Inside Luke Montgomery’s Recruitment: ‘Notre Dame Is Where They Need To Be’

His younger son Ryan — a class of 2025 quarterback — wasn’t able to make all of the visits, but at least with Luke — a top-100 two-way lineman in the 2023 cycle — they were able to see Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State and Tennessee.

“It was a good time to get out with the boys and see programs I’ve only ever watched on TV and never been able to see in person,” Mike Montgomery said. “It was a lot of miles and had a lot of great people.”

Notre Dame had early interest in Luke when he was a freshman before he earned any scholarship offers. The Irish staff hosted him for the Virginia Tech game in 2019. A week after that visit, he earned his first scholarship offer from Western Michigan, but it wasn’t until October 2020 when his recruitment started to blow up, as he earned offers from Cincinnati, Michigan State, Penn State and West Virginia.

The Fighting Irish entered the mix in February 2021 when defensive line coach Mike Elston extended a scholarship offer. After months of communication between the two parties, the 6-5, 260-pounder was finally able to make his return visit to Notre Dame’s campus June 22. Per the elder Montgomery, the visit went very well.

“It was excellent,” Mike Montgomery said. “Notre Dame is a unique place, and it has an incredible atmosphere. It’s a neat school, and you can’t beat the academics. The size of the campus is really nice. We had a great tour of the campus and learned about the history.

“The staff there is top-notch. I know they’re great coaches, but they’re also top-notch people. Coach Nick Lezynski was with us. Coach Elston is awesome, and we’ve always liked him. We had a little bit of a relationship with Chad Bowden when he was at Cincinnati. Luke gets along with him really well.

“Marcus Freeman is an A-plus individual. He’s one of the most impressive people I’ve met. Finally, Coach Kelly was super personable. Sometimes he comes across as business-only, but he was super when we met with him for 15-20 minutes about his vision for Luke and the university.”

While most schools recruiting Montgomery — the No. 7 offensive tackle and No. 82 overall player in the country per Rivals — have shifted from looking at him as a defensive lineman to an offensive lineman, Notre Dame has stuck to seeing him on the defensive side of the ball. However, they’re not beholden to it.

“Notre Dame probably did the best job of speaking schematically where they wanted to Luke, and that is on the defensive line,” the elder Montgomery explained. “That’s not to say that if he plays this year at offensive line and he really wants to play on that side of the ball that they wouldn’t switch him over and recruit him there.

“They would absolutely do that. They gave several examples of where kids have come in for one position and changed for various reasons.”

Elston and Freeman sat down with Luke and Mike Montgomery to detail Luke’s fit in their defense.

“They want Luke as a college football player, student and leader,” Montgomery continued. “They’ve positioned themselves well if Luke were to choose to play defense moving forward. I try to tell people that Luke needs to play this fall at offensive line; he hasn’t played it yet. I understand all of the projections, and I tend to agree with his potential there, but at the same time, he had two great years at defensive line. And Notre Dame and a couple other school still see him there.

“About 70 percent of the schools are recruiting him at offensive line. I tell Luke to play this season, and then after it, you’ll know if you want to go after offense or defense.”

Most pundits project Montgomery to land with the in-state Buckeyes, but Notre Dame has shown it can pull off an upset in Ohio. In the 2021 class, the Irish landed Pickerington Central wide receiver Lorenzo Styles Jr., an Ohio State legacy, and in the 2023 cycle, Notre Dame pulled off a stunner when Mentor defensive end Brenan Vernon committed to Brian Kelly and Co.

Can the Irish do it again with Montgomery?

“Notre Dame is right where they need to be,” Mike Montgomery noted. “I don’t know what Luke’s final list will look like, but I will say that I’m confident that Notre Dame will be in it. They have done everything up to this point that we’d expect and more. They’re one of the schools he proactively reaches out to.”

The aforementioned Ryan Montgomery is just entering his freshman year of high school, but he’s quickly becoming a household name as well. Georgia Tech, Michigan, Penn State, Tennessee and Toledo have already extended scholarship offers.

“He’s a naturally gifted athlete; he’s one of those guys who is good at everything,” Montgomery said. “He makes it all look easy. He’s a shortstop in baseball and is a great golfer.

“The lights came on for him when we went to that Michigan camp in June. He did really well in the camp. I knew after it that there was some buzz about him, but when we were told to call Coach [Jim] Harbaugh the next day, I was blown away. I figured the offers would come, but not this early.”

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