significant departure, the wide receiver case is the most straightforwardly exciting component of the entire offensive evaluation — because the group Carr is throwing to in 2026 is simply better than any receiver room he has had available in his Notre Dame career.

Jordan Faison returns as the established and proven No. 1 option after leading Notre Dame with 40 receptions, 640 yards and four touchdowns in 2025 — the team's leading receiver, produced while sharing a room with Malachi Fields and Jaden Greathouse. Faison's decision to give up lacrosse and commit entirely to football this offseason is the kind of singular focus investment that produces significant statistical leaps — and the Carr-Faison connection that produced 40 catches in a season where Fields was the projected No. 1 option is primed to become something even more dominant when Faison enters 2026 as the unambiguous first read with an undivided preparation investment behind him.

Jaden Greathouse brings the explosive playmaking dimension that makes Notre Dame's receiver room genuinely dangerous rather than simply functional. Greathouse's combination of separation quickness, yards-after-catch capability and big-play instincts — demonstrated emphatically in Notre Dame's 2024 postseason run — gives Carr a receiver who can take a short completion and turn it into a long gain, a slant route and turn it into a crossing score and a go ball and create the kind of contested-catch opportunity that changes field position in an instant. Pair Greathouse's explosion with Faison's reliable production and Notre Dame presents opposing secondaries with a No. 1 and No. 2 receiver combination that is as difficult to defend as any in the country.

The transfer portal additions elevate the room from very good to genuinely elite. Mylan Graham arrives from Ohio State with Big Ten starting experience, proven production at one of the most demanding programs in college football and the physical tools that made him a highly coveted recruit before his time at Ohio State. Graham does not need to be the No. 1 receiver or carry the production load to be enormously valuable — he needs to be a legitimate third option who punishes defensive coordinators for the coverage attention they devote to Faison and Greathouse. With the coverage bracket that those two demand, Graham will see single coverage against the best corner available on a given defense — and his Ohio State-tested talent gives him every tool to make opposing teams pay for that coverage decision.

Quincy Porter provides additional receiving depth from the same Ohio State program — another experienced, proven pass catcher who brings Big Ten competition reps to a Notre Dame receiver room that needed exactly this kind of experienced depth to complement its returning talent.

Three legitimate receiving threats with different physical profiles, different route-running styles and different strengths within the passing game — backed by experienced portal additions who contribute immediately and meaningfully to the room's depth and versatility. The receiver room Carr inherits in 2026 is the best he has ever had and one of the most complete groups in college football heading into the season.

The Defense — Proven Production Returns, Elite Additions Bolster the Front

While the offensive case for Notre Dame's No. 1 ranking builds from quarterback to skill positions to the line, the defensive case begins and ends with a simple and powerful truth — the production that made Notre Dame's defense one of the best units in the country late in the 2025 season is returning at a remarkably high rate, and the additions made through the transfer portal have addressed the few areas where reinforcement was genuinely needed.

Leonard Moore is the centerpiece of everything Notre Dame does defensively in 2026 and the most important returning player on the entire roster. The best cornerback in college football — PFF's No. 1 ranked returning cornerback for the second consecutive season — enters 2026 as the consensus Thorpe Award favorite after earning first-team unanimous All-America honors in 2025. Moore's 91.4 coverage grade and 90.9 overall defensive grade led all Power Four starting cornerbacks. He led Notre Dame with five interceptions while being targeted on only 11.5 percent of his coverage snaps — the ultimate testament to a cornerback so dominant that the entire country's offenses chose to scheme away from him rather than challenge him.

With Moore locking down one side of the field, the rest of Notre Dame's secondary carries a freedom and flexibility that makes the entire defensive system more dangerous. Christian Gray returns as a proven secondary contributor whose versatility allows defensive coordinator Chris Ash to present multiple coverage looks without sacrificing quality at any individual position. The addition of DJ McKinney from Colorado via the transfer portal gives the secondary a third proven option — a player with starting experience against Power Four competition who slides into a complementary role alongside Moore and Gray and completes what ESPN identified as potentially the biggest strength on Notre Dame's entire 2026 roster.

Adon Shuler returns at safety with the kind of range, instincts and ball-hawking ability that make him one of the most exciting developmental stories in Notre Dame's defensive backfield. His presence in the deep middle — rotating into coverage, supporting the run and creating the kind of turnover opportunities that change field position and momentum — gives Ash's secondary a complete, complementary set of pieces that no passing game can attack with a single schematic approach.

The linebacker corps is anchored by Drayk Bowen — one of the most complete linebackers in college football and the defensive engine that makes Notre Dame's second level function at its highest capacity. Bowen's combination of run-stopping physicality, coverage range and pre-snap processing intelligence gives the entire defense a communicator and lead tackler who elevates every player around him. His return alongside the developing linebacker talent around him gives Brian Jean-Mary — veteran defensive assistant now overseeing the linebacker group — proven production to build around from day one.

The Defensive Line — Transfer Additions Transform an Already Talented Front

The most dramatic and consequential roster construction development on Notre Dame's defensive side heading into 2026 is the transformation of the defensive line through a combination of proven returning contributors and high-impact transfer additions that address the program's most critical pass rush needs.

Boubacar Traore returns as Notre Dame's most dangerous and most disruptive pass rush weapon — a junior edge whose combination of first-step quickness, motor and technical pass rush arsenal makes him a consistent threat to influence every passing down. Traore's presence gives Ash's defensive front a proven, established disruptive force that new additions can complement rather than replace — the difference between addition by addition and addition by multiplication when it comes to what a defensive line can become collectively.

Bryce Young returns as a versatile and experienced contributor whose ability to line up in multiple positions along the defensive front gives Ash the flexibility to create different alignments and present different problems to opposing offenses without sacrificing individual quality at any spot. Young's experience and positional versatility are the kind of foundational traits that make an entire defensive line unit more difficult to prepare for — because the combinations he enables on the front are more numerous and more creative than a less flexible roster allows.

Jason Onye provides senior-level experience and established production at the defensive tackle position — a player whose understanding of what Notre Dame's defensive system demands and what elite college football competition requires gives the younger contributors on the defensive line a standard to measure themselves against and a guide to follow in the most demanding preparation moments of the week.

The transfer additions are where the defensive line story becomes genuinely transformative. Francis Brewu arrives from Pittsburgh with a national reputation as one of the most physically dominant interior defensive linemen in the transfer portal — a player whose combination of power, leverage and relentless effort at the point of attack gives Notre Dame's front an interior disruptive presence that immediately elevates the entire unit's run-stopping and pass-rushing capability. Brewu's Pittsburgh experience against ACC competition means his transition to Notre Dame's defensive system is not a leap into the unknown but a progression within a competitive environment he already understands.

Keon Keeley arrives from Alabama with the pedigree and physical tools that made him one of the most coveted defensive line recruits in his class — and the development infrastructure of Alabama's program having already invested significant time and resources into maximizing his potential. Keeley gives Notre Dame an edge presence whose ceiling, if fully realized under Ash's system and Partridge's coaching, could be the most disruptive individual defensive line performance the Irish have produced in years.

Tionne Gray from Oregon rounds out the transfer additions with starting experience and proven production from a Pac-12-level program — a player whose senior eligibility makes him the most immediately impactful of the three portal additions in terms of on-field availability and competitive readiness.

A New Defensive Staff That Hit the Ground Running

The most compelling subplot of Notre Dame's defensive preparation heading into 2026 is the transition to a reshaped defensive staff — and how smoothly that transition appears to have gone during spring practice despite the significant personnel changes that coordinator Chris Ash made to his unit this offseason.

Aaron Henry joins the staff to coach defensive backs, reuniting with Ash in a configuration that the coordinator knows and trusts from previous stops in his coaching career. The comfort and communication between Henry and Ash — built on an existing professional relationship — eliminates the adjustment period that typically accompanies new staff additions and allows the defensive back group to benefit from coaching cohesion from the very first practice of the spring.

Charlie Partridge takes over the defensive line — a coach whose recruiting track record and development philosophy give Notre Dame's front seven a proven leader whose ability to maximize pass rush talent and interior disruption is already on display in the 2027 recruiting class, where he landed the No. 2 defensive tackle in the country in David Folorunsho during his first recruiting cycle.

Brian Jean-Mary's oversight of the linebackers completes a defensive staff whose collective experience and internal cohesion make the transition from the previous staff configuration feel less like a rebuild and more like a refinement.

The spring practice reports that emerged from the new defensive staff's first extended look at the roster were encouraging across the board — a unit that absorbed significant coaching change, integrated transfer additions and developed communication between new coaches and returning players with a smoothness that reflects both the quality of the coaches Ash brought in and the leadership of the veteran players already in the building.

A defensive staff transition that goes well in the spring is not a guarantee of autumn dominance — but a transition that goes poorly in the spring is almost always visible in September. Notre Dame's spring went well. The foundation for what this defense can become in 2026 under its new coaching configuration is as solid as any rebuilt staff could reasonably hope to establish in a single spring session.

The Bottom Line — No. 1 is Not a Gift. It Is a Grade.

ESPN evaluated 68 Power Four programs. They looked at quarterback situations, trench outlooks, roster management philosophies, collections of star power and coaching staff quality. They graded every program with the analytical rigor that separates meaningful future power rankings from preseason popularity contests.

Notre Dame came out No. 1.

Not because of history. Not because of brand. Not because of 11 national championships and one of the most famous stadiums in American sports. Because of CJ Carr's historically efficient first year and the second-year leap that every indicator supports. Because of an offensive line finally deploying its elite bookend talent in its natural positions. Because of a dynamic, versatile running back room. Because of a receiver group more talented and more experienced than any Carr has had available. Because of Leonard Moore being the best cornerback in America and Drayk Bowen being one of the best linebackers. Because of Brewu, Keeley and Gray transforming a defensive line that was already talented. Because of a new defensive staff that transitioned smoothly and a head coach who turned down the NFL to keep building something in South Bend.

Phil Steele has Notre Dame No. 1 in his preseason rankings. ESPN has Notre Dame No. 1 in their future power rankings.

The program that Marcus Freeman has built did not get to the top of those lists by accident.

It earned every spot.

Notre Dame 2027 Linebacker Recruiting — Brian Jean-Mary's Chance to Build Something Special

With two official visitors on the way and Amarri Irvin already committed, the Irish linebacker class could become one of the best in recent memory

Notre Dame's 2026 linebacker recruiting class is building toward something that could redefine the position group in South Bend for years to come — and the man at the center of it all is linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary, who is closing in on a group that Lucky Lefty co-host Shaun Davis and Malik Zaire are already calling potentially game changing if the remaining pieces fall into place.

The foundation is already in place. Amarri Irvin, the Florida linebacker who committed to Notre Dame earlier in the cycle, gives Jean-Mary a proven cornerstone to build around. Irvin's presence alone signals that the Irish are recruiting the position at an elite level in this class — but what comes next could elevate the group from very good to genuinely special.

Two linebacker prospects are scheduled for official visits to Notre Dame, and the Irish coaching staff is pushing hard to close on both. One prospect that had been in the conversation — Noah Glover — came off the board earlier this month when he committed to Miami, removing himself from Notre Dame's official visit list. But the two remaining targets represent the kind of talent that, if signed alongside Irvin, would give Notre Dame a linebacker trio capable of competing with any group assembled nationally in this recruiting cycle.

Jean-Mary's ability to close on these two visitors is the central question surrounding Notre Dame's linebacker recruiting between now and signing day. If he lands both, the trio with Irvin becomes one of the most celebrated linebacker hauls in Notre Dame's recent recruiting history — a group that could be mentioned alongside the program's best position-specific classes of the past decade.

The linebacker position has been a focal point of Notre Dame's defensive identity under Marcus Freeman, whose background as a defensive coordinator and linebackers coach gives him a particular investment in the position group's development and recruiting. Jean-Mary carries that torch forward in 2026 — and based on the talent currently in play and the official visits on the calendar, he appears to be carrying it at exactly the right height.

The official visits will tell the story. Notre Dame has done the work to get these prospects on campus. Now comes the closing — the part of the recruiting process where relationships, vision and the weight of Notre Dame's football tradition either win the room or don't.

Based on everything surrounding this class so far, the Irish coaching staff appears ready to win the room.

Jordan Faison's Growth Sets the Stage for a 2026 Breakout at Notre Dame

Breakout seasons don't materialize from thin air. They are built — rep by rep, season by season, through a progression of growth that is visible in the numbers if you know where to look and patient enough to watch the arc develop over time rather than demanding immediate results.

Jordan Faison's arc at Notre Dame is one of the most clearly defined and statistically compelling progression stories in college football heading into 2026. Look at the numbers across each season he has played and the trajectory is unmistakable — a receiver who has gotten measurably, undeniably better every single time he has stepped on a college football field, against better competition, in bigger moments, with higher stakes surrounding every performance.

Now, entering 2026 as Notre Dame's established No. 1 wide receiver and quarterback CJ Carr's most trusted target, everything Faison has built across three seasons of steady statistical growth is pointed directly at one destination — a breakout season that the numbers have been predicting for anyone paying close enough attention.

The progression is real. The breakout is coming. And the story of how Jordan Faison got here is worth telling in full.

Where It Started — A Walk-On With Zero Catches and One Moment

The baseline of Faison's progression at Notre Dame is important context for everything that follows — because where he started makes where he is going that much more remarkable.

Faison arrived at Notre Dame as a walk-on. Not a three-star recruit who needed development time. Not a portal addition brought in for a specific role. A walk-on — a player who had to earn everything from scratch against a roster filled with recruited talent that arrived with built-in advantages in opportunity and visibility.

Through the first several weeks of his freshman season in 2023, Faison had zero catches. Not a breakout waiting to happen, not a player on the verge — zero production, zero statistical footprint, zero reason for the outside world to pay attention.

Then came Louisville. Two catches, 48 yards, one touchdown — and a trajectory that changed permanently from that moment forward. In the final six games of that regular season, Faison went from invisible to indispensable, finishing with 17 catches for 274 yards and three touchdowns once he got going. His freshman year closed with a five-catch, 115-yard, one-touchdown performance against a ranked Oregon State team in the Sun Bowl — a statement game that planted the flag for everything that was coming.

The foundation had been laid. The progression was about to begin in earnest.

2024 — The Injury-Interrupted Proof of Concept

The 2024 season was supposed to be the year Faison announced himself to the wider college football world on a full-season scale. Injuries had other plans — limiting his overall regular season production and forcing a level of patience and resilience that tested his commitment to the process.

