Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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54 OCT. 4, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED F irst-time enrollee offensive tackle Will Black walked into Notre Dame in June as the undisputed top-rated recruit in the Rivals Industry Ranking in the Irish freshman class. And rumblings from the Irish coaches during their summer "football school" workouts synced up with his five-star status and No. 17 national player rank- ing regardless of position. The way the 6-foot-7, 307-pound Canadian moved. The way he learned. The way his drive fueled his summer and training camp work ethic, which in- cluded extensive work at offensive guard. A few slots down, and the sixth-high- est-ranked recruit in the freshman class, is tight end James Flanigan. Also a June enrollee, Flanigan won state high school track and field titles in both the shot put and discus in Wisconsin the weekend he moved into his Notre Dame dorm. Of all the 25 freshmen in the class, early and later enrollees alike, it was perceived that the 6-foot-6, 241-pound son of former Irish All-American defen- sive tackle Jim Flanigan had the clearest path to playing time, based on both tal- ent and opportunity. And heading into Game 4 of their first college season, a road test this at Arkan- sas Sept. 27, the Irish coaching staff was every bit as invested and excited about what the future holds for them as when they signed last December. As for the present? Neither had played a single snap — on offense or on special teams. Nor had defensive lineman Christo- pher Burgess Jr., the No. 2 prospect in the class, or safety JaDon Blair, No. 5, seen any game time. In fact, ahead of Notre Dame's light- ning-delayed, 56-30 pummeling of Pur- due Sept. 20 at Notre Dame Stadium, the entire class had combined for five offen- sive or defensive snaps in the Irish's first two games — and all five were taken by cornerback Mark Zackery IV. The only other freshman who con- tributed was linebacker Madden Fara- imo, on special teams in those games. A few others joined the modest fresh- man brigade in the Boilermaker blowout, two of those debuts brought on by injury, though both had competition for the spots they moved into. They were nickel Dallas Golden, who started and played 65 snaps in place of injured starter DeVonta Smith, and kicker Eric Schmidt, who kicked off nine times, converted eight point-after tries and missed a 31-yard field goal late while filling in for injured redshirt senior Noah Burnette. Others making their collegiate debuts (and corresponding snap counts) were offensive tackle Matty Augustine (10), wide receiver Elijah Burress (13) and running back Nolan James Jr. (7). Faraimo made his debut at linebacker Sept. 20 against the Boilermakers, log- ging 23 plays on defense. Zackery's snap counts went way up, filling in for in- jured preseason All-American Leonard Moore, with 70 plays on defense. Faraimo, Zackery, Golden and James all saw action on special teams. How does that compare with the 2024 freshman class? Twenty-one freshmen eventually saw game action last season — 11 on offense, 10 on defense — and 12 of them over- lapped on special teams. Eight of the 21 played in enough games (at least five in the regular sea- son) to burn a potential redshirt year, and seven of them blew through that before the season hit the halfway mark. The eight who ended up not preserv- ing a year of eligibility were running back Aneyas Williams, offensive tackle Anthonie Knapp, linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, safety Kennedy Urlacher, cornerbacks Leonard Moore and Karson Hobbs, and defensive ends Bryce Young and Loghan Thomas. Urlacher, primarily a special teamer, transferred to Southern Cal in the offsea- son, where he's primarily a special teamer. All of which coaxes questions that will get louder if the numbers lag behind those from the 2024 class in terms of playing time. But it's not a new reluctance on Irish head coach Marcus Freeman's part to play freshmen. It's that the math has changed. And that's a big factor. Start with the scholarship numbers. Instead of 85 scholarship players, Notre Dame has 93, with the flexibility now to go up to 105, per the new NCAA roster/schol- arship rules that went into effect in July. That's eight players that might be fill- ing some special teams roles, who would have moved on to other rosters had the old limit of 85 stayed in place freeing up freshman playing time. And redshirting as many players as possible suddenly makes the kind of sense it did when the concept was born. In recent years, though, the econom- ics combined with injury risks made it unattractive for many players to stick around for five years. Now, even star players like Howard Cross III, Jack Kiser, Rylie Mills and Xavier Watts saw value and economic sense in returning another season to Notre Dame. And the Irish continue to be competitive in the rev-share/NIL space, which will likely engender more of that. Freeman preaches the concept of the benefits of delayed gratification in so many ways pertaining to the Irish, and this is just the latest. The future is still promising for Black and Flanigan and others, and that's not to say they won't find their way into the two-deeps in 2025. But the future unfolds differently now, and that could benefit the Irish in the long run. ✦ Despite Will Black being the highest-ranked player in the incoming freshman class as the No. 4 offen- sive tackle and No. 17 overall prospect in the nation, he has yet to play a down this season. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER College Football's New Math Eric Hansen covers Notre Dame athletics for On3, with a focus on Irish football. He can be reached on X @ EHansenND THE DEEP READ ERIC HANSEN