Top 2028 Notre Dame TE Target Jack McNamara Ready For Invasion
Notre Dame has spent several months recruiting Jack McNamara.
Now the Irish will have an opportunity to coach him, at least for one day.
The 2028 Illinois tight end is set to return to South Bend this weekend for Irish Invasion, giving him another chance to strengthen relationships that have been developing for quite some time with Mike Denbrock and Harris Bivin.
But this visit carries a slightly different purpose than previous trips.
“I think it's going to be a good opportunity for me to see how Coach Denbrock will coach me personally and how he'll develop me,” McNamara told Irish Sports Daily. “And how I'll build that relationship through football and practicing on the field with Coach Denbrock.”
The Brother Rice standout already holds a Notre Dame offer, which makes his dynamic entering one of the Irish's biggest summer camps a little different than some other participants.
“That definitely does take stress off,” McNamara said. “If I didn't have that offer, I'd probably be a lot more stressed.”
McNamara already owns one of the more impressive offer lists in the country. In addition to Notre Dame, the Chicago native also has offers from schools like Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Oregon, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida, Miami, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Illinois and Northwestern among others.
Instead of focusing on earning an Irish offer, McNamara plans to use the camp environment to evaluate how he fits within Notre Dame's program.
“Continuing the relationship we have, the strong relationship we have that we've built for a while,” McNamara said. “But mostly it's going to be just how he's going to coach me and how he's going to develop me and stuff like that.”
Denbrock, who doubles as the Irish’s offensive coordinator and tight ends coach, has played a major role in Notre Dame's recruitment of McNamara as has Bivin, Notre Dame’s assistant tight ends coach.
“He plays a similar role to Coach Denbrock,” McNamara said of Bivin. “Because he's always in the room too. He's just as important, I'd say, with the tight ends.”
The 6-foot-5, 235-pounder plans to evaluate both coaches closely throughout the weekend.
“Definitely seeing how they’re going to coach me and develop me through my years in college,” McNamara said.
Notre Dame isn't the only program receiving attention this summer.
McNamara plans to camp at Michigan on June 16 and has already made spring visits to Oklahoma and Oregon as well as previous stops in South Bend and Ann Arbor.
As the process continues, he acknowledges things are starting to crystallize for him internally.
“It's beginning to get narrowed down a lot more,” McNamara said.
The upcoming camps should play a significant role in determining what comes next.
“These two camps are pretty big days for my recruiting and seeing how that's going to play out,” McNamara said. “So we'll see how it is after the camps.”
McNamara isn't ruling out the possibility of making an early decision if he finds the right fit.
“If I find the place, then I'm going to commit.”
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