Live Evaluations Crucial in Notre Dame's Recruiting Process

2025 recruiting has wrapped for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish as it relates to high school recruiting. 

Notre Dame will finish just outside the top 10 by the major recruiting services, which feels about right for this class. The Irish were able to sign a quality class, which will provide depth for years, while Notre Dame wasn’t able to lock down multiple elite prospects. 

2025 Class Rankings
247: 12
Rivals: 12
ON3: 12
ESPN: 14

That said, Notre Dame’s staff did have conviction in each prospect they signed as there is background and then there is background. This staff leaves no stone unturned when it comes to getting data points and making sure they have every piece of information, testing time and evaluation on each kid before taking him.

Under Brian Kelly, Notre Dame’s staff obviously hit the road to do live evaluations while also holding several camps each summer to get an in-person look at prospects. Marcus Freeman and his staff seem to put a much more significant emphasis on in-person evaluations than what Notre Dame saw under Kelly. 

This staff pushes to get kids on campus in June to workout as prospects or even commits. They also utilize the evaluation days to evaluate instead just making appearances at high schools around the country. And that’s not a shot at Kelly’s tenure as several top programs stop in to show face and don’t watch lifting, practice or workouts. 

As it relates to camps, Will Black, Dom Hulak, Chris Burgess, Elijah Burress, Owen Strebig, Matty Augustine, Ethan Long, Joseph Reiff, Cameron Herron, Gordy Sulfsted, Brandon Logan and Davion Dixon all camped in South Bend - and most multiple times. 

”There's nothing more crucial than a live eval,” Freeman stated on Wednesday. “That's something that I feel strongly in. We encourage any guy we take to see him play live, see him practice live, see him work out live, have a camp eval.” 

Why is it so important for Freeman? It’s the little details that don’t show up on film or on a page of testing times. There is speed and then football speed. What if a recruit doesn’t want to compete despite having mind-blowing stats? Kids can grow quickly from the fall to the summer and then there are those specific traits each coach looks for in a prospect. 

You find those details out on 95-degree days in June.

“You can get on a website and get times, but I think there's competitiveness that you can see in person,” explained Freeman. “There's movement skills that you can see in person that tell you a lot about a prospect. It's really important that we continue to get guys on campus and get live evals.

“We've had commits that come to camp. We want to see you compete. We want to coach you. I think that's so important when you're looking to bring in recruits to your program.”

Live evaluations also give the staff conviction in offering (or not offering) a prospect.

In Freeman’s first year, Notre Dame hosted a safety from Texas named Peyton Bowen, who wasn’t on the radar of any program. Bowen got the offer over some other high-profile recruits who camped around the same time. 

As a freshman in high school, Jaylen Sneed showed up at Cincinnati for camp and the Bearcats quickly became his first offer. It all matters. 

Freeman is also a coach who wants his recruits to play multiple sports. The 2025 recruiting class is filled with signees who play at least two sports, including safety Brandon Logan, who will also play baseball for the Irish. 

”I think there's movements that playing in different sports can really help you within football,” said Freeman. “We can evaluate you in football. There's the basic athleticism, movement traits that different sports give you, but the thing I keep coming back to is that competitive spirit. It's hard to compete sometimes just going to a trainer. Somebody might say you're wrong because we can compete in our training session, but I want to see you go head to head in track. I want to see you go head-to-head in baseball. I want to see you play baseball, competitive spirit, and maybe not just look to specialize in one sport.

“I love multisport guys. It keeps you busy, keeps you in shape. We've got some multisport athletes here at Notre Dame, guys that are playing football and playing -- they all play football, but playing baseball and lacrosse. We love that. I encourage that. I think it's something that we put tremendous value in.”

Notre Dame Recruiting Rankings (per 247 Composite) 

Now, Notre Dame needs to take a step in recruiting with the 2026 class, but the 2016 recruiting class is always an interesting data point, especially when you consider the raw talent of 2025 haul for the Irish. 

The 2016 class had the lowest composite score and average player ranking in the last 10 years, but it also could be Notre Dame’s best class as they helped take Irish to the College Football Playoff in 2018 because that raw talent was developed. 

Notre Dame signed 23 players that year: Tommy Kraemer, Liam Eichenberg, Troy Pride Jr., Javon McKinley, Daelin Hayes, Khalid Kareem, Chase Claypool, Julian Okwara, Jalen Elliott, Tony Jones Jr., Ian Book, Julian Love, Ade Ogundeji and Jamir Jones all made NFL training camps at a minimum. In fact, all but McKinley made the 53-man active roster. 

11 of those players were still involved on an NFL roster this fall, including Pride, who was just signed by the Dallas Cowboys this week. 

It’s also worth pointing out this class was signed after the biggest summer camp run during Kelly’s tenure. Live evaluations matter. 

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