Inside Notre Dame’s Evolving Recruiting Machine Under Marcus Freeman

You adapt or fall behind in the world of college football recruiting. 

Notre Dame has thrived under the leadership of Marcus Freeman over the past three seasons and momentum doesn’t appear to be slowing down. The Fighting Irish currently boast the nation’s No. 2 recruiting class entering June, with several highly coveted and ranked prospects set to take official visits to South Bend in the coming weeks. 

One of Freeman’s slight adjustments this cycle has been expanding the role of graduate assistants and analysts in the recruiting process. It’s an extremely collaborative effort in each recruitment, which is a change from the previous strategy that saw former general manager Chad Bowden take a significant role in nearly every recruitment. 

It’s a smart move. Graduate assistants and analysts are often eager to prove themselves in any area of the program and recruiting gives them a meaningful opportunity to do just that.

For instance, defensive analyst Jevaughn Codlin was known for his recruiting chops during a stint at West Virginia. Fellow defensive analyst Nick Sebastian, who joined Notre Dame in 2022 after three seasons working under legendary defensive line coach Larry Johnson at Ohio State, has already made an impact. Sebastian played a key role in landing Javontae Jean-Baptiste from Ohio State out of the portal and helped secure signatures from Cole Mullins and Loghan Thomas early in his tenure.

Freeman downplayed the notion that giving more recruiting responsibilities to support staff is a long-term recruiting pitch to attract rising coaching talent. Yet, he praised the work of his team over the past four months, especially in handling off-campus recruiting visits when position coaches are unavailable.

”We don’t make those decisions to sell in the future, ‘Hey, you can recruit,’” stated Freeman. “We constantly evaluate what needs to be done at the moment. Who needs to be on the road? We have some young guys who have made really good connections with some of the recruits. We want to send them on the road. There might be a position coach or coordinator we keep off the road for a certain reason. We’re always evaluating and making decisions based off that. We make the decision that feels best for the program at the moment.” 

During the spring evaluation period, Codlin, Sebastian, Rob Delaney, Harris Bivin, Carter Auman, and Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa all hit the road for recruiting trips.

Notre Dame was very deliberate in matching coaches to their strengths. In some cases, the strategy was blatantly obvious.

“Myron (Tagovailoa-Amosa) has connections in Hawaii,” Freeman said. “Guess what. No one should recruit Hawaii but Myron. It’s called common sense. I don’t want you to think more into it than what it is. If there’s a connection, then we need to put this guy on the road.” 

When it comes to prospect evaluations, Freeman’s recruiting operation is running as efficiently as ever. Disagreements are inevitable and heated conversations do happen over who to offer, accept, or drop, but it appears Freeman’s recruiting structure thrives because of its collaborative nature.

The key to building a board and landing one of the nation’s top classes is that everyone, including Freeman and general manager Mike Martin, is on equal footing when it comes to the evaluation process and who to take or not take. 

”No one person in this program has too much power,” explained Freeman. “There's no one person who has autonomy and that's including head coach. If I really, really like somebody and the position coach and the GM and the coordinator don't like him, well, guess what? It doesn't matter. I'm not ego enough to say, ‘OK, maybe I'm missing something.’ I really like this guy, but if you guys don't like him, forget it. If the position coach really, really likes some guy but the coordinator hates him, the GM doesn't like him and the head coach, we're not going to take him.” 

Freeman did make sure to add that if the staff is torn or split on a player, then his input can be the trump card.

"We have to all collectively make a decision on guys and I think that's how I want to run this program,” stated Freeman. “There is no hierarchy. Now, if there's three guys that like him or two guys that like him and two guys don't, at some point the head coach will be able to give his final opinion. I think for the majority of our guys, we can come to a consensus of whether he's good enough for us or not."

Notre Dame has also seen increased interest from prospects on the recruiting trail. That’s what a run to the national title game will do, but also wins at Texas A&M and USC, beating Georgia in SEC country and winning a thriller against Penn State in the talent-rich state of Florida. 

Eyes were on Notre Dame in key areas of the country, and outside of the title game, Notre Dame won big games in SEC country, putting the program back on the map for America’s youngsters, who likely haven’t seen the Irish on the big stages. 

”I think young people are interested in Notre Dame football,” said Freeman. “We all think that's a crazy statement. Who wouldn't be interested in Notre Dame football? But some of the young people, before we made this championship run, probably weren't just, ‘Hey, I'm just interested in Notre Dame Football.'

“Now, the brand, the faces, it is recognizable for all those guys and they want at least want to hear about Notre Dame football. Now, that's just a part of the piece, right? You're interested in listening. Now, how do we get the young person to believe in what the entire package of Notre Dame football truly can offer you?  If you don't get them to even listen, then you have zero chance. I think now at least we have a chance.” 

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