Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1532365
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM MARCH 2025 81 2025 FOOTBALL RECRUITING ISSUE made $300,000 at Notre Dame, includ- ing bonuses. Bowden spent four seasons with the Irish, previously serving as director of recruiting during the 2022 and 2023 seasons before earning a promotion to assistant athletic director for player personnel in March 2024. That summer, his title was changed to general manager after Michigan tried to poach him for a front office position. Bowden was a linchpin to Notre Dame football's success on the recruiting trail and transfer portal. He was the pro- gram's architect, achieving three top-11 recruiting classes from 2022 to 2024, a mark the Irish had not attained since 2006-08. During those three years, Notre Dame landed the Nos. 4, 5 and 4 classes, respectively. Last offseason, Bowden spearheaded the team's presence in the transfer por- tal, helping build the No. 15 class in the 2024 College Football Team Transfer Portal Rankings. His acquisitions, in- cluding quarterback Riley Leonard, were pivotal in the Irish reaching the national championship. FOUR INCOMING FRESHMEN HELP NOTRE DAME WITH PLAYOFF PREPARATION Thanks to NCAA bylaw 14.2.1.1, in- coming freshmen can practice with their respective schools as long as their previous semester has ended. Four Notre Dame early enrollees took advan- tage of the ruling this year. Quarterback Blake Hebert, linebacker Madden Faraimo, and defensive backs JaDon Blair and Ethan Long all began practicing with the team after the Indi- ana game Dec. 20. Winston-Salem (N.C.) Mount Tabor's Blair and San Juan Capistrano (Calif.) JSerra Catholic's Faraimo, both four- star prospects, ended up in the On300 as the Nos. 71 and 145 overall players in the class, respectively. Faraimo was also On3's No. 11 player in California and No. 13 linebacker nationally, while Blair was the No. 5 safety in the nation and No. 5 recruit in North Carolina. Hebert and Long, teammates at Green- wich (Conn.) Brunswick School, were three-star recruits who ranked as On3's Nos. 3 and 9 players in Connecticut. He- bert was the country's No. 37 quarter- back, and Long was the No. 59 safety. "They have to add value to our pro- gram, or we're wasting time," Freeman told reporters during a press conference Jan. 4. "If somebody in our locker room or a team meeting room is not adding value to their program, they shouldn't be here. That's what we communicate to them." They did add value. All four players remained with the Irish until the na- tional championship game Jan. 20. ✦ 3 Top-100 recruits in the On3 Industry Ranking were signed by Notre Dame in this class: Wallingford (Conn.) Choate Rosemary Hall offensive tackle Will Black (No. 17 overall player in the country), Chicago Simeon defensive end Christopher Burgess Jr. (No. 53) and San Juan Capist- rano (Calif.) JSerra Catholic linebacker MADDEN FARAIMO (No. 80). In the internet recruiting era, the Irish have averaged 3.7 top-100 prospects per class. In nine of those 21 years, they signed more than three with the most being eight in 2007. Under Freeman, Notre Dame had five in 2024 and two in 2023. In the 2025 recruiting cycle, 31 schools signed a top-100 recruit. Eleven had more than the Irish: Texas (11), Georgia (9), Alabama (8), Michigan (6), Ohio State (6), Oregon (5), Tennessee (5), Auburn (5), Florida (5), LSU (4) and Texas A&M (4). 4 Is the most players signed by the Fighting Irish in any one position group. Looking to bolster their front lines and their defensive secondary, the Irish coaches inked four defensive linemen, four offensive linemen, three safeties and three cornerbacks in this class. On the flip side, Notre Dame brought in only one player at tight end, athlete, running back, quarterback and kicker. This class includes 14 defensive players, 9 offensive players, one athlete and one kicker. 11 Top-300 players signed by Notre Dame in the 2025 class. Three of those top-300 prospects are offensive linemen, a slip from the first two recruiting hauls Irish head coach Marcus Freeman and Co. put together in 2023 and 2024. Freeman's 2024 class also featured 11 top-300 players. And led by five-star offensive tackle Charles Jagusah and high four-star running back Jeremiyah Love, the 2023 Irish class included a robust 16 players ranked in the top 300. 13 States were represented in this year's class, including five that each produced three players: Connecticut, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and New Jersey. This isn't necessarily the five states one would immediately think of that actually delivered 60 percent of this class. Georgia and Florida each provided two players, rounding out the list of seven states that supplied multiple recruits. 56.0 Percent blue-chip ratio — the number of four- and five-star recruits in proportion to the total number of recruits in a class — for Notre Dame, a respectable mark, though, not an elite one. The Irish's 2025 class features one five-star player and 13 four-star recruits, and its blue- chip ratio ranked 15th nationally. The Irish ranked 15th in the country in 2024 (56.5), fifth in 2023 (78.3) and fifth (77.3) in 2022. BLUE-CHIP RATIO LEADERS IN 2025 ON3 INDUSTRY RANKINGS Rk. School 5-Stars 4-Stars Total Commits Blue Chip% 1. Oregon 3 15 19 94.74 2. Georgia 4 19 28 82.14 3. Alabama 3 14 21 80.95 4. Texas A&M 2 17 25 76.00 5. Texas 5 13 25 72.00 6. LSU 2 14 23 69.57 7. Ohio State 3 15 26 69.23 8. Michigan 2 14 24 66.67 9. Missouri 0 11 17 64.71 10. Tennessee 2 14 25 64.00 11. Auburn 1 15 26 61.54 12. Oklahoma 1 10 18 61.11 13. Florida 1 14 26 57.69 14. Miami 0 12 21 57.14 15. Notre Dame 1 13 25 56.00 688.7 Miles is the average distance from South Bend that the 25 Irish signees came from. Honolulu Punahou linebacker Ko'o Kia will travel the farthest at 4,318 miles, while Fort Wayne (Ind.) Snider safety Brandon Logan is the closest at 91 miles. — Todd D. Burlage 2025 Notre Dame Recruiting By The Numbers PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER