The 2026 football recruiting cycle was a breakthrough class for Marcus Freeman and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. After years of front running in the spring, only to fall behind near signing day, the Irish were able to sign a top 5 class with multiple 5-Star players. It was, without question, the best recruiting class for Notre Dame since the internet era of recruiting began in 2000.
Here’s a basic refresher:
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Three 5-Stars (DE Rodney Dunham, CB Khary Adams, TE Ian Premer)
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Four 5-Stars (DE Rodney Dunham, CB Khary Adams, TE Ian Premer, S Joey O’Brien)
It was a phenomenal haul which was only made better with significant talent with multiple years of eligibility added to the roster from the transfer portal. In a lot of ways, we are already seeing some of this young talent developing this spring — which could give Notre Dame even more weapons come this fall.
That’s great and all… but recruiting never sleeps. Can Notre Dame do something similar this cycle? Will Notre Dame do something similar this cycle? Yes, they can — but if they actually will do something similar is much harder to answer.
As of right now, it’s not looking ideal for the Irish. Notre Dame has 9 commitments (zero 5-Stars) with the #9 (On3) and #7 (247) class in the country. It does have a very solid Blue-Chip Ratio of 88%, but again… none of them are a 5-Star prospect.
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And there it is. The single biggest reason Notre Dame’s recruiting class in 2026 was such an elite haul was because the Irish signed multiple 5-Star players. Those elite athletes are the biggest boosts to a class regardless of fit and need.
Currently the Irish don’t have any 5-Star prospects committed to the 2027 class, and of the 39 total 5-Stars in the 247 Composite Rankings, Notre Dame has offered just 15 of them (4 WR, 3 RB, 1 TE, 2 OL, 3 DE, 1 DT, 1 CB). Of those 15 players, 7 of them are already committed elsewhere (although we know that doesn’t mean very much in April).
So, again… can the Irish land a top 5 class? Of course they can given the fact that we are still 8 months away from Signing Day with what could be a season with another major shot at a National Championship. Will they though? Well… the math ain’t mathing enough for me to lean toward an answer of yes, and while that may be disappointing for some, there is a reality to Notre Dame’s roster building that supersedes the conventional line of thought from 5, 10, or 15 years ago.
Roster predictions for next year are just asking to be extremely wrong with the transfer portal twists. But again — that can be something as positive for Notre Dame as a top 5 recruiting class. The entire cycle will really start heating up after the spring game with plenty of official visits on the table this summer. That’s when we will really start to see how good Notre Dame’s class can and will be.
