2027 RB Wayne Shanks Jr. Has Serious Interest In Notre Dame
Notre Dame continues to press for Wayne Shanks Jr as the Irish build out their 2027 running back board with recent contact reinforcing how the staff views his place in the class.
Running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider stopped by this winter and made it clear to Shanks and his family that getting to campus this spring would be important, while also pointing to recent production in the Irish backfield.
“He just made it a priority for me and my family to get down this upcoming spring,” Shanks said. “And just kind of highlighting this past season and what Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price did.”
The 2027 Texas running back has felt that emphasis translate into how Notre Dame has approached his recruitment.
“It feels really good just having the opportunity to hopefully be one of the next greats in the future potentially,” Shanks said. “I think that’s a good place to be in.”
The 5-foot-11, 190-pounder has been drawn to Notre Dame for reasons beyond football.
“I think the culture is really the big thing for me,” Shanks said. “Just that community with the University itself, not even just the football program. It’s very prestigious. I just think that surrounding myself with good people like them would be really good for my career in the future.”
The Kinkaid School star’s relationship with Seider continues to center on development and trust.
“He’s a really down-to-earth, genuine guy,” Shanks said. “I think he’d be that type of guy that if you ever need anything, he’ll be there for you. And I think he’s a great coach. Obviously that development portion is there, even when he was at Penn State.”
That same emphasis on culture and leadership has shown up in his conversations with head coach Marcus Freeman.
“From what I’ve seen and the conversations we’ve had, he’s a really great guy and he talks about the culture as well,” Shanks said. “I think that also starts with him. You want a head coach and a leader, so that’s going to show you how to lead.”
The Houston native visited Notre Dame for the USC game last fall, an experience that helped shape his understanding of the program’s fans and surrounding community.
“It was a really great game to kind of get a feel for the fan base with a big game like that rivalry game,” he said. “It just kind of showed the love aspect, not even just from the team, but just the fan base and the community around it all day on gameday.”
He plans to return to campus this spring, focusing on spending more direct time with the coaching staff and seeing how development is handled day to day.
“I want to get a chance to see Coach Seider head to head, one-on-one,” Shanks said. “Obviously I know that he has a development plan, but seeing it live, I feel like that’d be really huge and getting a chance to kind of picture myself there in the future.”
Shanks’ offer sheet includes schools like Alabama, Auburn, Baylor, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Oregon, Penn State, TCU, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, USC and Wisconsin among others.
As the next phase of his recruitment approaches, he expects clarity to come quickly.
“By the end of this month, hopefully I’ll have a top eight to 10 kind of settled and figure out the spring visits coming up and then official visits coming up soon too. Then have a final decision after that.”
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