It’s becoming increasingly obvious Notre Dame made the right move when it promoted Carter Auman to Director of Recruiting back in March.
At least for the 2026 class.
And based on the results of the 2026 class, it seems the Irish may have found their ace recruiter for the future as well.
Less than six months ago, there was true anxiety revolving around the Notre Dame Recruiting operation.
A run to the National Championship in the first-ever College Football Playoff should have served as a springboard for recruiting.
Instead, the Irish seemed to be stuck in neutral and possibly even going in reverse.
The playoff run kept Irish staffers off the road while virtually all of their rivals were dashing around the country building bonds with many of the top prospects in the upcoming recruiting class.
It also led to an upheaval of the recruiting department as former general manager Chad Bowden would bolt for USC after National Signing Day for the Class of 2025, eventually taking former director of player personnel Zaire Turner with him. Barely a month later, former director of recruiting Caleb Davis was plucked to be San Diego State’s first-ever general manager.
And all of a sudden, the Irish were left scrambling trying to recruit the nation’s top high school targets all while they were trying to recruit others to help re-build their own recruiting department.
In Auman, the Irish found solutions to both.
Tabbed as Davis’ immediate successor, Auman provided some sense of continuity under new general manager Mike Martin.
He’d been the assistant general manager under Bowden and Davis. A 2022 Notre Dame grad, Auman served as a team manager as a student before joining the program as a Recruiting Associate upon graduation.
But Auman, 25, was more than just somebody who understood how things had been run in the past. He was an active member of the office who had already established personal relationships with many of the top targets the Irish needed to catch up on.
For outsiders looking in, Auman may have been in the background so to speak under Bowden, but that wasn’t the case when it came to actual recruits.
He’d hosted Kaydon Finley for the 2026 Texas receiver’s first visit to campus for a spring practice in 2024.
When Auman made his first FaceTime call to a recruit at midnight on June 15th, 2024, elite Pennsylvania defensive back Joey O'Brien was on the other end.
Auman was the first college staffer safety Nicholas Reddish heard from that same night.
Ditto for Texas receiver Brayden Robinson.
He had built genuine relationships with linebacker Thomas Davis Jr. and receiver Dylan Faison, who were already committed.
Auman wouldn’t hit the ground running as much as he’d just keep sprinting like he always had been.
After not landing a commitment in February or March, the Irish started heating up in the spring, landing five pledges in April and another four in May.
Notre Dame entered the Official Visit portion of the calendar in the same place where it found itself seemingly every June; with an extremely strong foundation that essentially guaranteed a good class with the potential for a very good or great one.
Unfortunately in years past, this is where things often tended to fizzle. The Irish would land a couple top targets in part based on summer visits - like a Guerby Lambert or a Kyngston Viliamu-Asa in 2024 or a JaDon Blair or a Madden Faraimo in 2025.
But a good chunk of July and beyond would be dedicated to scouring the country looking for Plan B guys after missing on many of their top targets.
Not this year.
If the Irish don’t land all 12 of the uncommitted prospects who took official visits in the month of June, it’ll most likely be because they ran out of room.
And a large part of that will be due to Auman.
Directing the recruiting operation at a place like Notre Dame is multi-faceted.
It demands research, planning, organization, foresight, strategy, interpersonal skills and much more.
But for Auman, it seems to boil down to a single word, relationships.
And if you look for a single throughline of Notre Dame’s June surge and 2026 recruiting class as a whole, that’s what you’ll find.
For over a year, the Irish developed serious relationships with dozens of prospects, some of those relationships lasted longer than others as both sides narrowed in on whether there was a fit or not.
In the end, one reason Notre Dame has been so successful this summer is because of the players they were after this summer.
The Irish had been convinced they were on the right kids the entire time and clearly they were.
The process is a lot longer at Notre Dame than many schools and starts with acquiring academic transcripts, but goes far deeper.
By the time official visits rolled around, the Irish knew every kid they were bringing in was a fit character-wise because if anything had been even a little bit off in the months prior, they were on to the next one.
The authenticity of those relationships coupled with Auman’s genuine affection for Notre Dame set up a situation where players and their families would hear about it from somebody they trusted who truly loved the University.
