Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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38 MARCH 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2026 FOOTBALL RECRUITING ISSUE BY TYLER HORKA W hen it comes to national championship time, there is some space reserved in everyone's consumption of pregame chitchat for how the teams playing for it all fared in recruiting over the years. Well, Notre Dame just signed a class worth talking about in that context. If the Irish do make it to the national title game again sometime soon, people will point to the 2026 recruiting cycle as one Notre Dame hit on with author- ity and set the roster up to have suc- cess with the best of them in college football. The following are position-by-posi- tion grades for one of the best recruiting classes in Fighting Irish history. All star ratings and rankings are from Rivals. GRADING SCALE A College Football Playoff/National Title Contention B Top-10 Viability C Top-25 Viability D Trying To Be Bowl Eligible QUARTERBACK Signees: Four-star Teddy Jarrard of Kennesaw (Ga.) North Cobb, three-star Noah Grubbs of Lake Mary (Fla.) High Synopsis: Grubbs is just a three- star, but he is Notre Dame's guy. The Irish were on him early and all the way through. Freeman was effusive in his praise of Grubbs in his national sign- ing day press conference in December, calling him one of the best quarterbacks he's ever evaluated and a strong can- didate to be the future face of Fighting Irish football. If he could have said the same thing about Jarrard, he probably would've, but he was not allowed to comment on him considering Jarrard reclassi- fied from 2027 to 2026 after the early signing window. Shortly thereafter, he competed in the Under Armour All- America Game where he made a few head-turning throws. Jarrard doesn't enroll until the summer, but he's some- one who could join the mix and imme- diately be a factor in the competition to be CJ Carr's backup. Between him, Blake Hebert and Grubbs, Jarrard was the highest-rated high school recruit. He has a talent advantage on his peers. Grubbs alone was an A+ in Notre Dame's book, even if he was more in the B-range from an objective perspective, and when you add in Jarrard it's abso- lutely an A on both fronts. It's rare to have two quarterbacks capable of some- day being QB1 comprising one signing class. The Irish pulled it off this year, and the grade needs to reflect how much of a success that is. On paper grade: A RUNNING BACK Signees: Four-star Jonaz Walton of Carollton (Ga.) Central, four-star Javian Osborne of Forney (Texas) High Synopsis: Notre Dame just keeps doing it at running back. Like so many at this position before them, Walton and Osborne have the capability to play right away in South Bend — and play A CUT ABOVE Notre Dame signed one of its best recruiting classes of the internet era with headliners up and down at almost every position Quarterback Teddy Jarrard is graduating a year early from high school and will join the Irish this sum- mer. Rivals ranks him as the No. 18 signal-caller in the 2026 class. PHOTO COURTESY RIVALS