Editor’s Note: THE NEXT WAVE | This is the second in a series of recurring stories about some of the June-arriving newcomers for the Notre Dame football team.
What drives five-star offensive tackle Will Black more than anything on Mother’s Day — and likely every other day leading up to his first-time enrollment at Notre Dame in four weeks — is rewarding his mom, Sharon’s trust.
The trust to let her oversized, overly ambitious son leave London, Ontario, at age 17 to go to school and play high school football for a couple of years at a pricey prep school in Connecticut and see what that might turn into.
Sharon Black might have been hedging a bit on the risk. Will had learned to swim at age 1 ½, was downhill skiing at age 2 and was participating and thriving in a handful of other sports by age 5, though not football.
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“It took some convincing,” Will told Inside ND Sports. “And it was a pretty big investment. So, to make her proud really motivates me in what has become a dream now. Because it took me a little while to fall in love with football.”
But since Black left Canada to accelerate his growth curve at Choate Rosemary Hall School in Wallingford, Conn. — the alma mater of former U.S. president John F. Kennedy before it went to a coed format in the 1970s — football has decidedly loved him back.
He’ll begin summer school and summer workouts, on track to weigh on at 305 pounds on a 6-foot-7 frame, on June 9, with 11 other members of his later-enrolling freshman class. And he’ll do so as 22nd Rivals five-star to sign with Notre Dame out of high school since Rivals began rating players and affixing stars in the 2002 recruiting cycle.
And of the 743 five-stars Rivals has so designated in the 24 completed recruiting cycles in its existence, Black is just the second to play his high school ball in one of the six New England states and the first in a decade, following Clemson defensive tackle Christian Wilkins, who played at Suffield (Conn.) Academy.
Black was the No. 20 player overall regardless of position in his class, slightly higher than fellow five-star Notre Dame O-lineman and eventual top 10 NFL Draft pick Quenton Nelson was in his. And way higher than fellow NFL first-rounders Joe Alt, Mike McGlinchey, Ronnie Stanley and Zack Martin in theirs.
“I would say it was pretty cool getting the fifth star,” Black said, “but I still try to pretend that it didn’t mean anything, because I’m a really humble guy and my teammates keep me humble here.
“I thought it was a really cool accomplishment, but I try to not let it get to me and just focus on what’s important.”
And it certainly doesn’t curb his ambition, still fueled by his mom’s belief in him.
“I would say my main goal is to be the second left tackle behind Anthonie Knapp, I’m assuming, and see where I can go from there,” he said. “Really, I just want to get better. I’m not too worried about starting as a freshman. I just want to get developed and soak in as much as I can and get better every day.”
How realistic would it be for Black to push into the two-deeps in 2025, as a true freshman?
It’s less about history and more about competition, both past — who he faced in high school — and present — who’s on the Irish roster.
Sophomore Knapp and senior Aamil Wagner figure to be the starters. Projected junior starting guard Charles Jagusah has starting experience at left tackle. And Guerby Lambert, a sophomore from New England with similar pedigree to Black (high four-star), figures to be heavy in the mix to be a backup and pushing hard.
“All of those guys had experience against the type of pass rusher, the type of athletes in high school or camps that they would need to have faced to shorten the learning curve when they got to Notre Dame,” said Adam Friedman, Rivals rankings director, who was in the thick of the five-star discussions involving Black, and who also serves as Rivals’ national transfer portal analyst.
“They knew what they were getting into. Black really has not seen that type of athlete yet. And the question is how does he develop? How does he adjust to that type of speed? We’ll see how he adjusts to that speed and the level of competition.
“It wouldn’t be surprising to me to see him at the end of the season in the two-deeps, but I would be a little unexpected to see him there at the start of the season, just because of the adjustments he’ll have to make.”
And yet Friedman is unwavering when it comes to what Black’s eventual ceiling could be.
“Not only can he be a starter, but a first-round draft pick kind of guy,” Friedman said. “He had that type of athleticism. And then you look at where he is in his technical development. He started out lower, but we started to see key developmental milestones.
