Notre Dame recognizes its 2022 recruiting work and pledges to keep pushing
Make no mistake, Notre Dame’s 2022 recruiting class is a positive, even if it took some signing day hits.
It stands as Rivals’ No. 7 group, the program’s highest ranking since finishing third in 2013. It has 15 four- or five-star signees, the most the Irish have signed since that 2013 cycle. Only two of their classes since Rivals began its team rankings in 2002 have ended in a higher spot.
Add in an 11th-hour coaching change that threatened to implode it, and it’s impressive work. Marcus Freeman’s fingerprints are all over it.
Freeman arrived in January 2021 as Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator and instantly pushed the envelope. He chased elite recruits. He landed a few of them. All told, Notre Dame has eight four-star defensive signees. Three of Notre Dame’s four highest-ranked 2022 recruits play defense.
Then, as the newly minted head coach, Freeman kept defections from the class to three. Not 90 minutes after he was introduced, he embarked on a 14-state, 8,000-mile, five-day trek to visit most of the commits and project stability.
“Our staff did an unbelievable job,” Freeman said on signing day. “What you learned about this class is a majority of these kids, they were committed to Notre Dame. It wasn’t about one person or who was the head coach. It was about Notre Dame.”
And yet, despite its ranking, the Irish’s 2022 haul feels like it could be Freeman’s prelude rather than his pièce de résistance. Freeman’s impact on 2022 as the head coach was retention. In 2023 and beyond, though, he’s the primary architect who isn’t interested in pointing out the ceiling.
The way Freeman’s assistants speak about a recruiting operation with him in charge, it’s hard not to think about classes like 2022 being closer to the floor than the maximum possibility. That falls in line with Freeman’s stated objective of not only maintaining what Notre Dame became in Brian Kelly’s last five years, but taking it up the final remaining steps.
When thinking about how to do so, pushing recruiting upward immediately comes to mind.
“You want to be in these battles and have a really good chance at the end,” said Mike Elston, Notre Dame’s defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator. “We knew we were in a couple of them. We should be in more of them. You have to win them. It’s just a higher mark. But that’s not diminishing this class at all. We have a really good class. We’re all excited about it.”
They’re just as excited about the start to 2023. It’s early, but Notre Dame currently occupies the No. 1 spot in the 2023 rankings. Its seven commits are all four-star players, including four defenders ranked in the top 50. Freeman was crucial in landing all of them. In his new role, he pledges to be at the front of every recruitment – offense or defense.
“I want these guys to be able to access me at all times, communicate with me directly on my phone and understanding this is going to be a very personal relationship,” Freeman said. “This isn’t going to be sell, sell, sell. I want them to know me and trust me as the leader of this program.”
In doing so, he wants to be a walking example rather than a talking one who dishes out orders but puts less on his plate. He’s the leader and sets a standard to follow. He distinguished himself as a recruiter upon his arrival, and in turn, other assistants up their efforts. He’s hoping that theme continues.
“It motivates you for sure,” Elston said. “You don’t want to let them down. You don’t want to be outshined by the head coach who has 1,000 other things on his plate. You’re responsible for being the head coach of your position and the talent that comes into it. If you have any pride at all and you want to impress the boss, you’re going to work at that level, if not more. I think you’ll see that across the board.”
Defensive position coaches have seen it up close for 11 months. Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees had worked up close with Freeman too, but five days traveling the country with him was still illuminating.
“Being on the road with him for pretty much an entire week [in early December], you see the relatability with the families, the kids, the way he’s able to speak to them and put the players first, it’s very impactful,” Rees said. “His ability as someone who just got exposed to Notre Dame, the turnaround he had here at this program, him selling his own journey at Notre Dame and the impact it has had on him is very powerful.”
Freeman’s 2022 success, early 2023 returns and whatever follows were possible because of how quickly he understood Notre Dame’s unique position and leaned into it. He pitches the challenges of being a Notre Dame football student-athlete as positives rather than drawbacks. Those will have long-term benefits, he tells recruits.
"We’re going to bridge the gap from what’s challenging here, the location we’re in, how hard it is to do the classwork here to the relationships he’s going to build from the top down,” Elston said. “You’re going to see it in the 2023 recruiting cycle, I believe you already see it.
“This time next year, there are going to be a lot more people in the room, a lot more buzz around the recruiting class, and Coach Freeman’s energy and his vision on what the staff is going to do over the next 12 months will make the difference.”
Perhaps 2023 is the best preview of what Notre Dame’s recruiting input can be under Freeman, but if so, the 2022 linebacker class was the first snapshot.
The Irish signed a quartet of four-star linebackers. One of them, four-star Hilton Head (S.C.) High’s Jaylen Sneed, is the class’ highest-ranked prospect. Rivals ranks him as the No. 41 overall recruit in the 2022 cycle. He’s an elite talent. He’s also an example of the type of recruit Freeman has unabashedly pursued: an elite high school player who meshed with Notre Dame, but needed someone to show him the fit.
“I don’t know if Jaylen Sneed and some of those guys were dying to come to Notre Dame until you can explain to them, ‘Here’s what Notre Dame can do for you. Here are the things Notre Dame can do that will change the rest of your life,’” Freeman said. “How can I communicate this so they can see what makes Notre Dame different?”
That’s his task for as long as he sits in the head coach’s chair. He’s off to a stirring start.
“We’re not going to stop,” Rees said, “attacking the best players in the country.”
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