“Carter's a great person,” said Joe O’Brien, father of Joey O’Brien. “He's just a great person deep down.
“If he truly believes that Notre Dame is the place that he claims it is, I have no problems with my kid going there.”
In addition to himself, Auman’s grandfather and both of his parents attended Notre Dame as did both of his siblings.
“He has quite a legacy,” Grayson McKeogh’s mother, Natalie said. “He lives that school and he's just a great kid. To be so young to have that position and just be so dedicated to it.”
It’s far easier and more effective to recruit a kid and his family when what you’re pitching is something you believe in deeply.
“It's not a job for Carter,” O’Brien said. “It doesn’t seem like he's working. He's just out there having fun promoting Notre Dame because he loves it there.
“I really believe that he believes he has the best job in the world, and you can tell he does a great job at it.”
SCHEDULE DID COMPLICATE THINGS: Cramming all of the official visits into a period less than three weeks long presented some obstacles.
Notre Dame hosted 21 players for their first official visit weekend beginning June 13th. In years past, the Irish generally hosted about a dozen and some wondered whether 21 was too many.
Eventually, the Irish became not just comfortable, but encouraged because of the makeup of the group, which largely consisted of commits.
Those commits were like deputy recruiters of sorts and while other places tend to rely on their coaching staff to delicately apply some pressure on prospects to pull the trigger, Notre Dame’s current commits were able to provide more organic nudges to their peers.
With tight end Ian Premer, Notre Dame had to deal with the fact that his official visit was during the week, which can be challenging.
So, Notre Dame made sure to get him around plenty of the current guys on the roster when he was on campus while also encouraging the commits to reach out to him over the phone, FaceTime and text messages.
The Irish felt they crushed the visit despite the timing of it and clearly they did as he would eventually offer his commitment as well. The feeling among sources close to the situation was that Premer and his folks wanted him in South Bend, but they just needed to come to grips with the distance and pass up the pull to stay home.
To borrow an old phrase, Premer eventually made the decision to choose hard.
SOME DECISIONS MADE/ONE DECISION STILL TBD: Initially, the plan seemed to be that 2026 Connecticut offensive lineman Charlie Thom would be the next man up if the Irish missed out on Grayson McKeogh.
But after seeing him work out in person at a camp in June, offensive line coach Joe Rudolph decided Thom was too good to refuse either way.
The Irish have been in love with McKeogh since they offered him in the spring and went all in to land him. Once they did, they still wanted Thom.
As for tight end Evan Jacobson, potentially the sole official visitor who doesn’t end up with Notre Dame is still “TBD.”
Jacobson has to work through his process and the Irish have to decide if they have room for three tight ends in the class.
FAMILY MATTERS: Of course, there are more relationships being built than just those between the Irish staff and recruits. The Irish are also recruiting the parents and making sure they see just how special Notre Dame is.
Once that is established, it’s about the details; explaining exactly how each player will be developed, providing detailed examples of what a Notre Dame degree means down the road.
And, at least for this class and maybe last year’s class, once the parents are in, they’re all the way in…to the point where they are becoming recruiters themselves.
The commits weren’t the only ones recruiting the targets; the parents of the commits were doing their part to recruit the parents of the targets and doing so proactively.
Some parents were initially hesitant about approaching former NFL players like Larry Fitzgerald, Jermichael Finley and Thomas Davis, who were there with their sons. But they quickly ingratiated themselves with the entire group.
“Playing spades with them and then you’ve got Larry Fitzgerald talking trash, even though he didn't play, he was just talking trash about our game,” one parent said. “That was really refreshing.”
Natalie McKeogh wasn’t nervous about talking with Fitzgerald for one simple reason.
“I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know who he was,” she laughed before noting that one of Grayson’s younger brothers had to pull her aside and let her know.
“He was one of the nicest humans. What an impressive guy. So unbelievably intelligent. I really enjoyed chatting with him…Honestly, he is awesome. What a cool dude.”
As the parents exchanged stories about their journeys through the recruiting process and talked about why they were all in South Bend for the official visit weekend, talk of commitments came up naturally.