“Where he was able to not just push guys around, but use his athleticism and strength at the same time to finesse players if he needs to. Crush players if he needs to. Outpower, outman, outquick players — beating them to their spots. Perfecting hand technique against blitzers or the types of speed rushers that he might see.
“You can see him making progress in his development and that technique. And that’s when we were like, ‘OK, this is the type of player we feel confident enough in making a five-star.’ It’s a projection, and he played a premium position, so there’s that to consider as well. And he’s going to a school that has a history of developing elite offensive linemen who play a long time in the NFL.”
Black was more convinced he was going to end up playing hockey. But as he grew taller, he said his hockey skills seem to diminish. So, he tried football, and he started to hear from American high schools shortly after his high school career began.
“I was honestly playing football for fun, not very serious,” he said. “But I was pretty good, and my coaches thought I could be a pretty good player and go far. My first year, I was just very raw. So, I was just learning everything.
“And in my second year, I started taking it a little more serious, and that’s when I started getting recruited by high schools in the States. And honestly, I never thought I was going to end up in America, going to high school in America until I started hearing from high school coaches.”
One of them was L.J. Spinnato, the longtime head coach at Choate Rosemary Hall. And Black felt a connection immediately.
“I was looking for a good boarding school, where there were dorms and kids coming from all over the country and other countries,” Black said. “And the school I chose was one of the best academic schools, so I was getting kind of a good deal with the amazing teachers here. And it was just a good opportunity to meet really good people.
“My mom wanted me to stay in the Northeast, where I was closer to home and the academics were a big focus as well as football. The football program has been consistently very good, and my coach has tons of college connections and he sends plenty of kids to Division I every year. I trusted him and he was the coach that felt like the best coach for me.”
Notre Dame, meanwhile, has ramped up its recruiting activity recently in New England, both in Massachusetts and in the Connecticut prep school scene. The Irish have four members of their freshman class from Connecticut — quarterback Blake Hebert, safety Ethan Long and offensive tackle Matty Augustine, all from the Brunswick School in Greenwich, Conn.
The Irish had signed just three players from the state in the entirety of the Brian Kelly Era (2010-21) and the first three of current head coach Marcus Freeman’s (2022-24).
“The prep school environment in New England is really interesting,’ Friedman said. “It’s probably one of the more professionalized leagues at least on the East Coast, and one of the more professionally run groups of schools in the U.S.
“The schools in that area have incredible connections, certainly throughout the business world, but to the higher level of college football and the NFL. They’re really established.
"They understand how to build a program and what to look for and how to develop players that can be set up for success in life and they can do a great job of getting guys for the college level very quickly, because they are so disciplined and focused on the most important things.
“You don’t get into these prep schools if you’re not a good student. You don’t stick in the schools if you’re a bad actor. You don’t see the field if you haven’t bought into the program. These programs are bigger than any individual player. That’s how they do stuff.
“Not to say that these schools have totally bought into athletics. Otherwise, they’d be national title contenders and recruiting kids from all over just be pouring more and more resources into them. They’re not doing that kind of thing. But the coaches and athletic directors understand what it’s supposed to look like. And they develop players in a way that will translate to big-time college football. It’s just a really strong culture up there.”
To get a head start on learning Notre Dame’s culture, Black has been texting early enrolled offensive tackles Augustine and Owen Strebig on a regular basis.
“They like it a lot,” Black said. “They tell me that practice is very fast-paced, and it’s definitely a lot harder than they were used to in high school. They love [O-line] coach [Joe] Rudolph. He’s obviously a tough coach, pushes the guys.
“He’s hard on them, but also a really, really nice guy. And they say that the classes are tough at Notre Dame. So, I’ll definitely have to be ready to get pushed in the classroom as well as the football skills.”
Not that anyone has ever had to push Will Black. He’s always had plenty of motivation sitting across the supper table from him growing up.
“My family means the world to me,” he said. “To make them proud, to make my mom proud is everything.”
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