But here is what the 2024 numbers reveal when you look at them honestly — even in an injury-hampered season, Faison produced when he was healthy, and when the playoffs arrived and his health returned, he delivered the kind of performances that proved the Sun Bowl was not a one-game sample of his ceiling.

Against Indiana and Georgia in back-to-back playoff games, Faison recorded 11 catches for 135 yards — producing at exactly the moment Notre Dame needed its receivers most, on the biggest stage the college football regular season offers, against playoff-caliber defenses that had spent weeks preparing specifically for Notre Dame's offense.

The 2024 season's most important contribution to Faison's progression was not statistical. It was the proof that he could be relied upon in high-stakes moments, that the Louisville and Sun Bowl performances were character revelations rather than flukes and that when his body allowed him to play at full capacity, the production followed immediately and emphatically.

That proof set the stage for what 2025 was about to become.

2025 — The Statistical Leap That Changed the Conversation

If 2023 planted the seed and 2024 proved the concept despite limited opportunity, then 2025 was the season Jordan Faison's progression announced itself to the entire country with a clarity that could not be dismissed, debated or explained away.

Forty receptions. 640 receiving yards. Four touchdowns. Notre Dame's leading receiver — not a portal addition, not a five-star recruit, not the player anyone had projected to lead this offense statistically when the season began.

The numbers represent a genuine statistical leap that reflects every element of Faison's growth as a receiver. More receptions than any season before. More yards than any season before. More touchdowns in a single full campaign than his career suggested was coming. And all of it produced while sharing a receiver room with Malachi Fields — a four-year Virginia transfer who arrived specifically to be the go-to target — and Jaden Greathouse, who had been one of the most talked-about receivers in the program entering the season.

Faison outproduced them both. Not because the opportunity fell to him by default but because he earned it, week after week, with performances that proved he was the most reliable and productive weapon in Carr's passing arsenal.

The weekly production in 2025 told the story of a receiver operating with a consistency and confidence that only comes from genuine development. Five receptions for 33 yards and a touchdown against Miami in the season opener — no easing into the season, no waiting for momentum to build. Five catches for 105 yards and a touchdown against Purdue two weeks later — back-to-back productive performances that established a standard rather than teasing one. Seven catches for 89 yards against Arkansas on the road — producing in an environment where receivers are routinely neutralized by crowd noise, hostile atmospheres and game-plan-specific coverage. Six catches for 83 yards against Boise State — maintaining production against a defense built specifically to take away big plays in the passing game.

Then the regular season finale — three catches for 68 yards and a touchdown against Stanford on the road — a closing performance that mirrored the Sun Bowl statement from his freshman year and confirmed that Faison's best games consistently come when the moment is largest.

The Carr-Faison Connection — Chemistry Built Over Time

Numbers tell one part of the Faison story in 2025. The other part is the relationship that developed between him and quarterback CJ Carr throughout the season — a connection that grew more precise, more instinctive and more productive as the weeks accumulated and the two players built the kind of shared football language that only develops through sustained repetition and genuine trust.

Carr arrived in 2025 as a first-year starter navigating all the challenges that come with that transition — learning to manage game speed, make pre-snap reads under pressure and build the kind of confidence in his receivers that allows a quarterback to throw with conviction into tight windows against elite coverage. Faison became his anchor in that process.

The Carr-Faison connection worked because Faison gave his quarterback something every first-year starter desperately needs — a receiver who ran precise routes, found soft spots in zone coverage with intelligence rather than just athleticism, presented a reliable and consistently available target and made the right play after the catch to maximize every opportunity. Carr learned he could trust Faison in any situation, against any coverage and in any field position — and that trust, built game by game throughout 2025, is now entering 2026 as one of Notre Dame's most valuable offensive assets.

A quarterback and his No. 1 receiver entering their second full season together with an established connection and a full year of shared starting experience is a luxury Marcus Freeman has never had in his tenure at Notre Dame. Carr and Faison have it now — and what that chemistry can produce with a full offseason of work behind it is one of the most exciting questions surrounding Notre Dame's 2026 offense.

The Decision That Unlocks the Next Level

Before the statistical case for a 2026 breakout can be fully made, the offseason decision that makes it possible deserves its own recognition — because Jordan Faison made a choice this spring that speaks directly to how seriously he is approaching this opportunity.

Faison gave up lacrosse. Completely. Fully committed to football as the singular focus of his athletic life going forward.

For a multi-sport athlete, that decision carries real weight. It means every offseason hour that was previously divided between two sports is now directed entirely toward football. Every training session, every film session, every route-running repetition, every moment spent deepening his understanding of the offense and strengthening his connection with Carr — all of it now happens in the undivided context of a player who has chosen football as his complete identity.

The technical refinements that decision enables — sharper route running, more refined release packages against press coverage, deeper route tree development and the kind of receiver-quarterback timing work that only accumulates through concentrated repetition — are exactly what separate a very good college receiver from a great one. Faison has invested in all of it this offseason, and reports from South Bend suggest it is already showing up in the way he is operating within Notre Dame's offensive system.

The player who led Notre Dame in receiving in 2025 while still splitting his attention between two sports is now a full-time football player preparing for what could be his final season in South Bend. That combination of established production and elevated preparation is a genuinely dangerous thing for opposing defenses.

Reading the Progression — What the Numbers Say About 2026

Pull back and look at Jordan Faison's statistical arc across his Notre Dame career and the trajectory draws itself.

A walk-on with zero catches who finished his freshman year with 17 receptions, 274 yards and three touchdowns in six games once he got going — including a 115-yard Sun Bowl performance against a ranked opponent. An injury-hampered sophomore season that still produced 11 catches for 135 yards in two playoff games when his health returned. A junior season that produced 40 receptions, 640 yards and four touchdowns as the team's leading receiver — with consistent weekly production against a diverse slate of competition that included road games, playoff-caliber defenses and opponents that specifically schemed to take him away.

Each season has been better than the one before it. Each opportunity has been maximized more completely than the previous one. Each stage of the progression has revealed a receiver who is not just adding statistical volume but genuinely improving as a route runner, a contested-catch threat, a yards-after-catch contributor and a football intelligence that allows him to manipulate coverage in ways that create opportunities for himself and for the receivers around him.

The natural extension of that arc — a returning No. 1 receiver, a full offseason dedicated entirely to football, a second season of genuine chemistry with his starting quarterback and a role in the offense that is now unambiguously his — points toward one thing.

A breakout season. The kind that turns a compelling progression story into a national conversation about one of the best receivers in college football.

The Stage Is Set

Marcus Freeman has never entered a season with a returning No. 1 wide receiver. He has never had all three coordinators return simultaneously. He has never had a returning starting quarterback with a full season of starting experience already behind him. In 2026, he has all three — and Jordan Faison is the player who ties them together most directly.

Carr knows where Faison will be. Faison knows what Carr needs. The offense knows how to use them together. And Faison has spent an offseason investing everything he has into becoming the best version of himself as a receiver before what could be his final opportunity to make a definitive statement in South Bend.

The progression from walk-on afterthought to Notre Dame's leading receiver to preseason No. 1 target entering 2026 is one of the best individual development stories in Marcus Freeman's tenure. The numbers back every word of it.

Now comes the breakout. The progression has been building toward it for three years.

In 2026, Jordan Faison is ready to arrive — completely, definitively and on the biggest stage Notre Dame has to offer.

cj carr named 3rd best qb in college football

There is a moment in every great quarterback's college career where the trajectory becomes undeniable — where the statistics, the growth, the surrounding talent and the coaching infrastructure align in a way that makes the conversation shift from potential to inevitability. For CJ Carr, that moment is now. And the destination that trajectory is pointing toward — a Heisman Trophy, a national championship and a top-five selection in the 2027 NFL Draft — is not a dream being projected onto a talented player by an overly optimistic fan base.

It is the logical conclusion of an honest evaluation of where CJ Carr has been, where he is right now and everything that is being built around him for the 2026 season.

Sporting News made their position clear when Bill Bender released his definitive Top 25 quarterback rankings for 2026. Carr came in at No. 3 — near the very top of a list that reflects the national consensus about where Notre Dame's redshirt sophomore stands among his peers. Outside of a genuinely puzzling On3 ranking that placed him outside their top five — from the same service that ranked him outside the top 200 coming out of high school — every major evaluator agrees on the same fundamental truth.

CJ Carr is one of the five best returning quarterbacks in college football. The story of how he got there — from a first start against Miami that introduced him to the country to the polished, confident signal caller lighting up spring practice in 2026 — is one of the best individual development stories in college football. And the story of where he is going may be even better.

The First Start — A Nation Takes Notice

To fully appreciate how far CJ Carr has come, you have to go back to where it started. The season opener against Miami in 2025 was the moment the country got its first real look at Notre Dame's new starting quarterback — and what they saw was a young signal caller stepping into one of the most pressure-filled starting debuts in recent Notre Dame history with a composure and command that immediately suggested this was not an ordinary first-year starter.

Miami came in as one of the most talented and hyped programs in the country — a team loaded with NFL-caliber talent at nearly every position and playing with the confidence of a program that believed it was on the verge of something special. The spotlight on Carr in that game was enormous. The margin for error was minimal. The entire college football world was watching to see how Notre Dame's new quarterback would handle the moment.

Carr handled it. Not perfectly — no first start is ever perfect — but with the kind of poise, processing ability and competitive presence that told everyone watching that Notre Dame had found something real at the quarterback position. He completed passes efficiently, avoided the turnovers that derail first-year starters in big games and delivered performances that gave Notre Dame's offense enough production to win. The foundation was set. The journey had begun.

What followed across the 2025 season was a masterclass in development — a first-year starting quarterback getting better with every single game, processing the position more efficiently with every passing week and building toward the kind of late-season elevation that Sporting News specifically cited as one of the most compelling indicators of what 2026 could produce.

The growth

The complete statistical picture of CJ Carr's redshirt freshman season is one of the most impressive first-year starting quarterback performances in Notre Dame history — and understanding those numbers in their full context is essential to understanding why No. 3 in the country is not a reach but a reflection of documented excellence.

2,741 passing yards — the foundation of a passing production season that would have been even more impressive if not for the statistical distortion created by a single game.

24 touchdowns, six interceptions — a touchdown-to-interception ratio that reflects decision-making discipline most starting quarterbacks spend two or three years developing. Carr produced it in year one.

66.6 percent completion rate — the fourth best single-season completion percentage in Notre Dame program history. A list that includes every quarterback who has ever played in South Bend across decades of elite football tradition. Fourth all-time in your first year as a starter is not a coincidence. It is evidence of genuine accuracy built on sound mechanical foundations.

168.06 passer rating — a Notre Dame program record. The previous record of 161.4 was most recently held by Jimmy Clausen in 2009, a season in which Clausen was considered one of the most polished and technically advanced quarterbacks in the country. Carr broke it in his first year as a starter.

9.4 yards per attempt — second among all returning quarterbacks in the entire country. This number reflects not just volume passing but efficient, high-value throws that consistently move the chains, put points on the board and push defenses into the kinds of structural compromises that make the entire offensive system more dangerous.

Four interceptions in his final ten starts — after throwing two picks in his first two starts, Carr threw four interceptions across the final ten games of the season. The adjustment from early-season turnover to late-season precision was total, rapid and permanent — the hallmark of a quarterback who processes his mistakes analytically and refuses to repeat them.

Eight touchdowns, zero interceptions on passes of 20 yards or more — perhaps the most impressive single statistical category of Carr's entire 2025 season. Zero interceptions on deep passes means that every time Carr pulled the trigger on a vertical route, a go ball or a shot play, the result was either a completion or an incompletion. Never a turnover. Never a momentum-killing mistake on the play that carries the highest risk. That discipline in the deep passing game is what separates elite quarterbacks from very good ones — and Carr demonstrated it at a level that only a handful of quarterbacks in the entire country matched in 2025.

Passer rating of 170.2 in November — his regular season passer rating went up as the season got harder. A quarterback who is more efficient in November than he was in September is a quarterback who is getting better with experience and competition rather than wearing down under the pressure of a demanding schedule.

The Syracuse Distortion — Setting the Record Straight

Any honest statistical evaluation of Carr's 2025 season requires addressing the one game that pulled his averages below where they actually reflected his true output.

The Syracuse performance — a 49-yard passing day that looks alarming in isolation — was the product of circumstance rather than capability. Notre Dame led 21-0 before Carr took a single snap. The Irish were ahead 35-0 before he attempted his third pass. The game was effectively decided before Carr had a meaningful competitive opportunity to operate the offense.

Remove that game and evaluate Carr across the other eleven contests of the season — the games where the offense needed to function, where competition was genuine and where Carr faced real defensive preparation and real pressure — and his average jumps to 244.7 yards per game. That number would have ranked sixth all-time in Notre Dame single-season history if it had held for the full year.

Sixth all-time at Notre Dame. In his first year as a starter. The real number is 244.7. Remember it.

The Growth Arc — From Miami to Spring 2026

The distance between the CJ Carr who took his first snap against Miami in the 2025 season opener and the CJ Carr who walked off Notre Dame's practice field this spring is one of the most significant individual development stories in the program under Marcus Freeman.

The growth has happened on every level simultaneously — and that comprehensive development across multiple dimensions of the quarterback position is what makes his 2026 ceiling so genuinely difficult to cap.

Processing speed has been the most visible and most important development. The Carr who opened the 2025 season was a talented quarterback learning to manage the speed and complexity of Power Four football in real time. The Carr who closed that season — posting a 170.2 passer rating in November against the most competitive portion of the schedule — was a quarterback whose pre-snap read quality, post-snap recognition and decision-making efficiency had elevated to a level that matched the most experienced signal callers in the country.

Pocket management has evolved dramatically from week one to spring 2026. Early in the season, Carr occasionally held the ball longer than ideal while his progressions developed — a natural function of a quarterback still building the confidence to trust his reads and commit to throws in tight windows. By the end of the season and through spring practice, that hesitation has been replaced by the quick, decisive delivery that turns a good completion percentage into a great one and eliminates the negative plays that derail drives.

Deep ball accuracy has become one of the most exciting elements of Carr's spring development. The eight touchdowns and zero interceptions on 20-plus yard passes in 2025 established the foundation. Spring reports suggest that connection with his receivers on vertical routes has deepened significantly — a product of the chemistry built with Faison, Greathouse and the new additions through an offseason of concentrated work between Carr and his receivers without the competitive pressure of game preparation dominating every practice session.

