The seemingly indelible image Saturday of four-star wide receiver Derek Meadows leaving a Notre Dame cap on the table during his announcement decision via YouTube was a reminder of benign Irish recruiting snapshots of the recent past that carried the same kind of sting at the time.

And eventually faded.

This one, Irish head coach Marcus Freeman and assistant athletic director/general manager Chad Bowden, seem determined to re-engineer into a turning point/rallying cry of sorts.

In the short term, it is believed Notre Dame will continue to pursue Meadows — as 6-foot-6, 205-pound rising senior at Las Vegas Bishop Gorman High — as if his livestream pledge to LSU on Saturday never happened.

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They’ll also reopen the wide receiver board, prioritizing 2025 targets over the transfer portal for now, with the hope of adding two to previously committed three-star wide receivers with NFL bloodlines, Jerome Bettis Jr. and Elijah Burress.

That includes pursuing wide receivers already committed in other schools’ classes, beyond Meadows. The recruiting calendar, with official visits off the table until the season, gives the ND coaches ample time to pore over film and résumés and recalibrate.

The belief is that the investment of former LSU offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock, in his third tour of duty at ND, will show itself on the field this fall and turn heads and change minds. Same with the tutelage of wide receivers coach Mike Brown, who’s first regular-season game with Notre Dame unfolds Aug. 31 in College Station, Texas, against Texas A&M.

Fit remains important, because it’s not just about winning the announcement ceremonies — and the Irish went 0-for-3 with receivers in a six-day span, with Tanook Hines opting for USC and Dylan Robinson a future at defensive back rather than receiver with Washington.

It’s about retention and development, two areas Freeman is confident Denbrock and Brown will shine at ND once they get the chance.

And retention has been the bigger problem, going back to the Brian Kelly Era. Nine of the 13 wide receivers who signed out of high school with the Irish in the 2019-2023 classes either charged positions, transferred or both.

And every one of those transitions occurred before the start of the respective players’ junior year in college.

The exceptions are current seniors Jayden Thomas and Deion Colzie, and the two members of last year’s four-man freshman class still on the roster — Jaden Greathouse and KK Smith.

Notre Dame did sign three four-star receivers in the last (2024) cycle — Cam Williams, Micah Gilbert and Logan Saldate — to go with three incoming transfers. All three, though, were primarily recruited by deposed wide receivers coach Chansi Stuckey, who was fired just weeks before National Signing Day in December.

All three, though, held firm and bought into the hires of Denbrock and receivers coach Brown.

Compounding this week’s whiff on commitment days was the June 1 decommitment of three-star wide receiver Shaun Terry of Ironton, Ohio — who’s since landed at Missouri.

“I think Mike Brown and Notre Dame are going to get this right,” longtime recruiting analyst Tom Lemming of Prep Football Report, told Inside ND Sports. “They have all the things on place to attract top wide receivers, things that they didn’t always have in place before — like a top offensive coordinator in Mike Denbrock and a line of top QB recruits — CJ Carr, who’s a freshman now, then [2025 commit] Deuce Knight and [2026 commit] Noah Grubbs.

“If I’m going to be critical about how they handled this wide receiver cycle, it’s that they didn’t have a big wide receiver group. They probably misjudged they were going to get some of these guys and cut back on others. And then it was too late to go back and get them.

“So, their best move if they come out of this week with still just Bettis and Burress, is to wait until fall to put their backup plan in action. But I think better days are ahead for wide receiver recruiting.”

The unknown is the financial piece and how that plays into both recruiting high school prospects and out of the transfer portal. And while the college sports model seems to be morphing meteorically, Notre Dame has been competitive in the NIL space to this point.

No one seems to know exactly how the mechanics of directly paying athletes as a result of the NCAA settling lawsuits, including House v. NCAA, will work. Or how soon. But Freeman is confident in ND’s ability to live and thrive in that world when it does arrive.