“I said, Hey, what y'all waiting on? What are you looking for?’” Jonaz Walton’s father, Will recalled.
Tyler Merrill, Sullivan Garvin and their families certainly made a big impact on McKeogh’s decision to commit, according to his mother.
“Tyler Merrill's parents were great, Sully's parents, same thing,” Mrs. McKeogh said. “That was what did it for Gray. He met those guys and he was like, ‘Mom, this is who I want to spend the next five years with.’
“We've been to a lot of places. And again, as a mom, to hear that and to see the smile, reach his eyes was such a difference from other places that we visited. And again, he had great options. Penn State was a hard one to turn down, it really was for so many reasons. But to see him just mesh with everybody like Carter on down and then the kids was huge.”
The Irish’s 2026 recruiting class is filled with like-minded kids who are reflections of their parents.
“Everybody on that recruiting trip was so similar,” O’Brien said. “I don't want to say clones, but they were all good kids, deep down, I'm not even talking about football. They were all gentlemen. They were all nice kids.
“I'm glad Joey said that he loved it there because my wife and I thought, ‘Man, we could have a fun four years at this school because the parents are so cool and everybody gelled, parents and players.”
There’s a common thread between the kid who chooses Notre Dame and the parents who raised them, which is just reinforced by the presence of each in South Bend.
“I want the best opportunity for my kid, not just on the football field, but just the elbows that he'll be rubbing up against and the relationships with the people he’ll meet,” Mr. Walton said. “They want the same thing for their son that I do, which was great.”
“Everybody cares deeply,” Mrs. McKeogh said. “Not to say that other programs don't have that, but it really is just a shockingly similar group of people that just want the best for their kids and care very, very much about the academic side of this life.
“Of course we want the NFL and we want all the dreams that the kids have. But an overwhelming theme was, ‘Even if you make it to the NFL, what do you do after, for the better part of your life?’ They really get that there. Again, it's a bunch of parents that really care about that.”
ASSISTANT ASSISTANTS MATTER TOO: College Football Recruiting is truly a top-down operation.
That’s why we were so bullish on the Irish’s recruiting potential once they hired Marcus Freeman as their new head coach. Freeman had proven how much he valued recruiting as an assistant and we knew he would hire coaches and staff members with similar views and then demand it from everybody.
Freeman would be setting the tone at the top and Martin would be carrying out that vision as general manager down to Auman, the recruiting staff and the assistant coaches.
And by assistant coaches, we mean all of the assistant coaches, even those listed as analysts.
In just the last few weeks, we’ve had multiple top targets reference guys like assistant tight ends coach Harris Bivin, assistant offensive line coach Rob Delaney, assistant wide receivers coach Dom Spalding, defensive analyst Jevaughn Codlin as well as assistant defensive line coach Nick Sebastian.
Bivin’s relationship with Premer was pivotal. Obviously offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Mike Denbrock played an enormous role, but having a capable coach and recruiter like Bivin pitch in was extremely helpful.
Finley went out of his way to mention a student assistant in the recruiting office named Justice Bathas for playing a major role in him becoming comfortable at Notre Dame.
Meanwhile, Walton’s father mentioned Director of Recruiting Advancement Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa as well as Ariella Ellis, Director of On-Campus Recruiting, alongside Auman.
“Those three together, I call them my nephews and my niece seriously,” Mr. Walton said. “When we get there, man, their energy is always high. Carter’s energy is always high…always a smile on his face early in the morning.
“On the OV, we were getting up early and everybody was dragging, but his energy is always on 10.”
Walton said it was a benefit to the Irish to have somebody on staff who is always friendly.
“And it doesn't seem fake or forced,” he said. “You can feel it. That's the biggest part with me, somebody who's genuine. And I know I've seen the genuine Carter.”
Natalie McKeogh repeated the same word when asked about the impact Auman had on her and her family.
“The thing that sticks out about him the most is just how genuine he is,” she said.
“I hate to keep using the word genuine, but he's just a great kid. I think he picked us up at two o'clock in the morning, our flight got delayed and didn't even skip a beat. It was just nothing to it.
