When Rivals unveiled Tuesday its first Rivals250 for the 2027 class, only three 2027 recruits had previously reported Notre Dame football scholarship offers.

All three of those recruits — wide receiver Jamier Brown, cornerback Larry Moon and wide receiver Dakota Guerrant — were included in the Rivals250, but it was a reminder that Notre Dame is playing from behind when it comes to offering high schoolers early. However, that’s not accidental. In recent years and particularly under former general manager Chad Bowden, the Irish held back on offering most high school sophomores until St. Patrick’s Day, which Notre Dame branded as its Pot of Gold Day.

For instance, on St. Patrick’s Day of last year, 87 recruits reported Notre Dame offers as part of Pot of Gold Day. The strategy makes sense from Notre Dame’s perspective in that it buys the program time to evaluate young prospects on the field and in the classroom and gives the Irish a recruiting day to claim as their own.

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The process will likely remain the same this year, because it’s probably too late to change the routine, but it will be interesting to see if Notre Dame’s next general manager has a different plan in mind. Perhaps Pot of Gold Day can become a second wave of offers rather than the first wave to prevent the Irish from not being part of the early conversations for recruits.

Pot of Gold Day has been successful in generating buzz about Notre Dame’s recruiting efforts, but it’s hard to quantify how much it’s helping land eventual signees. The number of recruits who signed after receiving their offers on Pot of Gold Day can be measured, but it’s hard to imagine those recruits wouldn’t have ended up at Notre Dame if their offers came earlier.

Notre Dame’s 2024 class of 23 recruits included four signees who reported offers from Pot of Gold Day: five-star linebacker Kyngstonn Vilamu-Asa, four-star offensive tackle Guerby Lambert, four-star offensive guard Peter Jones, four-star tight end Jack Larsen and four-star defensive tackle Sean Sevillano Jr.

Notre Dame’s 2025 class of 25 recruits included seven signees who reported offers from Pot of Gold Day: four-star defensive end Christopher Burgess Jr., four-star linebacker Madden Faraimo, four-star linebacker Anthony Sacca, four-star tight end James Flanigan, four-star defensive end Dominik Hulak, four-star cornerback Cree Thomas and three-star wide receiver Jerome Bettis Jr.

Five of the first seven verbal commitments in Notre Dame’s 2026 class came from Pot of Gold offers: four-star interior offensive lineman Tyler Merrill, four-star cornerback Chaston Smith, four-star linebacker Thomas Davis Jr., four-star offensive tackle Ben Nichols and three-star wide receiver Dylan Faison.

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Time will tell how Notre Dame fares with 2027 recruits and those who eventually receive offers. A comparison with the other three teams who made the College Football Playoff semifinal round this past season shows how limited Notre Dame’s 2027 offers have been. According to the Rivals database, Penn State has already offered 114 recruits in the 2027 class. Ohio State and Texas have offered 44 and 41, respectively.

Maybe the Penn State model doesn’t make a lot of sense for Notre Dame. The Nittany Lions finished with the 16th-ranked 2025 class, according to Rivals, which is five spots behind Notre Dame. But it’s hard to argue that Texas, which finished No. 1 in 2025, and Ohio State, which finished No. 3, have bad recruiting strategies.

Though Notre Dame has only offered three 2027 recruits, it hasn’t been ignoring recruits in the class. At least 17 recruits in the Rivals250 for the 2027 class have already visited Notre Dame: QB Brady Edmunds (No. 9), QB Trae Taylor (14), Brown (19), WR Monshun Sales (44), Moon (59), Guerrant (70), CB Ace Alston (71), TE Luke Brewer (80), TE Holden Niemi (83), EDGE Antwoine Higgins Jr. (95), WR Quentin Burrell (112) TE Anthony Cartwright (134), QB Peter Bourque (161), DT Brayden Parks (165), NICK Xavier Sabb (169), APB Khalil Taylor (189) and OT Jimmy Kalis (208).

The Irish also made visits to the high schools of at least 15 Rivals250 recruits in the 2027 class while hitting the recruiting trail in January. Those stops were tracked in the Trail Tracks series by Inside ND Sports on The Insider Lounge.

Check out more Rivals content on the 2027 class below.

► Rivals Rankings Release: Five-Star Countdown for 2027 class

► Rivals250 Release: Biggest storylines in the new rankings

► Rivals250 Release: Breaking down the 2027 class by position

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