Leadership and command — perhaps the least quantifiable but most visible development in Carr's growth. The quarterback who walks into spring practice as a returning starter for the first time carries an entirely different presence than the one who walked in as a first-year starter navigating uncertainty about his own role. Carr owns this offense now. He owns the huddle, the sideline and the standard — and that ownership is visible in how he communicates, how he processes and how he elevates the players around him.

The Weapons That Unlock the Next Level

Every statistical argument for CJ Carr's Heisman Trophy candidacy in 2026 is amplified by the single most important supporting factor a quarterback can have — a better group of skill position players surrounding him than the one he had in 2025.

Jordan Faison returns as the established No. 1 receiver after leading the team with 40 receptions, 640 yards and four touchdowns in 2025. The Carr-Faison connection is Notre Dame's most reliable and proven quarterback-receiver partnership — built on trust, chemistry and a shared understanding of how to attack coverages that only develops through sustained repetition over a full season of starting together. Faison's decision to give up lacrosse and commit entirely to football this offseason means the connection that produced 40 catches in 2025 has been developed, refined and deepened through an entire offseason of undivided football focus. Opposing coordinators know Faison is the first read. They will scheme to take him away. And Carr will find a way to get him the ball anyway — or punish the coverage adjustment by going somewhere else.

Jaden Greathouse brings an explosive playmaking dimension that becomes more dangerous when paired with Faison's reliability as a consistent target. Greathouse's combination of separation quickness, yards-after-catch ability and big-play capability — demonstrated emphatically in Notre Dame's postseason run — gives Carr a genuine second receiving threat that forces defenses into impossible coverage compromises. Double Faison and Greathouse is open. Double Greathouse and Faison is open. Play single coverage on both and Carr will make you pay in the deep passing game where his eight touchdowns and zero interceptions prove he thrives.

Mylan Graham arrives from Ohio State via the transfer portal with Big Ten experience, proven production at an elite program and the physical tools that made him a highly coveted recruit. Graham's addition to the receiving corps gives Carr a third legitimate option — a player with experience against elite competition who can contribute immediately in a complementary role that takes full advantage of the coverage attention Faison and Greathouse command. Three legitimate receiving threats, each with different physical profiles and route-running styles, create the kind of pre-snap conflict that offensive coordinators dream about and defensive coordinators lose sleep over.

Aneyas Williams in the backfield gives Carr a dual-threat dimension that forces defenses to honor the run on every snap — pulling linebackers and safeties into run-fit responsibilities that open intermediate passing windows that Carr's accuracy and anticipation are perfectly suited to exploit. Williams's combination of quickness, vision and pass-catching ability out of the backfield makes him a genuine receiving option on check-downs and designed screen plays that extend drives and keep defenses off balance.

The weapons surrounding CJ Carr in 2026 are not just better than 2025. They are more diverse, more experienced and more collectively dangerous than any supporting cast he has had in his Notre Dame career. That diversity is exactly what an elite quarterback's Heisman Trophy season is built around.

Mike Denbrock's Blueprint — The Coordinator Who Already Did This

The most underappreciated element of CJ Carr's 2026 Heisman candidacy is the offensive coordinator building the system around him — because Mike Denbrock has already done exactly what Notre Dame is trying to do with Carr, and he did it on one of the biggest stages college football provides.

At LSU in 2023, Denbrock served as offensive coordinator for Jayden Daniels's Heisman Trophy season. Daniels, in his second year within a system built specifically around his strengths, produced 3,812 passing yards, 40 touchdowns, 1,134 rushing yards and numbers that earned him the sport's most prestigious individual award and made him the No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

The parallels between Daniels's 2023 trajectory and Carr's 2026 setup are not superficial or coincidental. They are structural — the product of the same offensive coordinator applying the same developmental philosophy to a quarterback in his second year as a starter in a system that has been refined and expanded around his specific strengths.

Denbrock spent the entire offseason studying Carr's 2025 performance with one specific goal — identifying every play, concept and formation that maximized Carr's strengths and building the 2026 offensive system around those answers while eliminating the situations that created the handful of negative plays scattered across the season. The result is a game plan philosophy calibrated specifically to unlock the next level of Carr's performance — and Denbrock's track record with second-year starting quarterbacks says that the unlock is real, it is significant and it produces Heisman-caliber results.

Jayden Daniels went from a first-year starting quarterback finding his footing to a Heisman Trophy winner and top-two NFL Draft pick in the span of one offseason with Denbrock calling the plays. The blueprint exists. Denbrock knows how to execute it. And CJ Carr's statistical foundation entering his second year is arguably stronger than Daniels's was heading into the season that changed his career.

The Quarterbacks He Will Face — A Stage Built for Statements

Notre Dame's 2026 schedule presents Carr with something that Heisman Trophy campaigns are made of — direct, high-profile opportunities to make statement performances against other elite quarterbacks on the national stage. Three of the quarterbacks on Sporting News's Top 25 list appear on Notre Dame's 2026 schedule, creating matchups that will define the national narrative around Carr's Heisman candidacy in real time.

Miami's Darian Mensah — No. 4 on the Sporting News list. The season opener against Miami is the most anticipated early-season matchup on Notre Dame's schedule — a rematch of the game that launched Carr's starting career in 2025, now featuring two of the five best quarterbacks in the country going head-to-head in a game with ACC implications and national championship relevance. Carr handled Miami as a first-year starter finding his footing. He faces them in 2026 as a returning starter with a program record passer rating, a fully developed supporting cast and a year of starting experience that changes everything about how he approaches the moment. The contrast between the two quarterbacks on opposite sides of this matchup — and the way Carr performs against a top-five national quarterback in the season opener — will set the tone for the entire Heisman conversation from week one.

SMU's Kevin Jennings — No. 18 on the Sporting News list. The Irish face the Mustangs in a game that carries conference weight and national visibility, giving Carr another direct comparison point against a highly ranked signal caller that the national media will use to calibrate exactly where he stands in the quarterback hierarchy. Carr's statistical performance against Jennings and SMU will be one of the most closely watched quarterback evaluation opportunities of the entire 2026 regular season.

BYU's Bear Bachmeier — No. 20 on the Sporting News list. The BYU matchup adds a third direct quarterback comparison to Notre Dame's schedule — another opportunity for Carr to make his case against a nationally ranked signal caller in a game that counts in the standings and on the résumé. Three games against quarterbacks in the national top 20 gives the Heisman voters exactly the kind of high-profile performance data they need to make an informed evaluation — and Carr's track record against elite competition says those evaluations will favor him.

Three ranked quarterbacks on the schedule. Three opportunities to make national statements. Three chances to demonstrate — in direct competition against his closest rivals for the award — that No. 3 in the country is the floor, not the ceiling.

The NFL Draft Projection — A Top-Five Pick in 2027

Every element of CJ Carr's trajectory — the statistical foundation, the development arc, the upgraded surrounding cast, the Denbrock blueprint and the national stage that Notre Dame's 2026 schedule provides — points toward a 2026 season that positions him as a top-five pick in the 2027 NFL Draft.

The NFL evaluation of quarterbacks begins with the same foundation that college evaluators use — arm talent, accuracy, decision-making, processing speed and the ability to perform under pressure against elite competition. Carr has demonstrated every one of those qualities in his first year as a starter, and the projection of what those qualities become after a second year of development in Denbrock's system — with better weapons, more experience and the confidence of a returning starter who owns his program — is the kind of evaluation that puts quarterbacks at the top of draft boards.

The program record passer rating. The fourth-best completion percentage in Notre Dame history. The zero interceptions on deep passes. The November elevation. The poise against elite competition. The dual-threat dimension that adds a rushing element to an already elite passing profile.

NFL teams building for the future — and most of the teams picking in the top five are always building for the future — will spend the 2026 season watching CJ Carr dismantle defenses with an efficiency and command that his 2025 foundation says is entirely within reach. What they will see is a quarterback whose physical tools, mental processing and competitive character match the profile of a franchise signal caller.

The 2027 NFL Draft is still more than a year away. But if CJ Carr's 2026 season follows the trajectory that every indicator suggests is coming, the conversation about where he gets selected will not be about whether he goes in the top five.

It will be about whether anyone can make a compelling argument to pass on him entirely.

The Bottom Line

CJ Carr walked into his first start against Miami in 2025 as an unknown quantity — a talented quarterback making his debut on a national stage with enormous pressure and minimal margin for error. He walked off the field that day having handled the moment with a poise and command that told everyone watching something was real in South Bend at the quarterback position.

What followed was a historically elite first-year starting performance — a Notre Dame record passer rating, fourth-best completion percentage in program history, 24 touchdowns against six interceptions, zero picks on deep passes and a November elevation that Sporting News identified as the most compelling indicator of what 2026 could produce.

Now he returns with better weapons, a refined system, a coordinator who has already produced a Heisman Trophy winner in a directly comparable situation and three direct on-field opportunities to make his case against other nationally ranked quarterbacks on Notre Dame's own schedule.

No. 3 in the country according to Sporting News. A Notre Dame record-holder. A Heisman front-runner. A national championship contender. A projected top-five NFL Draft pick.

From that first start against Miami to where he stands today, CJ Carr's journey has been building toward exactly this moment — and in 2026, the destination becomes clear.

The best is still ahead. And in South Bend, everyone is finally ready to watch it arrive.

Elite 2027 edge Jackson Vaughn Brings Dominant pass rush to Notre Dame

Notre Dame has secured one of the most electrifying pass rushers in the 2027 recruiting class, landing standout defensive end Jackson Vaughn in what could prove to be a program-defining addition to the Fighting Irish defensive front. The 6-4, 220-pound edge destroyer out of Oradell, N.J./Bergen Catholic chose Notre Dame over a heavyweight field that included Miami, LSU, Auburn and South Carolina — a testament to just how coveted this talent is.

Make no mistake — Jackson Vaughn is not just another recruiting win. He is a generational edge talent who has been wrecking offensive lines in one of the most competitive high school football leagues in the nation since the moment he stepped on the field.

A Dominant Force From Day One

Vaughn's dominance isn't a recent development — it's been his calling card since he first put on a helmet at Bergen Catholic. As a true freshman, he posted a jaw-dropping 11 tackles for loss and eight sacks, immediately announcing himself as a force that no offensive lineman in his conference could handle. He matched that production as a sophomore, proving it was no fluke.

This past season, Vaughn elevated his game to an entirely new level. The Bergen Catholic standout was an absolute terror off the edge, racking up 40 tackles, 12 tackles for loss and eight sacks — numbers that would make any Power Four defensive coordinator salivate. When Vaughn lines up across from you, bad things happen to your quarterback.

His production is no accident. Vaughn is a technically refined pass rusher with an elite feel for winning on the edge that most defenders don't develop until years of college coaching. His hand usage is exceptional — he doesn't just rely on raw athleticism to beat blockers, he dissects them, reads their technique and exploits every weakness. That combination of football IQ and physical dominance is precisely what separates elite edge talents from the rest.

Explosive Speed That Changes Games

What makes Vaughn truly special — and what Notre Dame is getting that money can't buy — is his explosive, game-breaking speed off the line of scrimmage. He doesn't just rush the passer, he hunts quarterbacks with a relentless, lightning-fast motor that offensive tackles simply cannot account for.

Vaughn's first step is a weapon in itself. He explodes off the edge with elite burst, making even the best-prepared blockers look a step slow. His smooth athleticism enhances a devastating double-move repertoire and elite change of direction that allows him to beat blockers multiple ways on any given snap. He doesn't telegraph his rush — he sets up, accelerates, and is in the backfield before you realize it's happening.

His length, at 6-4 with a strong athletic frame, only amplifies that speed. Long arms combined with elite get-off make him nearly impossible to cut off on a speed rush, and his natural pop at the point of attack makes bull-rushing a very real secondary threat. Offensive coordinators will be drawing up extra protection schemes specifically because of Vaughn long before he ever takes a snap in Notre Dame blue and gold.

The Total Package

Vaughn is a dominant pass rusher today, but the scariest part for future Notre Dame opponents is that there is still room to grow. As he continues to add strength to his already impressive frame, he projects to become an equally disruptive run defender — a true every-down edge player at the highest level of college football. His athleticism and versatility in space also give Notre Dame's defensive staff the flexibility to deploy him in creative ways, much like the Irish have maximized their elite linebackers in years past.

It's worth noting that Vaughn was originally ranked as a Top 50 caliber prospect in the 2028 class before reclassifying to 2027 — meaning Notre Dame is getting this elite talent a full year early. He carries a 5.0-star upside grade and a Top 50 ranking on the Irish Breakdown board, and those numbers will only climb as the national recruiting services catch up to what anyone who has watched him play already knows.

Those who have seen Vaughn up close need no convincing. At last year's Irish Invasion camp — one of the premier recruiting showcases in the country — Vaughn was the single most dominant lineman on the field, outperforming every other prospect in attendance. That camp included his future Notre Dame teammate David Folorunsho, which speaks to just how loaded that event was. Vaughn still stood above them all.

Notre Dame DL Just Got Elite

With this commitment, Notre Dame now boasts two exceptionally talented edge players in the 2027 class, with Vaughn joining fellow Bergen Catholic-league standout Aidan O'Neil. The Irish aren't just building depth at the position — they are assembling a dominant, program-defining edge rotation.

Vaughn becomes the 18th commitment in Notre Dame's 2027 class, joining an already impressive group that includes quarterback Champ Monds, running backs Lathan Whisenton and Isaiah Rogers, wide receiver Jackson Coleman, tight end Titus Hawk, multiple offensive linemen, and a deep defensive haul featuring cornerbacks, safeties and linebackers from across the country.

But in a class full of talent, Jackson Vaughn stands out. Notre Dame has landed a heat-seeking, quarterback-destroying edge rusher with the speed, technique and instincts to be one of the most feared pass rushers in college football. The Fighting Irish just got significantly more dangerous — and opposing offenses should be very, very concerned.

Notre Dame Extends Stanford Rivalry and Adds Kent State, Filling Out Dominant 2027 and 2028 Schedules

Notre Dame is putting the finishing touches on two of the most anticipated schedules in recent program history, announcing a pair of additions that bring both the 2027 and 2028 seasons into clear focus. The Fighting Irish have added Stanford to both schedules while also slotting in Kent State for 2027 — and for a program that has absolutely owned the Stanford rivalry under head coach Marcus Freeman, the extension of that matchup is very good news for Notre Dame fans.

The Stanford Rivalry — A Series Notre Dame Has Made Its Own

The headline move is the extension of Notre Dame's storied rivalry with Stanford, a series that was previously scheduled to conclude after the 2026 season. Instead, the Irish and Cardinal will keep meeting, with Notre Dame traveling to Stanford to close out the 2027 season before hosting Stanford in South Bend on October 14th, 2028.

