Notre Dame Freshman Receiver Devin Fitzgerald Is Already Ahead Of Schedule
Notre Dame brought in the No. 1 ranked recruiting class in 2026 and the majority of them were on campus this spring. Amongst the early enrollees, was a group of young wide receivers that made a strong impression during spring training. One of those players, was Arizona native Devin Fitzgerald who came onto the scene early in spring.
Coming out of high school, Fitzgerald wasn't one of the higher-rated offensive players in the class. He broke out as a senior in high school hauling in 82 catches for 1,230 yards, averaged 15.0 yards per catch and tallied 15 receiving touchdowns. That was a massive step up from his junior season when he had 720 receiving yards and nine touchdowns. He was an exciting recruit to break down, and when he committed we talked about his impact down the road in South Bend.
His senior year production and film from Brophy Prep is what started to turn some heads. Fitzgerald started to look the part of a big-time boundary receiver, but it was looking like he was still going to need a year or two in Notre Dame's strength and conditioning program, and more time with the offense in general, before he would be considered a player ready to contribute.
Fitzgerald was my offensive sleeper pick this spring to have a breakout and that's exactly what happened. His maturation from practice No. 1 to the Blue-Gold game was really impressive. On day one of spring training, Fitzgerald looked like an early enrollee true freshman in his first collegiate practice; he was swimming. But as spring went along, Fitzgerald grew more comfortable in the offense and we saw his growth in person and from the practice clips the Irish put out on a weekly basis.
The 6-2, 208-pound receiver capped of his spring with an impressive long catch and run on an RPO play that went for a touchdown in the jersey scrimmage. Fitzgerald followed up that performance a week later in the annual Blue-Gold game with a three-catch, 54-yard, one-touchdown performance inside of Notre Dame Stadium.
The next step in his evolution will be his ability to replicate that production against players like Mark Zackery , Dallas Golden , Christian Gray , Jayden Sanders and Leonard Moore . Fitzgerald has dominated the scout team and third-team reps he's been given. He's earned the opportunity to go against a higher level of competition in the summer and into fall camp. Head coach Marcus Freeman praised his abilities earlier in the spring and raved about his performance in spring.
"You evaluate it every day," Freeman shared. "I don't care if it's against the threes, twos or the ones. When you master what you have right in front of you, you'll get more. I don't care if it was against the third team. He made some big plays today. He'll continue to be put in elevated positions to continue to show what he can do against better competition. He's had a good spring and he's made big plays like that throughout the spring. Today, I wasn't surprised. He'll continue to get better, and he's getting better, but he's doing a really good job."
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