Notre Dame Recruiting Flips the Page
Notre Dame has always been active on the biggest days on the recruiting calendar. In fact, the Irish have crushed many of the most significant days of the cycle.
September 1st is one of the big days as coaches can initiate texts, direct messages and letters. The Irish have done a good job in past years, but Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Texas have typically dominated the day on Social Media.
College football isn’t even 12 hours into the day and it’s going to be hard to top Notre Dame’s efforts as the coaching staff has been going hard for over 24 hours, which means preparations started months ago.
Notre Dame dropped a simple graphic at midnight on August 31st and it was just a teaser of what was to come the day before the staff could reach out to prospects.
Nothing flashy. Simple. Yet, it draws the attention of the casual (recruiting) fan as to what it means. Is there a commitment coming? A new bat signal? There is intrigue.
Defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman then dropped a video on Social Media that had recruits buzzing across the country. Several of Notre Dame's top recruits shared the video on their Social Media platforms, which is exactly what the Irish program wanted.
Offensive line coach Jeff Quinn was up next as he led off a long list of videos done by the coaching staff at various locations around campus with messages to the 2023 recruiting class.
And yes, Rees also made sure to drop the offensive hype video at 3:00pm.
Head coach Brian Kelly capped off the day of Social Media content just after 8:00pm as he dropped a video with several former Notre Dame stars explaining why they chose the program.
Notre Dame then wasted very little time getting to work once the clock hit midnight as the top targets were hit up and there seemed to be some competition to be the first school to send a text, graphic or have the prospect call the coaches.
The Irish were the first program to reach out to Findlay (Ohio) lineman Luke Montgomery and Andrean (Ind.) linebacker Drayk Bowen and just missed being the first for Pickerington Central (Ohio) athlete Sonny Styles.
As you would expect, Marcus Freeman was also up late as he was the first person to Retweet Styles as he posted this tweet at 1:11am.
Notre Dame also made sure to personalize graphics to its top targets and didn't send a generic graphic like many other schools. Now, Notre Dame isn't the only school to customize graphics to top targets, but they dug a little deeper than putting Social Media handles and changing swapping faces out.
For Styles, the Irish made sure to tie in family. South Bend is the only place in the country where Styles can play with his brother and while it likely won't decide his recruitment, it's something the staff can push at the right times.
Bowen is the rare prospect that lives just over an hour away from Notre Dame. Home Town Hero makes sense combined with the photo of Bowen with his father and stepmother.
Fast forward to “the morning” and it was all about Bowen as 2023 Notre Dame commits Keon Keeley and Adon Shuler have been all over the composite five-star prospect.
If you’re keeping track, Notre Dame’s staff has made sure to highlight the tweet as the Notre Dame football account, Marcus Freeman, Mike Elston, Chris O'Leary, Mike Mickens, Mike Moon (GA), Mike McCray II (GA), Kerry Cooks (Analyst), Nick Lezynski (Analyst) and Mackenzie Zanow (Coordinator of On-Campus Recruiting) have all retweeted Keeley.
Shuler has also made sure to tweet at 2023 Texas cornerback Malik Muhammad as well this morning.
Does this mean Notre Dame will land the No. 1 recruiting class in the country? No.
The takeaway is similar to Notre Dame's St. Patrick's Day Pot of Gold when they offered many of the same prospects. It's about effort and stacking these days together. No school has done more over the course of the last seven months with the 2023 class and if the program keeps showing up on big recruiting days, then recruits will keep showing up on campus, which leads to opportunity.