Notre Dame holds a commanding 25-14 all-time record in the series, but what makes this extension particularly exciting is what Marcus Freeman's era has looked like against the Cardinal. Under Freeman, Notre Dame has turned this rivalry into something resembling a mismatch — the Irish have won the last three meetings by an average score of 51.3 to 16.7, a level of dominance that is as emphatic as it sounds.

The most recent chapter was written in 2025, when Notre Dame traveled to Stanford's home field and left with a resounding 49-20 victory. That kind of road performance against a program with Stanford's tradition and facilities sends a message — and Notre Dame delivered it with authority.

The one blemish in Freeman's record against Stanford came in 2022, when the Cardinal handed the Irish an early-tenure loss that served as a humbling moment for a program still finding its footing under its new head coach. Freeman and his staff took that lesson to heart. What followed was a string of increasingly dominant performances that erased any doubt about who owned this rivalry. The 2022 result now looks less like a sign of things to come and more like the last gasp of a series that Notre Dame has since locked firmly in its grip.

Extending the rivalry means Notre Dame fans get more of what has become one of the most lopsided — and satisfying — matchups on the Irish schedule. If the trend under Freeman continues, Stanford is going to have a very difficult time in both 2027 and 2028.

A Loaded 2027 Schedule Taking Shape

With Stanford now locked in, Notre Dame will face five ACC opponents during the 2027 season — a reflection of the Irish's unique scheduling arrangement with the conference. That slate includes the beginning of Notre Dame's highly anticipated 10-year series against Clemson, which kicks off October 7th inside Notre Dame Stadium. Add in matchups against a pair of Big Ten programs in Purdue and Michigan State, an SEC showdown with Auburn, BYU out of the Big 12, and the annual rivalry with Navy, and the 2027 schedule is shaping up to be one of the most diverse and challenging in college football.

The Kent State addition rounds out the home schedule in a way that carries a personal storyline. Notre Dame will host the Golden Flashes on October 2nd in what will be the first-ever meeting between the two programs. The connection, of course, is that Marcus Freeman spent two seasons coaching at Kent State early in his career — 2011 and 2012 — helping lay the foundation for what has become one of the most celebrated coaching rises in recent college football history. Freeman returning to South Bend to face his old stomping grounds, now as the head coach of Notre Dame, adds a layer of meaning to what might otherwise be a straightforward home game.

2027 Schedule

• Sep. 4 — Purdue

• Sep. 18 — at Michigan State

• Sep. 25 — Auburn

• Oct. 2 — Kent State

• Oct. 9 — vs. Wake Forest (Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC)

• Oct. 30 — at Clemson

• Nov. 6 — Virginia Tech

• Nov. 20 — Navy

• Nov. 27 — at Stanford

• TBD — Georgia Tech

• TBD — BYU

2028 Shaping Up as an SEC-Heavy Challenge

The 2028 schedule is building toward something formidable as well. Notre Dame will now face six ACC opponents that year with both Stanford and Clemson on the books, while also navigating a brutal three-game SEC stretch that includes Texas, Auburn and Arkansas. Purdue returns to the schedule along with the perennial Navy rivalry game, while Boston College, Miami and Pittsburgh still need dates assigned.

2028 Schedule

• Sep. 9 — Texas

• Sep. 16 — Arkansas

• Sep. 23 — at Purdue

• Oct. 7 — Clemson

• Oct. 14 — Stanford

• Oct. 28 — at Auburn

• Nov. 4 — at Virginia Tech

• Nov. 18 — at Navy

• TBD — Boston College

• TBD — Miami (Fla.)

• TBD — Pittsburgh

The Bottom Line

Notre Dame now has 11 games scheduled for each of the next two seasons, and the picture being painted is one of a program that isn't afraid to schedule anybody. The Stanford extension is the cherry on top — a rivalry that Marcus Freeman has turned into a showcase of Irish dominance, with one early stumble in 2022 long since buried under a avalanche of blowout victories. Notre Dame fans should be circling both Stanford dates on the calendar with confidence. If Freeman's track record against the Cardinal tells us anything, the Irish will be ready.

Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua stands with sec, big 10 for cfp expansion

The College Football Playoff expansion debate has reached a tipping point, and Notre Dame Athletic Director Pete Bevacqua has made clear exactly where the Fighting Irish stand. Bevacqua has aligned Notre Dame with the SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 in pushing for a 24-team playoff format — and in doing so, has positioned the Irish not just as a voice in the conversation, but as a program uniquely built to dominate regardless of how the playoff landscape ultimately unfolds.

Bevacqua Steps Into the Arena

The expansion conversation has been building for two offseasons now. Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti lit the fuse last year with an aggressive push to double the current 12-team field. The Big 12 and ACC have since climbed on board, with commissioner Jim Phillips lending his voice to the chorus. Now Notre Dame has joined them, and Bevacqua's reasoning goes deeper than simply wanting more teams in the field.

"I think in this day and age with what universities are investing in football, it's a very expensive sport," Bevacqua said. "You need to give more teams hope. The way things are structured now, everything points to the CFP. It's a measure of success. It's important in the tenure of a coach. We've seen firings when teams aren't going to make it to the CFP."

Bevacqua's vision extends beyond the present moment. He's thinking about the long-term health of college football as a whole — and what happens to the sport if the financial burden of competing at the highest level becomes unsustainable for programs outside the traditional powerhouse tier.

"My concern is that if more teams aren't given hope, that universities over the course of the next five, ten years will say, 'Hey, is the investment worth it?'" Bevacqua continued. "I would hate to see a college football landscape where there's only a handful of teams that can really give it a legitimate go year after year after year."

That is the voice of a man who understands that a thriving college football ecosystem benefits Notre Dame just as much as anyone. A sport with thirty programs genuinely competing for a title is a healthier, more marketable, more financially robust product than one with eight. Bevacqua sees the big picture — and he's right to.

The Strategic Genius of Notre Dame's Position

What makes Notre Dame's embrace of the 24-team format particularly shrewd is that it comes from a position of strength, not desperation. The Fighting Irish don't need a bigger playoff to survive. They need it to thrive — and there is a significant difference.

Consider what Marcus Freeman has built in South Bend. Notre Dame is scheduling some of the most demanding non-conference slates in the country, with home-and-home series against Alabama, Texas, BYU, Florida and Auburn on the books in coming seasons. The Irish aren't soft-scheduling their way into playoff consideration — they are earning it the hard way, against the best competition available. Ohio State plays Texas out of conference. Clemson has gone back-to-back against Georgia and LSU. Notre Dame belongs in that same conversation about programs willing to put their records on the line before conference play even begins.

That scheduling philosophy means one thing clearly: Notre Dame is building a program that can compete with anybody, anywhere, at any time. In a 12-team playoff, that makes the Irish a dangerous contender. In a 24-team playoff, it makes them a program that would enter the field battle-tested and ready while other programs that padded their records against cupcakes scramble to compete with legitimate title contenders.

Notre Dame wins in either world — and Bevacqua knows it.

Aligning With Power to Shape the Future

By stepping forward alongside the SEC and Big Ten — the two most powerful conferences in college football — Bevacqua has ensured that Notre Dame has a seat at the table where the sport's future gets decided. That is not a small thing for an independent program without a conference megaphone behind it.

The SEC and Big Ten generate the lion's share of college football's revenue and carry the most weight in playoff format negotiations. Notre Dame aligning with those conferences on the 24-team push isn't just a philosophical stance — it's a political calculation that keeps the Irish relevant in conversations that will shape the sport for the next decade. An independent program that sits on the sidelines of that debate risks being shaped by decisions made without their interests in mind. Bevacqua made sure that doesn't happen.

The revenue implications are also impossible to ignore. A 24-team playoff means more games, more television inventory, more distribution money and a bigger financial pie for participating programs. Notre Dame, with its own NBC television deal and massive national brand, stands to be one of the biggest financial beneficiaries of an expanded field. More playoff games means more Notre Dame on national television — and that is always good for the bottom line in South Bend.

A Program Built to Prosper at Any Playoff Size

Perhaps the most important element of Notre Dame's position is that Freeman and Bevacqua have constructed a program that doesn't need the playoff format to change in order to compete. Under Freeman, Notre Dame has already demonstrated it can reach the College Football Playoff and make deep runs in the current 12-team format. The roster investment, the recruiting infrastructure, the coaching staff and the scheduling ambition are all pointed at one goal — winning a national championship.

If the playoff stays at 12 teams, Notre Dame's brutal non-conference schedule and elite recruiting class position them as perennial contenders for one of those coveted spots. If it expands to 24, the Irish would enter as one of the most battle-tested programs in the field — a team that has been preparing to play anyone, not just survive a soft schedule long enough to sneak into an expanded bracket.

Either way, the programs that should be concerned about the playoff format are the ones that need a bigger field just to get in. Notre Dame is not one of those programs. Bevacqua is advocating for expansion from the high ground — as the AD of a program that will be in the conversation whether the field is 12, 16 or 24 teams.

The Bottom Line

Pete Bevacqua has made a bold, calculated and strategically sound move by aligning Notre Dame with the forces pushing for a 24-team College Football Playoff. His argument for the long-term health of the sport is genuine and carries real merit. His understanding of what expansion means for Notre Dame's brand, revenue and competitive positioning shows a leader thinking well beyond the next season.

Most importantly, Marcus Freeman is building exactly the kind of program that makes this position credible. Notre Dame isn't lobbying for a bigger playoff because they need a lifeline. They're supporting expansion because they intend to be one of the programs that makes every round of a 24-team field worth watching — and they're scheduling, recruiting and competing like it every single day.

The playoff may be changing. Notre Dame is ready for all of it.

chicago’s elite Defensive Tackle David Folorunsho Brings Top-10 Talent to Notre Dame

Notre Dame has landed one of the most uniquely gifted defensive tackles in the 2027 recruiting class, securing a commitment from Chicago's David Folorunsho — a St. Patrick standout whose combination of explosive speed, raw power and positional versatility makes him precisely the kind of defensive lineman that transforms how a coordinator can build and deploy a front. And in a story woven together by deep Notre Dame relationships at every level of his development, Folorunsho's path to South Bend feels less like a recruiting victory and more like an inevitable homecoming.

Folorunsho chose Notre Dame over Miami, Georgia, Michigan and Texas Tech, handing first-year defensive line coach Charlie Partridge one of the most significant early recruiting wins of his tenure and giving the Fighting Irish a cornerstone piece for a defensive front that is being built to play multiple looks, confuse offensive lines and dominate from the inside out.

A Swiss Army Knife on the Defensive Front

The first thing that jumps off the film when you watch David Folorunsho is that he doesn't fit neatly into a single box — and that is exactly what makes him so dangerous, and so valuable to Notre Dame's defensive system.

At 6-3 and 285 pounds, Folorunsho has the size, anchor and power to line up as a true nose tackle and own the interior against the run. But what separates him from a conventional space-eater is the explosion and lateral athleticism that allow him to slide outside, line up over a tackle and win in ways that interior linemen simply aren't supposed to win. He can two-gap, he can shoot gaps, he can be a three-technique on one snap and a nose on the next. That ability to play multiple alignments without losing effectiveness is rare at any level of football — at the high school level, it is almost unheard of.

For Notre Dame's defensive staff, this versatility is not a bonus — it is the foundation of why they wanted Folorunsho so badly in the first place. The ability to present different fronts, shift alignments pre-snap and keep offensive lines off balance requires players who can execute in multiple roles without hesitation. Folorunsho is exactly that player. He gives defensive coordinators a true chess piece — someone who can be the answer to multiple problems on any given game plan.

Explosive Speed That Redefines What an Interior Lineman Can Do

What truly elevates Folorunsho into the conversation as a national top-10 prospect is a first step that simply does not belong on a 285-pound defensive tackle — and yet there it is, every single snap, blowing up offensive linemen before they can establish their sets.

His get-off is elite. The moment the ball moves, Folorunsho is already in the backfield mentally and closing on the quarterback or ball carrier physically. That kind of explosion draws immediate comparisons to former Notre Dame defensive line standouts Sheldon Day and Rylie Mills — players who combined interior size with an athletic profile that made them impossible to account for on a one-on-one basis. Folorunsho is cut from that same cloth.

That speed off the line translates directly into production. In his dominant junior season at St. Patrick, Folorunsho posted 55 tackles, 18 tackles for loss and five sacks — numbers that reflect a player who is not waiting for plays to come to him but actively hunting them down with first-step quickness that offensive linemen at the high school level simply cannot match. As he continues to develop that explosion under Notre Dame's elite strength and conditioning program, the production that made the entire country take notice will only grow.

His hands are equally impressive — fast, strong and violent at the point of contact. He doesn't just use his speed to get into the backfield; he uses his hands to win the leverage battle and finish plays with authority. The combination of an elite first step with fast, powerful hands is what allows Folorunsho to rack up tackles for loss against double teams, against chip blocks, against every scheme an offensive coordinator has thrown at him. He finds a way to win.

Power That Anchors the Run Defense

Speed and versatility tell only part of the Folorunsho story. The other half is the kind of raw, physical power that allows Notre Dame to line him up in the middle of the field and simply dare opposing offenses to run at him.

Folorunsho's ability to anchor against double teams, absorb contact without losing ground and still make plays at the point of attack gives Notre Dame's defensive front a true run-stuffing anchor when the game plan calls for it. He is not a finesse player who disappears when the line of scrimmage becomes a phone booth — he thrives in that environment just as much as he does in open-field pursuit.

That balance of speed and power is what gives Notre Dame's defensive staff the freedom to be genuinely creative with their front structures. They can ask Folorunsho to be a disruptive, gap-shooting interior pass rusher on one series and a two-gap run-stopper on the next. Offensive coordinators cannot simply account for one dimension of his game — they have to prepare for all of them, and that is an enormous advantage for a Notre Dame defense that wants to make life as complicated as possible for opposing offenses.

The Notre Dame Brotherhood That Brought Him Home

David Folorunsho's commitment to Notre Dame is not simply the result of a great recruiting pitch. It is the product of relationships built over years by people who love Notre Dame deeply and poured that love into a young man who was watching and absorbing all of it.

The head coach at St. Patrick is Tom Zbikowski — a name that needs no introduction in South Bend. Zbikowski was one of the most celebrated safeties in Notre Dame history, a hard-hitting, instinct-driven defender whose toughness and competitive fire defined his Irish career. As the head coach guiding Folorunsho's development at St. Patrick, Zbikowski brought Notre Dame's standard of toughness, discipline and preparation to the program every single day. Folorunsho didn't just hear about what it means to be a Notre Dame football player — he was coached by one, shaped by one and held to that standard throughout his high school career.

The Notre Dame thread runs even deeper at St. Patrick. School president Dan Santucci is himself a former Notre Dame starter and a teammate of Zbikowski's with the Fighting Irish. The culture inside St. Patrick's walls — the standard of excellence, the pride in academics, the understanding of what Notre Dame football demands — is not incidental. It is baked into the institution by men who lived it. Folorunsho has been immersed in that environment from the moment he arrived at St. Patrick, long before Notre Dame's coaching staff ever made a formal offer.

And then there is Kerry Neal of WIN Performance, Folorunsho's trainer — a man whose fingerprints are all over the physical transformation and athletic development that turned a three-star prospect into a consensus Top-10 national recruit almost overnight. Neal's work with Folorunsho refined the explosiveness, built the functional strength and honed the technical skills that made the entire country take notice after his junior season. The elite first step, the violent hands, the ability to play with leverage and power at 285 pounds — Neal had a major hand in building all of it. Notre Dame isn't just getting a great player; they're getting a great player who has been developed by an elite trainer who understood exactly how to maximize his gifts.

Together, Zbikowski, Santucci and Neal form a triangle of trusted, Notre Dame-connected mentors who shaped David Folorunsho at every level — on the field, in the weight room and within the walls of his school. When Notre Dame came calling, Folorunsho wasn't hearing about the program for the first time. He already knew what it stood for. He had been living it.

Charlie Partridge Wins Big in Year One

The significance of this commitment for first-year defensive line coach Charlie Partridge cannot be overstated. Landing the No. 2 defensive tackle in the country — the No. 9 overall prospect nationally according to Rivals and On3 — against Georgia, Michigan, Miami and Texas Tech in his very first recruiting cycle at Notre Dame is a statement that echoes across the entire college football landscape. Partridge didn't need a grace period. He identified the right player, built the right relationships and delivered one of the biggest defensive line commitments Notre Dame has seen in years.

A Class That Keeps Getting Better

Folorunsho becomes the 17th commitment in Notre Dame's 2027 recruiting class, joining a group that already features quarterback Champ Monds, running backs Lathan Whisenton and Isaiah Rogers, wide receiver Jackson Coleman, tight end Titus Hawk, offensive linemen Olu Olubobola, Jackson Hill, James Halter and Richie Flanigan, defensive end Aidan O'Neil, linebacker Amarri Irvin, cornerbacks Xavier Hasan and Ace Alston, safety Zayden Gamble, nickel John Gay III and long snapper Sean Kraft.

Adding a consensus Top-10 national prospect with Folorunsho's unique skill set doesn't just deepen the class — it changes the ceiling of what this Notre Dame defense can become.

The Bottom Line

David Folorunsho is the rare defensive tackle who can do everything — stop the run with power, rush the passer with elite speed and line up in multiple alignments without losing a step. He is a versatile, explosive, physically dominant interior defender who gives Notre Dame's defensive staff the freedom to be as creative and multiple as any front in college football.

He is also a Chicago kid who was raised in a Notre Dame household by a Notre Dame coaching legend, developed by an elite trainer in Kerry Neal, and supported by a school president who wore the same Notre Dame uniform. When David Folorunsho commits to the Fighting Irish, it isn't just a recruiting win. It is a family reunion — and Notre Dame's defensive front of the future is better for it.

Joe Rudolph and Notre Dame Flip OT Jackson Hill From UCLA

Joe Rudolph didn't have to go after Jackson Hill. That is the first thing you need to understand about this commitment — and it is the most important context for everything that follows.

Notre Dame's offensive line coach already had three quality commitments locked in for the 2027 class. He has five-star target Albert Simien scheduled for an official visit on June 19th. He signed six offensive linemen just a year ago. By any conventional measure of roster construction, Rudolph had room to be patient, selective and conservative with the next offensive line commitment in this class.

Instead, he went to California, identified a 6-7, 300-pound three-star prospect playing at Chaminade Prep, made a conviction call that the recruiting services had this one wrong — and didn't stop until Jackson Hill flipped his commitment from UCLA and chose Notre Dame.

That decision tells you everything about how Joe Rudolph evaluates offensive linemen and why his track record of developing players that others overlooked is one of the most quietly elite résumés in college football coaching.

Rudolph Made a Conviction Call — Not a Desperation Move

The easiest way to misread this commitment is to assume Notre Dame added Hill because they needed bodies or because the elite targets weren't materializing. Neither is true, and Rudolph's own actions prove it.

Simien, one of the most coveted offensive line prospects in the entire 2027 class, is still very much in play for Notre Dame with a June official visit on the schedule. Rudolph is not closing the door on elite five-star additions to this class — he is pursuing them aggressively at the same time he committed Hill. That simultaneity is the key. This was not an either-or decision driven by scarcity. It was a both-and decision driven by genuine belief in what Jackson Hill can become.

When an offensive line coach of Rudolph's caliber pursues a prospect while elite alternatives are still available and actively being recruited, that pursuit is a statement. It means Rudolph watched the film, saw something real and decided that waiting on rankings to catch up to his evaluation was a luxury Notre Dame couldn't afford — because eventually someone else was going to see what he saw, and by then Hill would already be committed somewhere else.

Rudolph saw it first. He moved first. That is what separates elite evaluators from everyone else.

The Rudolph Track Record — Turning Upside Into Production

To fully appreciate why this commitment makes sense, you have to understand the history Joe Rudolph brings to offensive line evaluation — because his track record of identifying players whose rankings dramatically understated their actual ceiling is not a coincidence. It is a philosophy.

Throughout his coaching career at Wisconsin, Pittsburgh and now Notre Dame, Rudolph has consistently identified offensive linemen that recruiting services rated as good-not-great prospects and developed them into legitimate NFL-caliber players. The pattern is unmistakable to anyone who has followed his career closely. Rudolph does not simply recruit the rankings — he recruits the player, the frame, the athleticism and the coachability. He asks one central question when he evaluates an offensive line prospect: what does this player become when I get three years of elite coaching, elite strength training and elite competition into his body?

That question produces very different answers than a recruiting service snapshot of a 17-year-old's current production level. And time and again, Rudolph's answers have been proven right when the players he believed in reach their junior and senior seasons and the rest of the country finally sees what he saw years earlier.

Jackson Hill is the latest player to benefit from that evaluation process — and if Rudolph's track record means anything, Hill's three-star ranking will feel like a distant memory long before his Notre Dame career is finished.

What Rudolph Sees in Hill That the Rankings Don't Capture

So what exactly did Joe Rudolph see when he watched Jackson Hill that convinced him to go all-in on a three-star prospect while five-star targets remained on the board?

Start with the foundation that cannot be faked and cannot be coached — the physical profile. At 6-7 and 300 pounds, Hill already possesses the frame that NFL offensive line scouts put at the very top of their evaluation criteria. Length is the single most non-negotiable physical attribute for a developmental offensive tackle, and Hill has it in a way that only a handful of prospects in any given recruiting class possess. Those long arms allow him to strike pass rushers before they can get into his body, create natural leverage advantages in the run game and give coaches the raw material to build a finished product that can hold up against elite college pass rushers for four years.

But Rudolph didn't fall in love with Hill's size alone. What truly separated Hill in Rudolph's evaluation is the athleticism that lives inside that massive frame — and the proof of it comes from the most unexpected place imaginable.

Jackson Hill plays catcher in baseball. Let that sink in for a moment. A 6-7, 300-pound athlete who lines up behind home plate, receives pitches at full velocity, blocks balls in the dirt, controls a running game and makes throws to every base is not just big. He is a legitimate multi-sport athlete whose body moves with a coordination and quickness that his size has no business producing. The quick-twitch hand-eye coordination required to catch at a high level translates directly to an offensive lineman's most critical skill set — active, fast, coordinated hands that can punch, redirect and sustain blocks against elite competition.

That dual-sport athleticism tells Rudolph something the film alone might not fully communicate — that Hill's body is not done developing, his coordination is already advanced beyond what his football experience reflects and his ceiling as an offensive lineman has not yet come close to being reached.

Add to that a powerful run-blocking foundation already in place, the football IQ to potentially play both tackle and guard at the college level and the academic profile that attracted offers from Penn and Dartmouth alongside his Power Four football offers — and what Rudolph saw was not a three-star offensive tackle. He saw a Power Four starter hiding inside a recruiting ranking that hadn't caught up to reality yet.

The Positional Upside That Makes Hill Even More Valuable

One of the most underappreciated elements of Hill's commitment is what his positional flexibility means for Notre Dame's offensive line depth over the next four years.

His natural size and length make him an obvious developmental tackle — the kind of player you project to protect the blind side as he refines his technique and adds functional strength. But Rudolph has also identified a realistic path where Hill moves inside to guard, where his 6-7, 300-pound power frame would make him one of the most physically imposing interior blockers in the ACC. A guard with Hill's size and athletic profile is a mauler in the run game — the kind of interior presence that creates movement at the line of scrimmage and gives a rushing attack a completely different dimension.

That flexibility to develop Hill at multiple positions is a luxury for Rudolph as he constructs the offensive line room around the 2027 class. It means Hill isn't locked into a single role before he ever takes a college snap. It means Rudolph can put him where the offense needs him most as the depth chart evolves. And it means that even if the tackle spots ahead of him are filled with elite talent, Hill's value to the program doesn't diminish — it simply finds a different expression.

The Class Context — Building With Depth and Range

Understanding why Rudolph went after Hill also requires understanding the broader 2027 offensive line class Notre Dame is assembling — because this group is being built with a specific philosophy in mind.

Olu Olubobola is the crown jewel — an elite, nationally-ranked New Jersey tackle whose offer list reads like a who's who of college football royalty. James Halter brings physicality and toughness from Pennsylvania. Richie Flanigan adds size and length from Wisconsin. And now Hill contributes a high-ceiling developmental profile with rare physical tools from the West Coast.

Rudolph is not building a one-dimensional offensive line class of interchangeable prospects. He is building a room with range — elite recruits with proven rankings alongside high-upside players whose ceilings may ultimately be just as high, or higher, than the stars suggested. That is how championship offensive line rooms get built. Not by chasing the same profile over and over, but by identifying different kinds of value and trusting your evaluation process to sort out who becomes what.

With Simien's official visit still on the calendar, this class could add another elite headline name before the 2027 cycle is complete. But Rudolph's willingness to commit Hill now — before that visit, while Simien is still in play — tells you he sees Hill's value as independent of any other decision. Hill earned this commitment on his own merits, on his own timeline, through Rudolph's own evaluation process.

That is the highest compliment an offensive line coach can pay a prospect.

The Bottom Line

Joe Rudolph went after Jackson Hill because Joe Rudolph trusts his eyes over a ranking, his evaluation over a database and his understanding of what a 6-7, 300-pound multi-sport athlete can become over what he currently is on a recruiting service's board.

The three-star label on Hill's profile will not survive contact with Notre Dame's strength program, Rudolph's coaching and the kind of elite competition that accelerates development faster than any recruiting service can track. It never does when Rudolph makes a conviction call on a high-upside offensive lineman that others have undervalued.

Jackson Hill chose Notre Dame over UCLA because the pull of South Bend and the belief of one elite offensive line coach proved stronger than a prior commitment. Notre Dame went after Jackson Hill because Joe Rudolph saw a future starter that the rest of the country hasn't fully discovered yet.

History suggests Rudolph is right. It usually does.

Leonard moore could give notre dame first jim thorpe award

Not every star arrives with fanfare. Not every player who ends up changing a program's defensive identity does so with a five-star recruiting ranking, a top-10 national profile and the weight of enormous expectations pressing down on his shoulders from the moment he steps on campus. Some players arrive quietly, get to work and let the field do the talking — and by the time the rest of the world catches up to what they already are, the transformation from unknown to undeniable is already complete.

That is the Leonard Moore story. And as he enters what could be his final season in South Bend, it is one of the most compelling individual journeys in Notre Dame football.

Moore wasn't heralded when he arrived at Notre Dame. He wasn't the centerpiece of a signing class headline or the subject of breathless recruiting coverage. He came to South Bend without the noise that typically surrounds players of his caliber — and then he went out and became the best cornerback in college football. Quietly, completely and undeniably.

Now, as he prepares for his third season with the Fighting Irish, the entire country has caught up to what those inside Notre Dame's program recognized long ago. Leonard Moore has been added to the Jim Thorpe Award watch list — and he isn't just on it. He is the front-runner to take it home.

The Arrival Nobody Saw Coming

When Leonard Moore came to Notre Dame, the recruiting spotlight was pointed elsewhere. He did not arrive as the kind of prospect that generates national recruiting coverage or sends fan bases into celebration mode at the moment of commitment. He was not a household name in the recruiting world. He was a Texas native with talent that hadn't yet been fully discovered, quantified or celebrated by the recruiting services that shape early national narratives.

What he was, to those who watched him closely enough, was a cornerback with the physical tools, the competitive instincts and the natural feel for the position that you simply cannot manufacture through coaching alone. The 6-2, 195-pound frame with the length and athleticism to match up with elite wide receivers at the college level. The feet. The instincts. The way he processed routes before they fully developed, the way he competed on the ball and the way he made the position look natural in a manner that only truly gifted players ever do.

Notre Dame saw it. They offered. Moore came to South Bend without the fanfare — and then the work began.

A Star Takes Shape

The first signs that something special was developing came early in Moore's freshman season. Those who watched closely enough saw a cornerback whose instincts were ahead of his experience, whose physical tools were already operating at a level that made experienced offensive players uncomfortable and whose competitive drive was evident on every snap regardless of the score, the opponent or the moment.

But it was his 2025 season that turned what insiders quietly believed into something the entire country could no longer ignore. Moore started 10 games and delivered a performance so comprehensive, so statistically dominant and so consistently elite that the sport's most respected evaluators were left searching for superlatives.

He led Notre Dame with five interceptions — tied for sixth most in the entire country. He added 31 tackles, seven pass breakups and a forced fumble while missing only six tackles all season — a number that reflects the complete cornerback he had become, not just the ball hawk the highlights suggested. He allowed only three receiving touchdowns across the entire season. And he did it all while being one of the most scouted, game-planned-against cornerbacks in college football — a player that every offensive coordinator in the country was specifically scheming to avoid.

