Where Notre Dame's 2025 Commits Stack Up in Recruiting Rankings

College football recruiting ratings and rankings are trigger words for some and couldn’t mean less to others. 

One can argue rankings are the end game, while others can make solid points that landing the most five-star talent doesn’t guarantee national titles. 

Notre Dame has seen an uptick in recruiting under Marcus Freeman, which shouldn’t come as a surprise given the emphasis put on it. Talent acquisition means a great deal to Freeman, so his staff is expected to work tirelessly to bring top talent to South Bend. 

Freeman’s Fighting Irish currently have 21 commitments and sit with the nation’s No. 5 recruiting class, with big-time talent still left on the board. 

The major recruiting services and ISD's Jamie Uyeyama have updated ratings after spring and summer camps, 7-on-7 and other events. 

- When ranking top talent, it’s apples to oranges in many cases, especially at this level. That said, I continue to believe Knight has done enough to be a five-star. There were questions about his accuracy and he showed significant improvement on the 7-on-7 circuit this spring, including taking a team without too much firepower to the OT7 Finals in June. Knight then backed that up a week later in California by having a breakout performance at the Elite 11 where ON3 gave him MVP and the Elite 11 staff pegged him as one of the top quarterbacks in the country. Most services have Knight in the top 35, which I think is fair, but if one wanted to bump him into the top 15-20, I would believe that’s deserved. 

- If you’ve read my thoughts on Golden over the last two years, you’d know I think he’s one of the better football players in the country. The major recruiting services are slowly catching up as Golden sat as the nation’s No. 179 player (247 composite) in April of 2023 and has moved up to the No. 88 player in the country. I fully believe the Florida native is a Top 15 player in the country and I stated that well before he committed to Notre Dame. 

- Flanigan is another player who I believe is underrated to a point. I think the No. 135 247 composite ranking is fair, but I believe Notre Dame has a top 100 talent here. Flanigan and Golden didn’t do the camp circuit, so that’s part of it and then you add in the fact national analysts aren’t going to Green Bay to do live evals, which I don’t blame them. Yet, I think Notre Dame got one of the nation’s top tight ends and he’ll likely continue to climb. 

- Notre Dame likes its defensive line class more than the recruiting services. The group lacks a star like Keon Keeley or even Bryce Young, but overall, Notre Dame is getting quality football players who have yet to really hit their physical peak. The growth shown by Hulak over the last six months should have high schools in Illinois on notice, while Reiff is also another player I’d throw in the underrated category, given 247 and ESPN come in low. 

Regarding remaining targets on the board, there’s some star power there...

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