The quarterback that got away from the notre dame fighting irish in recruiting
Ryan Roberts goes down memory lane to talk about some of the biggest recruiting headaches and blunders of the Marcus Freeman era for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Video Transcript
We're gonna start in the 2025 class with Deuce Knight, quarterback out of Mississippi, who committed to Notre Dame before his senior seas- actually before his junior season, and he was committed to Notre Dame from Well, actually not before se- junior season.
It was September of his junior season he commits to Notre Dame, and from September until the next October, he was committed to the Fighting Irish, and it seemed like he was gonna be the next great signal caller for Notre Dame.
I had gotten a phone call that basically someone said, "Hey, Deuce Knight's not going to Notre Dame."
I'm like, "What does that mean?"
Right?
Like, interesting backstory here.
So he tells me, I get told by this source, that n- he's talking to Auburn, he's talking to Ole Miss, he's talking to a couple others, but he is heavily evolved in Au- involved in Auburn.
And I wrote about this in A to Z Sports, Auburn did some very shady things that were technically legal, but technically not the most morally sound things of all time.
So Jason Campbell was someone who was also from Mississippi, former Auburn quarterback, that was heavily ev- involved in this recruitment, did a lot for Notr- for Auburn's chances to flip Deuce Knight at, at the point.
And that off-season, he had been to campus at Auburn, never told anybody.
He'd also visited Ol- Ole Miss a couple times, but either way, he had made that visit to Auburn when no one knew about it.
And from there, there were some promises that were made, some things that were said, and at some point, Deuce Knight got way too far into Auburn, where you're just like, you know, for months and months and months, guys, I had this decommitment story ready, because I knew that Deuce Knight was not gonna end up with Notre Dame.
I think Marcus Freeman and the staff learned from this type of recruitment, based upon the Bowen situation.
So for months, behind the scenes, you're not gonna tell a five-star to get out of the class, but for months they were working on other recruits and other quarterbacks to potentially be in the 2025 class.