The signature moments punctuated the statistical dominance. A 46-yard pick-six against Syracuse that changed the momentum of the game and announced Moore's big-play capability to a national audience. A two-interception performance against Boise State that earned him both the Walter Camp FBS Defensive Player of the Week and Jim Thorpe Award Defensive Back of the Week honors simultaneously — two of the sport's most prestigious weekly recognitions landing in the same hands on the same weekend.

Notre Dame finished the season ranked No. 1 in the country in total interceptions with 21. Moore, the cornerback who arrived without a headline, hauled in five of them.

The Numbers That Turned Heads Nationally

When the season ended and the evaluation process began in earnest, the numbers that emerged from Moore's 2025 campaign were not the kind that generate polite acknowledgment. They were the kind that stop conversations.

PFF ranked Moore first among all starting Power Four cornerbacks in coverage grade at 91.4 and first in overall defensive grade at 90.9 — the top marks at the position across the entire landscape of major college football. Those grades reflect not one great game or one great stretch of games but a full season of elite performance sustained against the best competition the sport offers.

The number that perhaps best captures what Moore had become by the end of 2025 is the target rate — opponents threw at him on only 11.5 percent of his coverage snaps. Offensive coordinators and quarterbacks made a collective, conscious decision across the entire season to route their passing games away from Leonard Moore's side of the field. That is the ultimate testament to a cornerback's dominance. You can only measure a player's full impact when you account for the plays that never happened because of him — and Moore's 11.5 percent target rate tells you the plays that never happened numbered in the dozens.

The season earned him unanimous All-American honors — the kind of recognition that requires every major selector to arrive at the same conclusion independently. For a player who arrived at Notre Dame without the recruiting world's attention, unanimous All-American status represents one of the most complete turnarounds in modern college football recruiting history. He went from under the radar to unanimously the best in the country. The arc of that journey is remarkable.

The Jim Thorpe Watch List — And Why Moore Is the Front-Runner

The Jim Thorpe Award watch list announcement confirmed what the preseason evaluations had been building toward all offseason. Leonard Moore belongs in the conversation for the most prestigious individual honor a defensive back can win in college football — and he doesn't just belong in that conversation. He leads it.

Moore was a Thorpe Award finalist after his 2025 campaign, becoming the first Notre Dame cornerback to reach that stage since Bobby Taylor in 1993. No Fighting Irish cornerback has ever won the award. The history of that gap — more than three decades without a Notre Dame corner reaching the Thorpe podium — makes Moore's opportunity in 2026 feel genuinely significant, not just for his personal legacy but for the program's.

ESPN's Heather Dinich named Moore the lead candidate for the award in the network's Way-Too-Early Top 25 rankings, pointing to his unanimous All-American honors, his nation-leading PFF coverage grade and the five interceptions that defined his 2025 campaign. Beyond the Thorpe, Moore carries legitimate front-runner status for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy — the defensive equivalent of the Heisman Trophy — and the Chuck Bednarik Award, which recognizes college football's top defensive player regardless of position.

Three of the sport's most significant individual defensive awards. One player's name near the top of every list. The player who arrived at Notre Dame without a recruiting headline is now the player that every preseason award conversation builds around.

Former Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts brought the Nagurski Trophy home to South Bend after his dominant 2023 season. Moore now has the opportunity to make it back-to-back Nagurski winners from Notre Dame — a back-to-back run that would say something profound about what Marcus Freeman's program has built on the defensive side of the ball.

What Back-to-Back No. 1 Rankings Actually Mean

PFF has ranked Moore the No. 1 returning cornerback in the country heading into 2026 — the second consecutive season they have done so. Every major outlet including CBS Sports, Athlon Sports, Sporting News, FOX Sports and ESPN has echoed that assessment, identifying Moore as one of Notre Dame's most important returning players and one of the premier defensive players in the sport.

Back-to-back No. 1 cornerback rankings from PFF are not handed out carelessly. They reflect a sustained standard of excellence that separates elite players from one-year wonders — the ability to perform at the highest level not just when the element of surprise is working in your favor but when every opposing offense has had a full offseason to study your tendencies, design routes against your technique and find whatever exploitable weakness might exist in your game.

Moore held that No. 1 ranking in 2025 when opponents came after him with a full scouting report. He held it when teams specifically designed plays to attack him. He held it when the margin for error shrinks because every opposing coordinator knows exactly where you line up and how you play. And when the offseason evaluations were complete, PFF gave him the No. 1 ranking again — because nothing they saw in a full season of trying to find a weakness changed their fundamental assessment of what Leonard Moore is.

A Defense Made Better By His Presence

Moore's individual excellence cannot be separated from what it has meant for Notre Dame's defense as a collective unit. When a cornerback locks down his side of the field with the consistency that Moore demonstrated throughout 2025, the structural benefits ripple across the entire defensive system.

Safeties can rotate toward the opposite side with greater confidence. Linebackers can play downhill more aggressively knowing the deep outside is protected by a cornerback who rarely needs help. Pass rushers get critical fractions of a second longer to reach the quarterback because the corner on Moore's side has already eliminated his receiver as a viable option. Notre Dame's leap to No. 1 in the country in interceptions with 21 total picks was not independent of what their best cornerback was doing every single week. It was deeply connected to it.

A defense takes on the identity of its best player. In 2025, Notre Dame's defense took on the identity of a unit that simply did not give up big plays in the passing game — and Leonard Moore was the primary reason why.

The Final Chapter in South Bend

As Moore prepares for what could be his third and likely final season with the Fighting Irish before the NFL comes calling, the shape of his Notre Dame legacy is already remarkable. A player who arrived without recruiting fanfare has become a unanimous All-American, a two-time PFF No. 1 ranked returning cornerback, a Thorpe Award finalist and the preseason front-runner for every major individual defensive award in college football.

The journey from unheralded arrival to the top of every preseason board is the kind of story that programs build cultures around — proof that development, coaching and competitive drive can take a player without a five-star label and turn him into something the entire country agrees is the best at his position.

But Moore isn't finished writing that story. He has one more season in blue and gold, one more opportunity to add to a legacy that already exceeds anything the recruiting services predicted when he arrived in South Bend, and one very specific piece of history within reach.

No Notre Dame cornerback has ever won the Jim Thorpe Award. Leonard Moore arrived at Notre Dame without anyone predicting he would be the one to change that.

At this point, nobody would be surprised if he does exactly that.

The quietest arrival. The loudest statement. The best cornerback in America — and he has one more season to make history in South Bend.

Notre Dame Built an Instant Connection With Elite Tackle Olu Olubobola and Won Big Recruiting battle

Some recruiting victories are built over years of relationship-building, endless in-home visits and a slow, methodical courtship that eventually tips in one program's favor. And then there are moments like this one — where Notre Dame identified one of the most athletically gifted offensive tackle prospects in the entire country, extended an offer, built a genuine and deep connection in a matter of weeks and walked away with a commitment that programs like Ohio State, Texas, LSU, Michigan and Florida State were pursuing for far longer.

Jersey City, N.J./St. Peter's Prep standout Oluwasemilore Olubobola has committed to Notre Dame, choosing the Fighting Irish over Miami and Texas A&M — and the story of how this recruitment unfolded is as impressive as the prospect himself. Notre Dame didn't just land a five-star offensive tackle. They did it faster, more decisively and more convincingly than anyone thought possible when the offer was first extended in late March.

This is what elite program building looks like at its very best.

Six Weeks, One Visit, One Decision

The numbers that frame this recruitment are almost hard to believe when you lay them out in sequence. Notre Dame didn't offer Olubobola until March 19th — at which point programs like Ohio State, Texas, LSU, Oregon, Florida, Michigan, Florida State, Penn State, Tennessee, Auburn and dozens of other elite programs had already been recruiting him for months. The Irish entered the race behind nearly everyone.

From that March offer, Notre Dame had exactly one opportunity to get in front of Olubobola in person — a visit for the Blue-Gold Game on April 25th. One visit. Not a home visit followed by an official visit followed by multiple campus trips over the course of a year. One single opportunity to show Olubobola what Notre Dame's offensive line program looks like up close, what the campus feels like on a football weekend and what Joe Rudolph's development pipeline has produced for the elite tackle prospects who came before him.

Notre Dame made that one visit count in a way that changed everything. Coming out of the Blue-Gold weekend, the Irish still appeared to have ground to make up. But something had clearly shifted inside the relationship — something genuine and real that the Notre Dame staff recognized and immediately accelerated. By early May, Notre Dame had gone from late entry to the clear frontrunner. Shortly after, Olubobola made it official.

Six weeks from offer to commitment. One campus visit. A decision that beat out programs that had been recruiting him for a year or more.

That is not a coincidence. That is connection.

What Notre Dame Did Right — Building Real Relationship at Warp Speed

The most important question surrounding this commitment isn't what Olubobola brings to Notre Dame — it's how Notre Dame built a bond strong enough in six weeks to beat programs with far longer head starts.

The answer lies in what the Irish staff prioritized from the moment the offer went out. Notre Dame didn't just sell Olubobola on rankings, facilities or conference affiliations. They sold him on something more personal and more powerful — a genuine belief in who he is as a player, a student and a person, communicated with an authenticity and urgency that prospects at this level immediately recognize as real.

Joe Rudolph and the Notre Dame staff made Olubobola feel like he wasn't just a recruiting target — he was exactly who Notre Dame needed, specifically and uniquely, in this class. That distinction matters enormously to elite prospects who have every program in America telling them how great they are. When a coach can articulate precisely why you fit, what you will become under their development system and what your specific role in the program's future looks like, it cuts through the noise in ways that months of generic recruiting communication never can.

The Blue-Gold Game visit did the rest. There is simply no substitute for standing on Notre Dame's campus, feeling the weight of the tradition, watching the program operate at close range and imagining yourself inside it. Olubobola took that visit and came away with something that six weeks of phone calls and text messages couldn't fully deliver — a visceral, personal understanding of what Notre Dame means. That understanding accelerated everything.

The Athletic Profile That Made Every Program in America Take Notice

To fully appreciate the magnitude of what Notre Dame has secured, you have to understand exactly what kind of athlete Oluwasemilore Olubobola is — because his physical and athletic profile is the kind that offensive line coaches spend entire careers searching for and rarely find at this stage of development.

Start with the frame. At 6-6 and 295 pounds, Olubobola is already built like a finished college offensive tackle before he has taken a single college snap. That size and weight at his age, combined with the room his frame still has to develop, gives Notre Dame's strength and conditioning staff an extraordinary foundation to work with. But size alone is common enough among highly recruited offensive tackle prospects. What makes Olubobola genuinely special — what makes him a top-20 national prospect and the No. 1 player in the state of New Jersey — is what that 6-6, 295-pound body can actually do.

Olubobola moves with an athletic fluidity that has no business existing in a player his size. His feet are nimble and quick, processing lateral movement with an ease and natural rhythm that you typically find in skill position players, not massive offensive tackles. That footwork is not the product of years of technique work — it is native athleticism, the kind that shows up on film immediately and makes experienced evaluators lean forward in their chairs. Light feet at 295 pounds is a gift. Olubobola has it in abundance.

His length is equally elite, and what separates Olubobola from other long-armed tackle prospects is that he already knows how to use it as an active weapon. He strikes pass rushers before they can get into his frame, extending with timing and coordination that creates a natural barrier most defenders at the high school level simply cannot overcome. That early hand usage, combined with elite length and nimble footwork, gives Notre Dame a left tackle prospect who already has the foundational athletic tools to compete at the highest level of college football.

In the run game, Olubobola's explosiveness off the line is immediately evident. He doesn't ease into contact — he attacks it, driving his legs through the point of contact with powerful lower body mechanics and finishing blocks with the kind of physicality that moves defenders off the ball. His burst off the snap combined with his power through contact makes him a legitimate force in the ground game right now, with a ceiling that has barely been touched.

His change of direction skills round out an athletic package that is genuinely rare at his position. Olubobola doesn't lumber from one assignment to the next — he redirects, adjusts and moves in space with a smoothness that tells you his athleticism extends well beyond the straight-line power game. In pass protection, that lateral agility is everything when an edge rusher tries to counter inside or set up a speed-to-power conversion. Olubobola already has the natural movement skills to handle both.

The technical refinements — particularly in the finer points of pass protection hand placement and anchor depth — will come with Rudolph's coaching. But here is the essential truth about developing elite offensive tackles: you can coach technique, you can refine hand usage, you can install protection schemes. You cannot manufacture the athletic foundation that Olubobola already has. That foundation is what makes everything else teachable — and what makes his ceiling as a college offensive tackle genuinely limitless.

Five Years Running — A Standard That Doesn't Slip

Olubobola's commitment extends Notre Dame's remarkable streak of landing a five-star offensive tackle in five consecutive recruiting classes — a run of elite tackle recruiting that stands as one of the most impressive position-specific streaks in college football.

That streak doesn't happen by accident, and it doesn't happen because Notre Dame is simply throwing more resources at offensive tackle recruiting than everyone else. It happens because Joe Rudolph has built a reputation, a development track record and a relationship style that elite offensive tackle prospects trust — and because Notre Dame as an institution offers something that no purely football-based pitch can replicate. The combination of elite football development, genuine academic prestige and a program culture built on brotherhood creates a package that keeps landing at the top of the list when elite offensive tackle prospects make their final decisions.

Olubobola becomes the latest in that line — and if the development trajectory of the five-star tackles before him is any indication, he will not be the last.

A 2027 Offensive Line Room Built for Dominance

With Olubobola committed, Notre Dame's 2027 offensive line class now has three pieces that fit together with genuine intentionality. Olubobola anchors the left side with elite athleticism and a top-20 national profile. Pennsylvania standout James Halter brings physical toughness and right tackle upside from Pittsburgh Central Catholic. Wisconsin lineman Richie Flanigan projects inside with the size and temperament to develop into a power interior blocker.

Three different players. Three different profiles. Three different roles. One cohesive vision from Joe Rudolph about what this offensive line room needs — and the recruiting execution to go get it in a single class.

The New Jersey thread adds another dimension worth celebrating. With defensive end Aidan O'Neil already committed, Notre Dame now holds commitments from both the No. 1 and No. 3 players in the state of New Jersey in the 2027 class. Locking up the top talent from one of the most talent-rich states in the country on both sides of the ball reflects a regional recruiting dominance that has real long-term implications for the program.

Olubobola becomes the 15th overall commitment in Notre Dame's 2027 class, joining a group that already features quarterback Champ Monds, running backs Lathan Whisenton and Isaiah Rogers, wide receiver Jackson Coleman, tight end Titus Hawk, defensive end Aidan O'Neil, linebacker Amarri Irvin, cornerbacks Xavier Hasan and Ace Alston, safety Zayden Gamble, nickel John Gay III and long snapper Sean Kraft.

