Owen Strebig met Derek Meadows in February.
Strebig, a four-star offensive tackle committed to Notre Dame’s 2025 recruiting class, and Meadows, a four-star wide receiver recruit from Las Vegas Bishop Gorman, were both invited to Nike’s “The Next Ones” event in the week leading up to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas.
Strebig said he “kept the Fighting Irish in his ear” while hanging with Meadows, who has long been a priority recruiting target for Notre Dame. Since then, Meadows has been a priority for Strebig as well.
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When Meadows made an unofficial visit in March for a spring practice, Strebig and Notre Dame tight end commit James Flanigan made the trip down from Wisconsin to be on campus with Meadows. Strebig was also on campus in June for his official visit at the same time as Meadows.
“We want to show how much we care about him,” Strebig said. “It's the right place for him. He’s just got to make it official.”
Meadows will announce his commitment decision next Saturday, July 20. Notre Dame, Alabama, LSU, Michigan and Georgia are the five finalists, but the first three listed are the perceived top contenders. Strebig will soon learn if his hard work paid off.
“Derek Meadows, that’s target number one,” Strebig said last month. “Once we get Derek Meadows, I think life will be good.”
Strebig is far from the only Notre Dame commit to schedule a visit to help recruit some of the Irish targets in the 2025 class. Quarterback Deuce Knight regularly makes it back to campus. Defensive end Christopher Burgess Jr. made a midweek unofficial visit in June to be on campus with four-star safety JaDon Blair, who later committed to the Irish.
The connections established by Notre Dame’s commits have gone a long way in helping the Irish build the fourth-ranked class in the country with 17 four-star commits and four three-star commits.
“Obviously, there's a brotherhood once you're on the team,” Strebig said. “But it's rare to find recruiting classes that have a brotherhood without signing anything. It just proves how much we care about each other and care about our school, because we just want to keep getting people together.
“It speaks to [head] Coach [Marcus] Freeman, because that's who they recruit. They recruit similar people. So, that's how we all get along so well."
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One of the fellow Notre Dame commits Strebig is closest with is Knight. They’ve been on campus together several times and recently competed in the Rivals Five-Star in Jacksonville, Fla., in late June. That provided another platform for Knight to continue to impress.
“He’s him,” Strebig said. “I'm not surprised. He just keeps getting better. … That's just the dude we need. We got him, CJ [Carr] and then we got the ‘26 quarterback [Noah Grubbs]. It's a good time to be an offensive lineman, because we’ve got a pretty good QB room.”
Knight understands the value of Strebig and fellow Irish offensive tackle commits Will Black and Matty Augustine.
“He's just a great person overall,” Strebig said of Knight. “He's always super kind to us, because he knows we've got to protect him. He’s also very kind to our families. He’s just the perfect Notre Dame kid.”
Strebig enjoyed the time spent with Black and Augustine during their official visit weekend. He believes they’re all a good fit for Notre Dame’s offensive line room under coach Joe Rudolph.
“I loved it,” Strebig said of his official visit. “It just shows why I love the University of Notre Dame. I really don't want to be anywhere else. The official just showed it. It was a weekend hanging out with my buddies. Not even a recruiting trip. Having fun with the guys.”
In the latest rankings update from Rivals, Black (No. 62 overall) jumped ahead of Strebig (64) in the Rivals250. And Augustine (224) jumped up in the rankings and received his fourth star. Both Black and Augustine were three-star recruits, according to Rivals, when they committed to the Irish this past winter.
Strebig, who has been a top 100 recruit on Rivals since last July, enjoys the company in the Rivals250.
“Obviously, rankings don't matter terribly too much once you get to college, but it's cool,” Strebig said. “I'm happy for them. It's awesome. We can just show how much we improve.”
Strebig has been working on his own game by getting tips from Rudolph as often as possible. Strebig took his share of losses in one-on-one reps at the Rivals Five-Star, but he treated the event as a learning experience. He can take those lessons and apply them in his senior season at Waukesha (Wisc.) Catholic Memorial.
With training activities already scheduled this month with his team, the season will be heer soon enough.
“I’ve been working on staying mobile, staying flexible,” Strebig said. That's a big part of it. Being able to run — we’re a big outside zone team. And we're going to have to run that a lot this year. So, I've been working on the footwork for that. Also just being a leader on my team and getting the guys locked in.”
Strebig will still make time to get down to Notre Dame during the fall. He’s planning to attend every home game expect the Louisville one, because it falls on the same weekend as Catholic Memorial’s homecoming.
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