Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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26 JANUARY 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2 0 2 6 E A R L Y S I G N I N G D A Y BY TYLER JAMES N otre Dame football didn't start the 2026 recruiting cycle expecting to sign 27 recruits. But the Irish were so hot on the recruiting trail earlier this year, they had to make exceptions. "I don't know exactly when or what number it was," Notre Dame general manager Mike Martin said, "but I know that we got to a point where I was like, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm not sure if we can add another person.' And then I'm like, 'Well, there's no way we can pass up on this.' "There's a lot of gymnastics that'll have to occur in terms of roster spots and spaces, and we'll figure it all out. I don't know the exact point, but there definitely was a time where it was like, 'Wait a minute, should we add more?' And then when you're faced with the talent that's in front of you and the type of young men that were in front of us, that we feel like are perfect for this place, it just made it too hard to say no." Martin might not have offered specif- ics, but a few examples come to mind for those who covered Notre Dame's re- cruiting cycle closely. There was a time when it appeared Notre Dame wouldn't take more than four wide receivers in the class. The Irish ended up signing five wide receivers — Kaydon Finley, Bubba Frazier, Devin Fitzgerald, Brayden Robinson and Dylan Faison — who were committed by early July. The Irish rarely ever sign more than five offensive linemen in a class, but they ended up finding room for six — Grayson McKeogh, Gregory Patrick, Ben Nichols, Charlie Thom, Tyler Merrill and Sullivan Garvin — before the end of June. Rather than settle for four defensive backs, the Irish pushed for five of them — cornerbacks Khary Adams, Ayden Pouncey and Chaz Smith, and safeties Joey O'Brien and Nick Reddish — before the summer ended. "You're playing with more DBs than you have in the past," Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. "You're playing with five DBs, and we have to continue to increase that number just because we're playing with more. And it's important. "I think our linebacker room is pretty deep, and then we added two more line- backers that are extremely good play- ers. But we knew the numbers had to start trending in a way that you're going to probably take another DB instead of an extra linebacker in these upcoming years." Notre Dame was so aggressive that it was widely known that the staff would have taken a commitment from Evan Ja- cobson even after adding Preston Fryzel and Ian Premer to the class in June. Ri- vals rates all three tight ends as four-star recruits, but Premer is No. 1 at the posi- tion. Jacobson signed with Texas A&M. "We didn't set out to sign 27 young men," Martin said. "But I think as we got going, we were faced with, 'Do you add another super-talented individual?' And we just couldn't pass up on adding, even if that meant sort of stockpiling at certain positions." But quantity wasn't what made Notre Dame's 2026 class a historic one for the Irish. At the end of the early signing pe- riod Dec. 5, the Rivals Industry Rankings had Notre Dame with the second-best class in the country. The updated rank- ings accounted for the top 19 recruits in every program's recruiting class. Notre Dame hasn't finished a recruit- ing cycle with a class ranked as high as No. 2 as far back as 2004, the earliest the Rivals Industry Rankings have ac- curate data to use. Notre Dame's best finish in the Rivals Industry team rank- ings since then has been No. 4 on three occasions (2006, 2008 and 2013). Notre Dame achieved such a highly ranked class without adding a com- mitment after Aug. 9. The Irish were confident in their prospect evaluations before their commits played their senior seasons this fall. F O O T B A L L RECRUITING THE MORE THE MERRIER Notre Dame football made room for 27 recruits in its elite 2026 class Five-star tackle Grayson McKeogh is the headliner of a six-man offensive line haul for the Fighting Irish. PHOTO COURTESY RIVALS