Will the Notre Dame Fighting Irish regret not going after these recruits harder?
Ryan roberts breaks down some of the recruits Notre Dame missed out on and how they may come to regret not offering them more
Video Transcript
In the 2025 class, Notre Dame was viewed as the potential front runner for talented California linebacker Marco Jones, who is now set to start a defensive end for the Texas A&M Aggies going into next season.
A strange one because Notre Dame was in a great spot with Jones, but then Jones' body kind of went s- in a direction where it was very understand- understood that he was gonna be a defensive end on the college level, not a linebacker.
Once that transition happened, Notre Dame just basically decided to pass on Marco Jones.
Al Washington, for whatever reason, I, I disagree with it at the time, I still disagree with it 'cause I think that Marco Jones is gonna be a breakout star next year, he basically said that he just didn't love him as a defensive end.
So he ends up being like a top 100 recruit, was really good last year for Texas A&M in limited opportunities, dominate their spring game as a true freshman.
He's gonna be a starter for them as a true sophomore.
And Notre Dame wasn't recruiting defensive end very good at that point in time.
So did not love the Marco Jones recruitment in general.
Think Notre Dame, Al Washington really dropped the ball on that one.
Ivan Taylor, I don't wanna relive that one too much, in the 2025 class, eventually signed with Alabama after decommitting from Notre Dame, committing to Michigan, decommitting from the Wolverines, ending up in Alabama.
Seemed like a Notre Dame kid, and was just early, early commit for the Fighting Irish, huge win, top 50 recruit, and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he starts taking visits.
Visited Michigan, and then you're like, "He's quiet."
Then he visits Alabama, and then it's kind of like Notre Dame's in a make or break period where they're gonna bring him on for an official visit.
They basically have to commit him to stay.
He decides not to.
Just another k- a big miss for Notre Dame for me because, like, he just seemed like a Notre Dame kid, but it didn't end up working out in the end.
Just from the 2027 class, Layton Von Brant, defen- offensive lineman out of Delaware.
Notre Dame was the leader for Von Brant for months, and then all of a sudden, right down the stretch, Auburn emerges.
One, give a nice little payday to Layton Von Brant, but also they made some, m- they made some promises to Von Brant that I just don't think Notre Dame was comfortable with.
So Notre Dame again decided to bail out of that recruitment because there were just some demands that just weren't worth it.
This was one of the ones where I was just like for months and months and months of certainty, just surprised me with the ending because I really thought Notre Dame was gonna be able to finish that one out in the end.
The last one, Sean Terry from the 2025 class.
That might be a blast from the past.
He's a wide receiver for Missouri now.
Notre Dame took a r- a commitment from him after Sean Terry had sent them a video of him running a 40 where Notre Dame had technology on their end where they timed it, and he ran faster than a four six.
So they were basically like, "You know, you're only five nine, 170 pounds.
If you're fast enough, we'll take you."
And it's, at that point in that 2025 class, Notre Dame was really struggling with wide receiver recruitment.
So they took Sean Terry, even though I don't think they loved Sean Terry.
I think they liked Sean Terry, but I don't think they loved him.
But then Sean Terry was considered a guy that was gonna be a depth wide receiver in that class, like a good solid piece, but not a top-end guy.
Despite that, some lying happened on the back end.
He took a visit to Missouri without telling Notre Dame.
It came back to Notre Dame in which Notre Dame staff called Sean Terry and asked him about the visit to Missouri, in which he lied and said, "Oh, that's, I didn't take a visit to Missouri.
I didn't do it."
So once that backing up of the lie happens, Notre Dame moved off of Sean Terry and basically said that he doesn't have a spot in the class anymore.
He ends up committing to Missouri.
He was, originally out of Ohio, really talented kid that went to a small school.
He's still waiting to hit the field for Missouri and have any type of true impact for the Tigers.
But it was just a really strange overall recruitment because again, it b- was viewed as a depth piece and then some lies and deception allowed him to eventually leave the Notre Dame class or Notre Dame to move off of him in the 2025 recruiting class.
Folks, we'd love to hear from you if there's some guys that you think I missed, some of the biggest headaches.
If you have any commentary, thoughts on some of the players I mentioned, the what if aspect of it, if Dante Moore sticks, Peyton Bowen sticks, would love to hear from you all.
Comment, hit that like button, make sure you're subscribed, and as always, folks, you know the deal.
Go Irish.
