All-American Bowl performances only small part of ND's seismic bounceback

The whirlwind last four weeks for Billy Schrauth most mirrored that of his future college head football coach among Notre Dame’s 21 signed recruits.

His Campbellsport, Wis., home on Dec. 6 kicked off Marcus Freeman’s “save the recruiting class” tour — 8,000-plus miles and 14 states of it. The standout offensive guard, verbally committed to the Irish shortly thereafter and signed with ND on Dec. 15.

His presumed offensive line coach, Jeff Quinn, was purged earlier this week and will be replaced by O-line coaching icon Harry Hiestand.

On Saturday, Schrauth played offensive guard and center for the winning West squad in its 34-14 victory over the East in the 22nd All-American Bowl in San Antonio.

Less than 48 hours later, the mid-year enrollee will be sitting in his first classroom on the ND campus taking notes, and starting winter workouts with director of football performance Matt Balis.

Eleven of his 2022 recruiting classmates will do the same, including five others who played in the All-American Bowl (Joshua Burnham, Tyson Ford, Aiden Gobaira, Niuafe Tuihalamaka, Nolan Ziegler) and bowl scratch Joey Tanona.

In a normal week, in a normal year, Saturday’s All-American Bowl — with its 11 selections and 10 participants — would have easily taken center stage. Instead, it’s just part of the bigger picture of Notre Dame football’s seismic bounceback week following its Jan. 1 Fiesta Bowl loss to Oklahoma State.

On Saturday alone, the Irish added an All-American to their roster, at its most desperate position of need no less, in Northwestern transfer safety Brandon Joseph. And a couple of hours later they retained a possible future All-American, in senior-to-be defensive end Isaiah Foskey.

Meanwhile, Freeman expanded ND’s recruiting board this week with some new offers to perhaps add some Feb. 2 signees to the 21-man class signed in December. He’s sitting on the No. 1 class nationally in the 2023 cycle in its early stages, fortified by the Jan. 1 commitment of Rivals100 safety Peyton Bowen of Denton, Texas.

And following ND wide receiver Kevin Austin’s draft declaration and some benign transfer portal departures, a string of significant announcements to return to the Irish roster ensued.

Center Jarrett Patterson is the most significant of the remaining undecided/unannounced roster questions.

While the second half of the 37-35 loss to the Cowboys on Jan. 1 underscored the risk and the commitment to growth necessary for hiring a first-time head coach to replace expatriated 12th-year Irish head coach Brian Kelly, the week that followed insinuated the potential rewards of elevating Freeman from his defensive coordinator post.

What the Fiesta Bowl game itself and its aftermath might have looked like under the new LSU head coach is forever stuck in the hypothetical and increasingly irrelevant. Remember, Freeman is about building upon what Kelly did, not debasing the man who brought him to South Bend, Ind., a year ago.

“I think when you’re not in this chair, you think, ‘If I become the head coach at Notre Dame, you’re going to be a different person.’” Freeman said in a halftime interview during the All-American Bowl telecast on NBC. “ And the reality is that you’re not.

“You’re the same person that you were as you grew up throughout the course of your life. But your responsibilities are different. The expectations are different. Those are things that I’ve embraced.

“You’re learning day by day, moment by moment. I’m just trying to knock out one task at a time, but you’re going to do it with hard work. You’re going to do it with integrity, and that’s what I’ve always done.”

Saturday Freeman, a 2004 All-American Bowl participant, not only had a chance to watch roughly half of his future freshman class compete, he had a chance to see three former recruiting targets — wide receiver C.J. Williams, defensive tackle Hero Kanu and defensive end Cyrus Moss — make their college choices known during the game for USC, Ohio State and Miami, respectively.

Williams, a one-time Irish commitment, was a standout in a game (4 catches, 88 yards, 1 TD), whose organizers made detailed official stats an afterthought.

Among the players who are heading to ND, Schrauth was among those who shined in the game and/or the practices leading up to it. So, the consensus goes, did defensive ends Gobaira (3 tackles, with a sack) and Ford, wide receiver Tobias Merriweather (4 catches, 54 yards) and linebacker Burnham.

Linebacker Tuihalamaka made the game’s first tackle from scrimmage, stuffing Penn State-bound running back Nicholas Singleton. Ziegler had to play safety earlier in the week because of significant attrition to the rosters from COVID.

Punter Bryce McFerson and offensive linemen Ashton Craig and Aamil Wagner also represented ND.

A breakneck January continues for Freeman this week as he looks to complete his searches for a new wide receivers coach and new defensive coordinator to add to Hiestand and new special teams coordinator Brian Mason, from Cincinnati.

And, for course, there’s more recruiting. Perpetually.

Of ND current roster, of some new unsigned finds in the 2022 class — and of more 2023s, 2024s and 2025s.

“The reality,” Freeman said Saturday, “is that we believe Notre Dame offers you something that nowhere in the country can give you. And that’s the opportunity to win a national championship, to be developed to be an NFL Draft pick and to join a network from this degree that you can earn from this place that will set you up for the rest of your life.”