2025 OL Rowan Byrne Enjoys Another Great Notre Dame Visit

Rowan Byrne‍ capped off another Midwestern swing with a stop at Notre Dame for the Irish's Grill & Chill Event on Sunday.

"It was great," the 2025 New York offensive lineman said.

Earlier in the week, Byrne was at Ohio State and Michigan.

"Those were all really great," he said. "All three really I saw a lot. Michigan and Notre Dame were my second time being on campus after being offered, so that was great.

"My dad hadn't been there, so he got to see everything, which was really awesome, to find out why I really love all those schools."

At Notre Dame, Byrne and the other recruits heard from head coach Marcus Freeman before taking a campus tour as a group.

"I spent a lot of time with other recruits, which was really good," he said. "I met Matty Augustine at Ohio State the other day and that was good. Then I met Owen Strebig today and Matty was there too. We spent a lot of time together today, which was really awesome.

"I liked them a lot. I think they're both there really good guys, probably pretty similar to myself, just three Notre Dame-esque dudes."

The substance of the visit was more for Byrne's father than him.

"I've seen everything you could see before I was here, but my dad hadn't and he saw everything and he really loved it," said Byrne, who grew up an Irish fan. "That was really important to me.

"The big thing for me was just being back, which I love to be on campus and then meeting some of the other guys who could be my teammates was also really great."

Byrne was happy his father got to meet Freeman, who he is already comfortable with, and Irish offensive line coach Joe Rudolph.

"Coach Rudolph's awesome," said Byrne. "I talk to him all of the time. When we're on the phone, we're on the phone for like an hour at a time. I spent a lot of time with him today. He got to meet my dad, so that was awesome. He's great. I really don't have nothing else to say besides the fact that I love him and he is one of my favorite coaches in college."

Byrne doesn't speak to every coach the way he does with Rudolph.

"I wouldn't talk to a coach for that long if I didn't really feel comfortable with him and I didn't really like that coach a lot," he said.

He came into the swing with offers from the Irish and Wolverines already, he added Ohio State to the list while he was in Columbus.

"That was a big deal," he acknowledged. "That's one of the best schools in the country, maybe the best football program of the last 20 years, arguably. So, that means a lot. They've developed players like no other school, just by the number of first round draft picks and overall draft picks that they have."

Byrne's preseason camp at Iona Prepatory begins next week, so that will become his focus.

"I figure it'll be a little more quiet," he said. "I'm just going to kind of just go along with it, just kind of learn more, kind of figure out what I'm looking for. It's not going to be like how this summer was for me, where I'm seeing everything. I'm just going to be a little more low key, think about things and figure it out myself."

Most of Byrne's high school games will be on Saturday afternoons, but he has two Friday night games and he'll use those to make his two fall visits. One will be to South Bend and the other will be to Madison.

Byrne will see the Irish and the Badgers play against Ohio State each visit.

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