Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1532365
42 MARCH 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2025 FOOTBALL RECRUITING ISSUE but likely won't factor into the regular rotation. Rising junior Cooper Flanagan popped his Achilles and is out for quite some time. It is possible Notre Dame will throw Flanigan into the fire and have him play right away in actual games? Absolutely. The Irish have had true freshmen play at other positions all the time in the Free- man era. We're on the verge of seeing it happen again at tight end. On paper grade: A OFFENSIVE LINE Signees: Five-star tackle Will Black of Wallingford (Conn.) Choate Rose- mary Hall, four-star guard Cameron Herron of Indianapolis Warren Cen- tral, four-star tackle Owen Strebig of Waukesha (Wis.) Catholic Memorial and three-star tackle Matty Augustine of Greenwich (Conn.) Brunswick School Synopsis: Black is the top-rated re- cruit in Notre Dame's class regardless of position. Herron was flipped from Iowa. Strebig is following in Billy Schrauth's footsteps as an offensive lineman from the state of Wisconsin headed to South Bend. Augustine is a former basketball player who brings athleticism to the of- fensive line. There is just so much to like about what the Irish put together on the offensive line in this cycle. It all starts and ends with Black, though, who is going to push an already talented group of Notre Dame tackles for playing time right away. He's that good. Joe Alt good, maybe. That's a lot of pres- sure, but he's set these expectations this high for himself with the way he per- formed in high school. He was the best player on every field he stepped onto. The A+ grade for this group centers on what these four guys bring to the table. As an explainer, though, Notre Dame lost three interior offensive linemen to the transfer portal a few days after the conclusion of the national champion- ship game. Three of the four linemen who left were guards and/or centers. Three of the four signees in this class are tackles. That is a disproportionate trad- eoff of personnel, and it'll be interesting to see how the Irish manage it. Instead of needing to move Anthonie Knapp from guard to tackle out of ne- cessity last offseason, for instance, we might see some tackles moving inside to bolster depth on the interior in the leadup to the 2025 season. There are players in this signing class capable of such a transition. On paper grade: A+ DEFENSIVE LINE Signees: Four-star edge Christopher Burgess Jr. of Chicago Simeon, four-star edge Dominik Hulak of Elmhurst (Ill.) Im- maculate Conception, three-star DL Jo- seph Reiff of Elmhurst (Ill.) York Commu- nity School, three-star DL Gordy Sulfsted of Cincinnati St. Xavier and three-star DL Davion Dixon of Miami Palmetto Synopsis: Notre Dame did well in signing one of the best defensive ends in the country in Burgess and bolstered the edge rushers with another four-star in Hulak, the former a strong-side prospect and the latter a vyper, but the Irish left a lot to be desired at the tackle position with just three three-star talents added to the mix. You wanted a little something more than that considering both starters from the middle of the defensive line — Rylie Mills and Howard Cross III — have exhausted their eligibility. That said, Notre Dame ended up bringing on two tackles from the trans- fer portal. Edges Burgess and Hulak are high-level prospects in an area of need. Edge rush- ing has been a bit of a bugaboo for the Notre Dame defense in recent seasons be- cause of injuries and other factors, so you can never sign too many guys who pride themselves on flying around the corner and getting to opposing quarterbacks. On paper grade: B- LINEBACKER Signees: Four-star Madden Faraimo of San Juan Capistrano (Calif.) JSerra Catholic, four-star Anthony Sacca of Philadelphia St. Joseph's Prep School and three-star Ko'o Kia of Honolulu Punahou Synopsis: The outlook of the Notre Dame linebacker signing haul changed in- stantly and dramatically when head coach Marcus Freeman got to the microphone for his early signing period press confer- ence. That's when he announced the sur- prise addition of Faraimo to the class. Christopher Burgess Jr. made one of the biggest leaps in On3's player rankings in its final update before National Signing Day, going from the No. 216 overall player in the nation to No. 66 after a great week at the Navy All-American Bowl. PHOTO COURTESY ON3 Fighting Irish defensive backs coach Mike Mickens has shown a great eye for cornerback talent, and Indianapolis Ben Davis standout Mark Zackery IV is poised to join the likes of Benjamin Morrison and Leonard Moore as an impact freshman. PHOTO COURTESY ON3