Mason James made his way to Notre Dame for the first time this past weekend and the 2026 Oklahoma receiver got a good glimpse of what life in South Bend is like for student-athletes.
“It was really good,” James told Irish Sports Daily afterward. “I enjoyed my time. I'm glad me and my family got to make it up and spend some time with the staff.
“I got there Friday. I ended up going to dinner at the top of the stadium. It was a really nice view. I got to meet up with some of the offensive staff, a little bit of the defensive staff. After that, I got a little campus tour, stadium tour. Saturday, I woke up early, had meetings pretty much all day, got to connect with the staff and a few of the players and got to sit in on a few meetings. So it was good.”
The Norman North High School star was impressed with campus.
“It was really nice,” the 5-foot-11, 175-pounder said. “Campus was really nice. The stadium was huge.”
He also enjoyed getting a peek at a spring practice.
“It was good,” James said. “I feel like they're really starting to balance out their offense moving forward from what I saw in practice, more of a run and throw game now.”
James left impressed with the culture head coach Marcus Freeman has built in South Bend.
“Really how they're such a family,” he said. “Even last year, Coach was like, 'We didn't have the best skill to be in the College Football Playoffs,’ but they still made it work just with the family theme and how they do things.
“They don't roll individually, they roll in a pack. Really getting to know that from Coach Freeman means a lot. He's including everybody and that's what makes the team.”
He also enjoyed getting to learn more about receivers coach Mike Brown.
“With Coach Brown, I was in his receiver meeting and really just how he pays attention to every little detail and cares about all the players in the room, not just his starting group,” James said. “He takes care of his freshmen and makes sure everybody knows what's going on.”
James was able to spend time with 2026 Notre Dame receiver Dylan Faison and 2026 receiver target Kaydon Finley, who were also on campus for visits.
“It was really good being able to hang out with Dylan and Kaydon because they've both been there a few times,” James said. “Them keeping me up to date with the program and telling me why this is also one of their top schools for them.
“Dylan told me why he committed and why they love the school so much. It really just caught me up and brought me up to date on how things run at Notre Dame.”
He also had the opportunity to speak with some of the current players.
“They were really just telling me why they felt at home at Notre Dame and what their goals were,” said James. “We didn't really talk too much about the program, but we talked about why they felt at home and why they wanted to shut down their recruitment. Other than that, we were just hanging out.”
James already has official visits to Arizona State, Missouri, Washington and Oklahoma locked in. He has an open date for June 12th and says Notre Dame could possibly fill that spot.
If he does return, he’ll be looking to see and hear more about what his role in the offense would be.
The Irish certainly improved their standing with the visit, though.
“Definitely better. I didn't know too much about Notre Dame going into it, so I was just glad to be able to get there and meet everybody.”
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