“He just loves it there, and that can't be a mistake.”
When somebody refers to Notre Dame’s “recruiting staff,” it truly should be an all-encompassing term.
STILL, IN THE END, RELATIONSHIPS MATTER MOST: Ask people around the program how the Irish landed players like Kaydon Finley or Joey O'Brien or Khary Adams, eventually you’ll be bored by the answer.
Relationships.
Brown and Auman had been recruiting Finley virtually from the start. Eventually, it became a staff-wide effort.
Finley pointed to a tremendous group of Notre Dame recruiting staffers, including Bathas.
“They're very high energy,” he said. “They're still pretty young, so they relate to us. They get along with all the players well.
“They just mix well with the recruits, with the players, and they're just high-energy, funny guys to be around.”
Finley made several unofficial visits to South Bend and while those were seen as signs of his genuine interest in Notre Dame - which they were - each and every one was necessary in the end.
Garvin first met Auman during a spring practice visit over a year ago.
“Carter was the first one we met,” Garvin’s mother, Tracy told us.
The next time was when Garvin returned for Irish Invasion a few months later.
“As we were checking in, Carter got up and gave us a big welcome hug and that smile again,” Mrs. Garvin said.
“Hugs, not handshakes, that’s the way it was. Carter’s big smile and welcomes go a long way!
“Basically, when you think of the faces of Notre Dame Football, it’s of course, head coach (Marcus) Freeman, the positon coaches, so in our case, Coach (Joe) Rudolph and Coach Delaney.
“Then, you think of Carter. He's the one in constant communication with the recruits and is so genuine. He is such a great guy and loves ND. Great relationships with all the recruits you can see. Carter is a big asset to ND!”
After the first official visit weekend, one source reached out to us eager to hear how the Irish did with O’Brien. The source, who had some visibility into the recruitment, offered us a great deal of optimism with regard to Notre Dame’s chances with the elite Pennsylvania prospect due to his relationship with Auman.
“That kid loves Notre Dame,” we were told affirmatively. “Carter's done a phenomenal job with him.”
One thing that stuck with us from that conversation was how much the source seemed to be rooting for Notre Dame to land him almost solely because they felt Auman deserved the win based on the amount of work he put in on it.
Brayden Robinson set up his first unofficial visit to South Bend during that initial call with Auman when the Contact Period opened last summer
“We’ve been locked in ever since,” Robinson said. “Just to see how bought in he is to the culture and the program makes you realize how special it is.”
Premer said Auman made him feel like family.
“He brings you in,” said Premer. “He is really easy to talk to and he's a little younger than most recruiters, so he is really, really personable and you feel like you can say anything to him and he'll get it.
“I really liked getting to know him and I think that he was a great hire and has been doing amazing in his role. I think the results speak for themselves.”
Reddish, who will announce his college destination later today said Auman had “a really big impact” on how he views Notre Dame.
“At first, it was Chad that was recruiting me,” Reddish said. “Then when he made that switch, there was no dropoff at all. Honestly, he's been building my relationship with him from day one.
"He's a genuine guy. He's so down to earth. He's a young guy, so he could really fill our shoes. He could really see where we're coming from. He's doing his job perfectly. He's not being annoying when he's recruiting. He's really getting a genuine conversation.
“Everything about him just screams great recruiter.”
O’Brien said Auman has been almost like a brother to his son and almost like a family member to him too.
“I’d go in his room at one o'clock in the morning and Joey would be playing PlayStation,” he said. “I'm like, ‘Joe, what are you doing? Who are you playing with?’ It’s Carter.
“He's just a good dude. Carter gels with the kids and then he gels with the parents. Carter would call me in the middle of the workday, ‘Yo, what's up, it's Carter? How are you doing, Mr. O?’ Really? And we’d talk for a half an hour.
“He can talk to the kids, he can talk to the parents. He's a smart kid. He knows everything. He's a really smart kid, and just a good dude, man. Got a good sense of humor. He's going to do well. He loves Notre Dame, but no matter what happens to him, he's going to be a successful person, man. 100 percent.”
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