“There’s still so many open-ended avenues to how this is going to happen,” Freeman told a group of Notre Dame core beat reporters last month. “That’s been my constant communication with [athletic director] Pete [Bevacqua], with everybody I’ve talked to about this … we can’t all of a sudden start making decisions based off things. The decision hasn’t been made by the Supreme Court. The courts haven’t said this is the final ruling.”

“Are players going to get paid? Yes. How [will] they get paid? Still to be determined. How much [will] they get paid? Still to be determined. I still, in my heart of hearts, believe you’re going to get paid based on how good of a football player you are. And that’s my message to them.

“It’s no different than now. You’re making money off your name, image and likeness based on how good of a player you are. So, continue to focus on that. You’re going to get paid just as well at Notre Dame as anywhere else in the country.

“We’re going to be great. We’re in a great situation here. I couldn’t be more excited for our athletic program. But, players shouldn’t focus on how much you’re getting paid; just keep being a great player. You’re going to get paid as well at Notre Dame as anywhere else in the country.”

With a new football facility, the Jack and Kathy Shields Family Hall already under construction and set to open in the fall of 2026.

And some solace that ugly recruiting snapshots don’t necessarily have much of a shelf life.

In the final recruiting cycle of the Brian Kelly Era at Notre Dame (2022), a class Freeman inherited and largely salvaged on the December 2021 signing day, the Irish did lose two of their three wide receivers to decommitments.

First was the defection of Amorion Walker to Michigan, then —at the 11th hour — CJ Williams to USC. At No. 47 overall in the Rivals100 rankings, Williams was the highest-rated prospect at any position in the class.

Two years later, he’s heading into his junior year at Wisconsin with a modest 15 catches for 148 yards and 0 TDs in 2023 in his first 12 games as a Badger after transferring. That’s notably eclipsed by what former walk-on Jordan Faison did at Notre Dame in just seven games last season (19 catches for 322 yards and 4 TDs) last season as a freshman.

Walker, meanwhile, was moved to cornerback at Michigan last season and amassed three tackles and a pass breakup in the six games in which he saw action. He then transferred to Ole Miss for the spring semester, then back to Michigan this summer, where new head coach Sherrone Moore is giving Walker a reboot at wide receiver.

The one wide receiver who stayed in the 2022 class and signed with ND after Kelly bolted for LSU, Tobias Merriweather, is set to begin his junior season in college at a new one, Cal. Merriweather hit the transfer portal in December.

“It really goes to show you how unpredictable wide receiver recruiting can be,” Lemming said. “That’s why development is so important. And with Mike Denbrock and Mike Brown, I think Notre Dame has that piece in place now.

“In almost every conversation I have with top players, they mention they keep up on who gets drafted from which programs. And while Notre Dame has a lot of things going for it and great recruiters, when you come to splitting hairs, they’re going to attack Notre Dame’s history.

“LSU had two receivers [Malik Nabors and Brian Thomas Jr.] drafted in the first round this past spring. Even though Brian Kelly didn’t recruit either of them and Mike Denbrock developed them, kids still look at the school. When was the last time Notre Dame had a wide receiver go in the first round?”

It was Will Fuller in 2016, a player Denbrock recruited and developed. And before that Michael Floyd in 2012 and before that Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown in the 1988 draft.

“They do need some history at Notre Dame, and they don’t have any,” Lemming said. “That’s what the other schools use against Notre Dame. That’s what’s got to be turned around. That’s what’s happening already with [defensive backs coach] Mike Mickens.

“He took a lot of heat a few years ago, and now he’s the toast of the country as a DBs coach. I think Mike Brown has that potential. If Notre Dame’s offense can look good this season with the receivers they already have, that bodes well for the future.

“Mike Denbrock is the key to everything this year when it comes to wide receivers, running backs, quarterbacks, tight ends. I think you’ll see Denbrock spread the ball around, and not just to the tight ends. I think Mike Brown and Mike Denbrock can wipe that history away. Then you’ll see the great players go to ND.”

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