Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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38 PRESEASON 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY ERIC HANSEN T he cheat code in trying to figure out who Notre Dame's next sum- mer freshman surprise might be is plugging defensive backs coach Mike Mickens into the formula. In two of the last three summers, a player under his tutelage not only out- played their recruiting pedigree in their first fall on campus, each went on to become a Freshman All-American. Three of the 12 freshmen who re- ported as first-time enrollees in June will have Mickens as their position coach. And while two of them — cor- nerbacks Dallas Golden and Mark Zack- ery IV — may indeed turn out to be early achievers, they wouldn't fall into the category of surprise. Too much recruiting pedigree. Too high of expectations. Three-star safety Brandon Logan would. The one-time Vanderbilt baseball commitment is still invested enough in that sport that he's determined to play that and football at Notre Dame, which makes his climb into an already deep rotation of young, ahead-of-the-curve safety talent all the more formidable. Of the nine June-enrolling freshman players who aren't Mickens' protégés, the only other four who could qualify as surprises, should they push into the two-deep depth chart, are linebacker Ko'o Kia, defensive lineman Gordy Sulf- sted, kicker Eric Schmidt and defensive end Dominik Hulak. Not that they don't have long-term potential, but their lack of stars (per Ri- vals), the positional depth chart in front of them, and/or their need to develop physically to be competitive puts them in that position. Three-star defensive tackle Kurt Hinish emerged as rotational depth for the Irish front four in 2017, logging playing time in 12 contests and notching 8 tackles. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER UNDER THE RADAR Counting down a decade of Notre Dame's top 10 freshman summer surprises