The Bottom Line

Notre Dame identified one of the most athletically gifted offensive tackle prospects in the 2027 class late, moved with precision and purpose, built a genuine connection in a matter of weeks and walked away with a commitment over programs that had been recruiting Oluwasemilore Olubobola for far longer.

The athletic package Olubobola brings to South Bend — the elite length, the nimble feet, the explosive power, the natural change of direction at 295 pounds — is exactly the kind of foundation that Joe Rudolph's development system turns into NFL-caliber offensive tackles. Notre Dame has done it five years in a row now.

The connection was instant. The talent is elite. The fit is perfect.

And once again, Notre Dame found a way to win.

2027 wr Jackson Coleman Became a Must-Have for Notre Dame and mike brown

There are recruits that programs pursue because a position need exists and a prospect fits the profile. And then there are recruits that a coaching staff identifies, locks onto and refuses to let go of because the film reveals something that transcends positional need — a player whose combination of physical tools, competitive instincts and football character makes him exactly the kind of person you build an offense around for four years.

Jackson Coleman is the second kind of recruit. The moment wide receivers coach Mike Brown got his eyes on Coleman's junior film from Highlands Ranch, Colo./Valor Christian, the evaluation process ended and the pursuit began in earnest. What Brown saw on that film — the length, the deceptive speed, the run-after-catch ability and a blocking presence that most wide receivers at any level never develop — made Coleman a priority take for the Notre Dame staff almost immediately.

The result was a recruitment that moved at a pace that reflected exactly how highly Brown and the Irish staff valued this prospect. From first in-person evaluation to scholarship offer in 24 hours. From offer to official Blue-Gold Game visit in days. From visit to commitment shortly after. Notre Dame didn't just want Jackson Coleman. They made sure he knew it — and they closed before anyone else could catch up.

From Film to Priority — How Brown Identified Coleman

The recruiting trail that led Notre Dame to Jackson Coleman tells you everything about how Mike Brown approaches the evaluation process. Coleman was not a nationally hyped prospect with a five-star label and a waiting list of blue-blood programs competing for his signature. He was a prospect whose junior production — 45 receptions, 975 yards, nine touchdowns and a 21.7 yards-per-catch average — had begun generating interest from elite programs, but whose three-star ranking still significantly understated what the film actually showed.

Brown got to Colorado on April 15th to see Coleman in person. Twenty-four hours later the scholarship offer was extended. That timeline is not coincidental — it is the direct result of a coach who watched the film, saw a priority-level prospect hiding behind an incomplete recruiting profile and moved with the urgency that kind of evaluation demands.

Oregon had been building a relationship with Coleman since January and was considered the frontrunner before Notre Dame entered the picture. Miami came in during early March. Auburn followed. Michigan offered a week before the Irish. None of those programs had the combination of genuine connection and decisive action that Notre Dame brought once Brown identified Coleman as a must-have target for the 2027 class.

When Coleman visited South Bend for the Blue-Gold Game on April 25th, the visit confirmed everything Brown had seen on film. The commitment followed shortly after, and Notre Dame had flipped a recruitment that Oregon had been leading for months — not because of facilities or conference affiliation but because Mike Brown made Jackson Coleman feel like the exact player Notre Dame needed, specifically and genuinely, in this class.

That kind of targeted, conviction-driven recruiting is how you beat programs with longer head starts. Brown saw Coleman first — clearly and completely — and never stopped pushing until the commitment was secured.

The Film Doesn't Lie — What Makes Coleman Special

Pull up Jackson Coleman's junior film and the first thing that registers — before you look at anything else, before you check any statistics or rankings — is the sheer physical presence he brings to the wide receiver position. At 6-4 and 195 pounds with a frame that still has significant room to grow, Coleman projects as the kind of boundary receiver that defensive coordinators game plan around specifically because there is simply no clean answer for what he brings to the outside.

But the size alone is only the beginning of the Coleman evaluation. What makes his film genuinely compelling — what turned Mike Brown from an evaluator into a recruiter in the span of a single tape session — is everything that lives inside that 6-4 frame.

Deceptive Speed That Changes the Entire Defense

Coleman ran a personal best 10.67 in the 100 meters as a sophomore — elite timed speed for a receiver of any size, let alone one who stands 6-4. But what makes Coleman's speed so valuable as a football player is not just the number attached to it. It is how deceptively that speed presents on the field.

Coleman does not look like a 10.67 receiver when he lines up. He does not telegraph his speed in the way that purely one-dimensional deep threats do — the kind that defenses identify immediately and double-cover into irrelevance. Coleman's speed reveals itself in a way that catches defenders off guard, appearing to accelerate past coverage at moments when defensive backs think they have him under control. That deceptive quality — the ability to look slower than you are and then suddenly be gone — is one of the most dangerous traits a wide receiver can possess because it eliminates the defensive adjustment that pure speed invites.

On Coleman's junior film, you see that deceptive speed create separation in multiple ways. It shows up on vertical routes where he appears to be running at three-quarter speed before suddenly pulling away from coverage in the final ten yards. It shows up after the catch, where a defender who thinks he has an angle to make a tackle suddenly finds Coleman accelerating past the point of contact and turning what looked like a seven-yard gain into a 20-yard play. And it shows up in the run game — which brings us to another dimension of Coleman's game that makes his film so compelling to elite offensive coaches.

Run After Catch Ability That Turns Completions Into Explosions

The 21.7 yards-per-catch average that Coleman produced as a junior is the statistical fingerprint of a receiver who does not simply catch the football — he weaponizes it. That number reflects a player who consistently turns receptions into significant gains through a combination of speed, vision, contact balance and competitive drive after the ball is in his hands.

Coleman's run-after-catch ability on film is immediately evident and consistently impressive. He catches the ball with his hands away from his body — a fundamental that many receivers struggle to develop — which allows him to transition into his run immediately without the wasted motion of tucking the ball into his body first. His vision after the catch is advanced for a prospect his age, showing the ability to identify leverage, set up blocks and choose running lanes that maximize yardage on every touch.

His contact balance is equally noteworthy. At 195 pounds with a 6-4 frame, Coleman is not a small receiver who goes to the ground on first contact. He absorbs hits, maintains his footing through contact and keeps churning for additional yards in a way that reflects both physical toughness and a competitive temperament that does not accept easy tackles. That combination of initial separation, acceleration after the catch and contact balance through contact is what turns a good receiving performance into a 21.7 yards-per-catch junior season.

The playoff performances put an exclamation point on what the regular season film suggested. In three consecutive postseason games Coleman delivered 100-plus yard performances — five catches for 144 yards and two touchdowns in the first round, eight catches for 161 yards in the state championship game. Big-game production against the best-prepared defenses a state tournament offers is the most honest measure of what a prospect truly is — and Coleman passed that test emphatically and repeatedly.

A Devastating Blocker Who Changes the Run Game

Here is the element of Jackson Coleman's game that separates him most clearly from the wide receiver prospects who share similar size and speed profiles — and the element that likely accelerated Mike Brown's evaluation from interest to priority fastest.

Jackson Coleman is a devastating blocker in the run game.

In an era where wide receiver blocking has become increasingly devalued — where skill position players are celebrated almost exclusively for their pass-catching production and their run-blocking contribution is treated as an afterthought — Coleman brings a physicality and commitment to the blocking game that immediately jumps off the film and marks him as a different kind of receiver entirely.

Coleman engages blocks with the kind of effort and physicality that offensive coordinators notice immediately because it is so rare. He does not go through the motions on running plays where the ball is going away from him. He seeks contact, sustains blocks downfield and finishes with the aggressive mentality of a player who understands that blocking is not a concession to the run game but an expression of competitive character. His size and length make him a natural fit for perimeter blocking assignments — sealing the edge on outside runs, cutting off pursuit angles on screen plays and creating the kind of downfield blocking that turns 10-yard gains into 20-yard gains on a consistent basis.

For a Notre Dame offense that demands complete receivers who contribute on every snap regardless of whether the ball is coming their way, Coleman's blocking ability is not a supplemental skill. It is a foundational one — and it makes him significantly more valuable to the program's offensive system than his receiving production alone would suggest.

The Perfect Complement to Notre Dame's 2027 Receiver Board

Understanding why Coleman became a priority take for Mike Brown also requires understanding the broader 2027 wide receiver recruiting picture for Notre Dame — because Coleman does not just fill a position need in this class. He fills a specific role within the receiver room that complements the more explosive, dynamic playmakers still on Notre Dame's recruiting board.

The Irish are actively pursuing some of the most electric wide receiver prospects in the 2027 class — receivers with elite burst, separation quickness and the kind of short-area explosion that creates mismatches in the slot and on quick-game concepts. Those receivers represent a different profile than what Coleman brings — and that difference is precisely the point.

Coleman's combination of 6-4 boundary size, deceptive deep speed, devastating blocking and run-after-catch ability gives Notre Dame's receiver room a physical complement to the more dynamic, explosive prospects the Irish are chasing elsewhere on the board. A receiver room that pairs Coleman's boundary presence and physical tools with the quickness and explosion of Notre Dame's other 2027 targets creates a diverse, multi-dimensional group that no defensive coordinator can solve with a single coverage concept.

You cannot play Coleman with the same coverage you would use against a smaller, quicker slot receiver. You cannot press the quicker, more explosive receivers the same way you would press Coleman. The combination forces defensive coordinators into impossible compromises — and that is exactly the kind of receiver room construction that produces explosive, balanced passing offsets at the college level.

Coleman is the foundation of that construction in the 2027 class — the physical, complete receiver whose presence on the boundary makes every other receiver on the roster more dangerous by his mere existence on the field. Mike Brown recognized that complementary value immediately when he watched the film, and it elevated Coleman from a prospect of interest to a must-have priority target before the evaluation was finished.

What Notre Dame Is Getting — The Complete Picture

Jackson Coleman arrives in South Bend as a prospect whose three-star label will feel like a distant footnote long before his Notre Dame career reaches its peak. What the Irish are actually getting is a 6-4 boundary receiver with deceptive 10.67 speed, 21.7 yards-per-catch junior production, three consecutive 100-plus yard playoff performances, advanced run-after-catch instincts and a blocking commitment that reflects the character of a complete football player.

He joins a 2027 class that continues to build toward something genuinely special — quarterback Champ Monds, running backs Lathan Whisenton and Isaiah Rogers, offensive linemen James Halter and Richie Flanigan, defensive end Aidan O'Neil, linebacker Amarri Irvin, cornerbacks Xavier Hasan and Ace Alston, safety Zayden Gamble, nickel John Gay III and long snapper Sean Kraft all already committed and the class continuing to grow with each passing week.

As the 13th commitment in Notre Dame's 2027 class, Coleman gives the Irish their first wide receiver — and does it with a prospect who brings dimensions to the position that go far beyond what the recruiting rankings currently reflect.

The Bottom Line

Mike Brown watched Jackson Coleman's junior film and saw a priority target. He moved to Colorado on April 15th, extended the offer on April 16th and had Coleman committed to Notre Dame within two weeks — flipping a recruitment Oregon had been leading for months in the process.

The film justified every bit of that urgency. A long, athletic boundary receiver with deceptive speed that defensive backs consistently underestimate, run-after-catch instincts that turn completions into explosions, a devastating blocking presence that makes him valuable on every single snap and a postseason track record that proves he performs best when the games matter most.

Jackson Coleman is not just a wide receiver commitment for Notre Dame's 2027 class. He is the physical foundation of a receiver room that Mike Brown is building to be as complete, as versatile and as dangerous as any in the country.

The recruiting services will catch up eventually. They always do — right around the time the player they undervalued is making plays in January when everything is on the line.

For Jackson Coleman, that moment is coming. And Notre Dame will be ready for it.

notre dame was counted out, but now the irish are coming to collect

There's a moment every great team knows. The moment the door gets slammed in your face — not because you weren't good enough, but because someone in a back room decided you weren't their kind of good enough. It's the moment that separates pretenders from dynasties. It's the moment that either breaks a program or builds a legend.

For Notre Dame, that moment came on December 7, 2025.

The selection committee looked at a 10-win Fighting Irish squad that had dominated opponents all season and said: not good enough. They handed a playoff spot to a three-loss Alabama team instead. No explanation would ever fully satisfy. No argument would change the outcome.

But Notre Dame didn't need an explanation. They needed motivation.

"Leave No Doubt."

That's the motto. That's the mission. That's the battle cry of a program that has been running on controlled rage ever since that December morning. And if you watched them this spring, you already know — this isn't a team that's moved on. This is a team that's been marinating in that slight every single day since it happened.

Athlon Sports writer Steven Lassan knows what this Irish squad is capable of, and he's not mincing words: Notre Dame's Revenge Tour is the No. 1 storyline in college football heading into 2026.

"With 15 starters returning from last year's 10-win squad, along with a favorable schedule, leaving no doubt doesn't just mean a trip to the playoff," Lassan explained. "The Fighting Irish clearly have their sights set on ending a national title drought that dates back to 1988. The goal in '26 isn't just to take a spot in the field — Marcus Freeman's team is set for a national-title-or-bust campaign."

The Receipts Are Already There

Here's what the committee chose to overlook.

For the first time since 1966, Notre Dame won at least nine regular season games — every single one by double digits. Their offense averaged 42.0 points per game and 7.3 yards per play, both modern program records. They were physically imposing, technically sound, and relentless from opening kickoff to final whistle.

Redshirt freshman quarterback CJ Carr shattered the program's passer rating record in his first year as a starter. A freshman. He tied for second nationally in yards per pass attempt at 9.4 and threw 24 touchdowns. And he's only getting started.

Defensively? Yes, the Irish got punched early — giving up 98 combined points in their first three games while adjusting to a new coordinator. But what happened next is what defines a real program: they locked in, bought into the system, and held opponents to just 12.6 points per game over the final nine matchups. That's not a defense that collapsed under pressure. That's a defense that figured it out and went on a run.

Just like every great team that got overlooked does.

The Infrastructure of a Champion

What makes this Notre Dame squad different from previous revenge tour attempts isn't just talent — it's stability.

For the first time in Marcus Freeman's tenure, both his offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator are returning. Mike Denbrock enters year three running the offense. Chris Ash enters year two commanding the defense. These aren't coordinators still learning the roster. These are coaches who know exactly what they have and exactly how to use it.

"Carr's progression into one of the nation's elite quarterbacks is why Freeman's program can win it all," Lassan noted. "There's no shortage of talent at receiver with Jaden Greathouse and Jordan Faison returning, along with former highly touted prospects Quincy Porter and Mylan Graham arriving from Ohio State."

On defense, eight starters return — including All-American cornerback Leonard Moore. This unit doesn't need a transition period. It needs a postseason run.

Freeman himself is heading into year five. He's not a new coach still finding his footing anymore. He's a proven leader with a roster full of players who have played meaningful football, a chip on their shoulder the size of a playoff bracket, and an entire offseason to get ready for what's coming.

The Schedule Is a Statement, Not a Gift

Some will say Notre Dame has a favorable schedule. Some fanbases will point to the October gauntlet — potentially four ranked opponents in the final stretch of the regular season — and call it tough.

Call it whatever you want. Notre Dame is calling it an opportunity.

Because once you get into the 12-team playoff, every game is win or go home. The schedule doesn't matter anymore. The rankings don't matter. The committee's opinions don't matter. All that matters is who's left standing.

The Revenge Tour officially kicks off September 6 at Lambeau Field against Wisconsin. But the groundwork? That was laid back in December, in a quiet room somewhere, when a group of fighters watched someone else's name get called and decided they had one response:

Watch what happens next.

usa today ranks notre dame 2nd in post spring poll

USA Today has spoken — and the verdict on Notre Dame heading into the 2026 season is about as emphatic as a preseason ranking can be. Analysts Erick Schmidt and Paul Myerberg have tabbed the Fighting Irish as the No. 2 overall team in the country in their Post-Spring Top 25, trailing only Ohio State and ranking ahead of Texas, Georgia and Indiana in a list that reflects a program operating at the absolute peak of its modern era.

The ranking is not a gift or a projection built on hope. It is a recognition of something concrete — a Notre Dame roster that returns an experienced starting quarterback, a proven offensive supporting cast, a defense that kept its best players and a coaching staff with all three coordinators back for the first time in Marcus Freeman's tenure. When you stack those ingredients together and evaluate them honestly against every other program in the country, No. 2 is not a stretch. It might even be conservative.

Here is the full case for why Notre Dame belongs exactly where USA Today put them — and why 2026 could be the year everything comes together.

CJ Carr — The Heisman Front-Runner Nobody Should Be Sleeping On

Every conversation about Notre Dame's 2026 ceiling begins and ends with CJ Carr — and every conversation about the 2026 Heisman Trophy race should begin and end there too.

Carr enters his second season as Notre Dame's starting quarterback with something that no other signal caller in the country can claim in quite the same way — a full season of starting experience at Notre Dame, in a system he now owns completely, with the weapons around him upgraded and the continuity of returning coordinators giving him the most stable offensive environment of his college career. That combination of experience, continuity and talent elevation is precisely the formula that produces Heisman Trophy-caliber seasons.

In his first full season as a starter in 2025, Carr demonstrated command, poise and playmaking ability that immediately announced him as one of the premier quarterbacks in college football. He managed Notre Dame's offense with the kind of veteran intelligence that first-year starters rarely possess — reading defenses pre-snap, going through progressions efficiently and delivering the football with accuracy and timing in the most critical moments of the most critical games. The Carr-Faison connection that developed throughout 2025 became one of the most reliable quarterback-receiver partnerships in the sport, and that chemistry only deepens entering 2026 with a full offseason of concentrated work behind it.

What elevates Carr's Heisman candidacy beyond simply returning a quality starter is the trajectory. The jump from a first-year starter finding his footing to a second-year starter who knows every concept, trusts every receiver and operates from a position of complete offensive authority is one of the most dramatic developmental leaps in college football. Carr has already shown he can win games and manage a complex offense. In 2026, with the supporting cast around him upgraded on every level, the expectation is that he takes the next step — from excellent game manager to dominant offensive force — and the tools surrounding him make that leap entirely realistic.

The Heisman Trophy watch list will have many names on it when the 2026 season begins. CJ Carr should be at or near the top of every legitimate conversation about who wins it.

A Backfield Built to Replace Elite Production

The departure of Jeremiyah Love — selected No. 3 overall by the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL Draft — leaves the most significant void Notre Dame needs to fill on offense heading into 2026. Love was one of the most dynamic running backs in college football, a unanimous All-American whose production and big-play capability defined Notre Dame's ground attack for two seasons.

But the Irish are not rebuilding the backfield from scratch. They are reloading it with proven talent that has been waiting for exactly this opportunity — and the players stepping into expanded roles bring legitimate credentials of their own.

Nolan James Jr. returns as the most experienced back in Notre Dame's room, a proven contributor who has demonstrated the vision, patience and contact balance to be a productive starter at the Power Four level. His ability to operate within Notre Dame's zone-blocking scheme, find cutback lanes and move the chains in critical short-yardage situations gives the Irish a reliable foundation in the backfield that Carr can lean on in the most important moments of games.

Aneyas Williams brings a complementary dimension to the backfield that gives offensive coordinator Tim Rees genuine flexibility in how he deploys the ground game. Williams's quickness, acceleration and ability to create in space provide a contrast to James's between-the-tackles style — giving Notre Dame a two-back approach that can attack defenses horizontally as effectively as it attacks them vertically. The combination of James's power and patience with Williams's quickness and space creation gives Notre Dame's ground game the kind of range that makes it genuinely difficult to defend with a single schematic approach.

Together, James and Williams represent a backfield that does not replace Love's individual brilliance but provides Notre Dame's offense with enough combined production, versatility and proven capability to keep the ground game a legitimate threat on every snap. That is all Carr and the passing game need — a running back room that keeps defenses honest and prevents them from loading the box against Notre Dame's receivers.

A Wide Receiver Room Transformed by Experience and Elite Portal Additions

Jordan Faison returns as Notre Dame's established No. 1 wide receiver — the team's leading receiver in 2025 with 40 receptions, 640 yards and four touchdowns — and does so as a completely different player than the one who led the team statistically last season. His offseason decision to give up lacrosse and commit entirely to football signals a level of investment and focus that should translate directly into elevated production in 2026. Faison gives Carr exactly what a second-year starter needs more than anything — a proven, trusted target who knows the offense, runs precise routes and makes the right play after the catch every single time.

Jaden Greathouse returns alongside Faison after a 2025 season that saw him emerge as one of Notre Dame's most explosive playmakers in the postseason. Greathouse's combination of separation quickness, yards-after-catch ability and big-play capability gives the Irish a legitimate second receiving threat that defenses cannot bracket without leaving Faison in one-on-one coverage outside. Two proven, experienced receivers at the top of the depth chart entering the season is a luxury Notre Dame has not had in recent memory.

The addition of Mylan Graham from Ohio State via the transfer portal elevates what was already a strong receiver room into one of the most complete groups in the country. Graham arrives with Big Ten experience, proven production at an elite program and the kind of physical tools that made him a highly recruited prospect out of high school. His ability to contribute immediately in a complementary role — taking advantage of the attention that Faison and Greathouse command from opposing secondaries — gives Carr a third legitimate receiving option that stretches defenses in ways that create opportunities for everyone on the field.

The combination of Faison's established No. 1 production, Greathouse's explosive playmaking and Graham's experienced portal addition gives Notre Dame's receiver room a depth and versatility that rivals any group in college football heading into 2026.

A Defense That Returns Its Best Players — And Added Elite Talent

If the offensive case for Notre Dame's No. 2 ranking is compelling, the defensive case is even stronger — because what Marcus Freeman's defense is returning in 2026 is not simply a group of experienced players. It is a collection of proven, dominant performers at every level of the field, supplemented by transfer additions that address the few areas where reinforcement was needed.

Leonard Moore — The Best Cornerback in America

The foundation of Notre Dame's defensive identity in 2026 is a player who has already been discussed at length in every preseason publication that covers college football seriously — and for good reason. Leonard Moore is the best cornerback in the country. Full stop.

Moore returns after a 2025 season in which he ranked first among all starting Power Four cornerbacks in both coverage grade at 91.4 and overall defensive grade at 90.9 according to PFF. He led Notre Dame with five interceptions — tied for sixth most in the entire country — while adding 31 tackles, seven pass breakups and a forced fumble across 10 starts. Opposing quarterbacks targeted him on only 11.5 percent of his coverage snaps — a testament to the reputation he built as a cornerback that the entire country's offenses chose to scheme away from rather than challenge.

PFF has ranked Moore the No. 1 returning cornerback in the country for the second consecutive season. ESPN has named him the lead candidate for the Jim Thorpe Award. He is a legitimate front-runner for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy and the Chuck Bednarik Award. In a defense returning significant production across all three levels, Moore is the crown jewel — the player that every offensive coordinator game plans around specifically and still cannot consistently solve.

Drayk Bowen — The Defensive Engine

While Moore commands the attention of opposing passing games on the outside, Drayk Bowen commands the interior of Notre Dame's defense with the kind of instinctive, physical presence that makes the entire system function at its highest level. Bowen is one of the most complete linebackers in college football — a player who processes information quickly, fills gaps with authority, covers enough ground to be a factor in pass defense and brings a physicality to the run game that sets the tone for how Notre Dame's defense operates on any given Saturday.

His return for 2026 gives Notre Dame's linebacker corps a proven leader and production anchor that younger players in the group can develop around. Bowen's ability to quarterback the defense from the second level — making pre-snap adjustments, communicating coverage calls and reacting to offensive formation changes with veteran intelligence — is as valuable as his individual statistical contribution and perhaps more so in a defense that returns significant personnel but needs someone to tie all the pieces together.

Adon Shuler — A Safety Making His Move

Adon Shuler enters 2026 as one of the most intriguing players on Notre Dame's entire roster — a safety whose athletic profile and instinctive play have been building toward a breakout season that the 2026 campaign is set up to deliver. Shuler's combination of range, closing speed and ball-hawking instincts in the deep middle of the field gives Notre Dame's secondary a versatile, playmaking presence that complements Moore's dominance on the outside in a way that makes the entire pass defense more difficult to attack from any angle.

His ability to rotate into coverage, support the run from the second level and create turnovers in the deep part of the field gives Notre Dame's defensive staff the flexibility to disguise coverage looks and present offenses with pre-snap pictures that become something entirely different after the snap. That kind of safety versatility is invaluable in a modern college football landscape where offenses are increasingly sophisticated in their ability to identify and attack predictable coverage structures.

Boubacar Traore — Pressuring the Quarterback

Boubacar Traore returns as one of Notre Dame's most important pass rush weapons — a player whose combination of athleticism, first-step quickness and relentless motor makes him a consistent threat to disrupt opposing quarterbacks on every passing down. In a 2026 defensive front that has added significant reinforcement through the transfer portal, Traore's returning production and established role give the Irish a proven disruptive presence that new additions can build around rather than having to establish from scratch.

His ability to win one-on-one matchups against offensive tackles, create pressure from multiple alignments and finish plays in the backfield gives Notre Dame's defensive line a dynamic, production-proven element that elevates the entire group's ceiling. Opposing offensive coordinators cannot simply account for the new additions on Notre Dame's defensive front without also accounting for Traore — and that collective burden on an offensive line makes everyone on the Irish front more dangerous.

Bryce Young and the Transfer Portal Additions Transform the Front Seven

Notre Dame's returning defensive core is impressive enough on its own. Add the transfer portal additions and the front seven becomes one of the most formidable groups in the country.

Bryce Young arrives as the leader of a defensive line that also added Francis Brewu from Pittsburgh and Keon Keeley from Alabama — two transfers whose production and credentials at elite programs give Notre Dame's defensive front an immediate infusion of experienced, proven talent that addresses the depth and pass rush concerns that any program faces when losing contributors to graduation or the NFL.

Brewu brings interior disruption capability from a Pittsburgh program that regularly produces NFL-caliber defensive linemen. Keeley arrives from Alabama with the pedigree and physical tools that made him one of the most coveted defensive line recruits in his class — and Notre Dame gets the benefit of Alabama's development infrastructure having already invested significant time and resources into maximizing his potential.

Together with Traore and the returning pieces up front, Young, Brewu and Keeley give Notre Dame a defensive line rotation that can go deep into games without losing effectiveness — matching the physical demands of a Power Four schedule snap for snap, series for series, against the best offensive lines the sport produces.

Christian Gray and DJ McKinney Complete an Elite Secondary

Behind Moore, Notre Dame's secondary is anchored by Christian Gray — a versatile, proven defender whose ability to play multiple positions in the back end gives defensive coordinator Al Golden the flexibility to present different looks without sacrificing production at any individual spot.

The addition of DJ McKinney from Colorado via the transfer portal completes what USA Today identified as potentially the biggest strength on Notre Dame's entire roster. McKinney arrives with starting experience, proven production against Power Four competition and the physical and athletic profile to step in immediately and contribute at a high level alongside Moore and Gray. A secondary that starts Moore, Gray and McKinney — with Shuler patrolling the deep middle — is as complete and as dangerous a group of defensive backs as any program in the country can put on the field in 2026.

The Continuity Factor — Why This Year Is Different

Every element of Notre Dame's 2026 roster case is amplified by something that has never existed before in Marcus Freeman's tenure — complete continuity at the coordinator level. All three coordinators return for the first time under Freeman, bringing with them the accumulated institutional knowledge, player relationships and schematic sophistication that only develops when a coaching staff stays together long enough to truly master their system.

Carr does not have to learn a new offensive system. Moore does not have to rebuild trust with a new defensive coordinator. The entire roster — from the most experienced starters to the youngest contributors — enters 2026 operating within a framework they already know, already trust and already know how to maximize. That continuity is worth several wins over the course of a season, and in a college football landscape where coordinator turnover is constant and relentless, Notre Dame's stability entering 2026 is a genuine competitive advantage.

The Bottom Line

USA Today ranked Notre Dame No. 2 in the country after spring practice — and the case for that ranking is as strong as any program in America can make. A returning Heisman-caliber quarterback in CJ Carr. A backfield reloaded with Nolan James Jr. and Aneyas Williams. A receiver room elevated by Jordan Faison's leadership, Jaden Greathouse's explosion and Mylan Graham's portal addition. A defense returning Leonard Moore, Drayk Bowen, Adon Shuler and Boubacar Traore while adding Bryce Young, Francis Brewu, Keon Keeley and DJ McKinney to an already elite group.

Stack all of it together under three returning coordinators with a head coach entering his fifth season and the program's deepest, most talented roster to date — and No. 2 in the country is not just defensible.

It might be the most honest thing USA Today has published all offseason.