Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1532365
40 MARCH 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2025 FOOTBALL RECRUITING ISSUE BY TYLER HORKA H ow do you put into perspective the signing of 25 true fresh- men who together make up the No. 12 recruiting class in the country according to the On3 Industry Ranking? By going position by position, analyzing and assessing a letter grade for each. The following is our evaluation of Notre Dame's signing class of 2025. GRADING SCALE A — College Football Playoff/Na- tional Title Contention B — Top-10 Viability C — Top-25 Viability D — Trying To Be Bowl Eligible QUARTERBACK Signee: Three-star Blake Hebert of Greenwich (Conn.) Brunswick School Synopsis: Did Notre Dame land its top target, Deuce Knight? No. Was Knight still taking visits to a school he was not committed to as recently as the weekend right before the opening of the early signing period? Yes. Knight is a better quarterback pros- pect than Hebert. Nobody can argue otherwise. But was Knight the right fit for the Fighting Irish if he was going to Ole Miss games in red and blue after he had already flipped to the blue and or- ange of Auburn? Probably not. Blue and gold was never completely in the cards for him, clearly. Now that Knight officially signed with Auburn, though, it's time to turn full attention to the player Notre Dame actually inked — and stole away from Clemson in the 11th hour of this recruit- ing cycle — Hebert. He was on the Irish's radar all along, so it's not like they took a swipe at a guy they didn't know any- thing about just to have a somebody in the class. Hebert is a true prospect val- ued by the program. A dual-threat, Hebert has a strong arm and an even stronger ability to run through people. He's got a big frame that will likely get even a bit bigger in college. If Riley Leonard toting the rock in a Notre Dame uniform grew on you during Notre Dame's run to the national championship game, Hebert can take that baton and run with it. It will be interesting to see how he fits in with the quarterbacks already on the roster, assuming they stay in South Bend. He looked like one of them, in a good way, in bowl game practices during the Irish's stay in the College Football Playoff. Hebert got to dress out with his peers for practices ahead of the Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl and national title game. That type of invaluable experi- ence goes a long way. On paper grade: B RUNNING BACK Signee: Four-star Nolan James Jr. of Wayne (N.J.) DePaul Catholic Synopsis: Sometimes you just need James Flanigan, whom On3 rated as the No. 7 tight end and No. 131 overall player nationally, is the Irish's highest-ranked prospect at his position since Michael Mayer in 2020. PHOTO COURTESY ON3 GRADING THE CLASS A position-group evaluation of Notre Dame's 2025 signees