Antonio Carter II is a 6-foot-1, 200-pound grad transfer safety for the FCS Rams with two seasons of eligibility remaining. He was a 0-star prospect coming out of Oak Ridge High in Orlando, Fla., but was 5-10, 154 at the time. In 11 games last season for Rhode Island, Carter recorded 60 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, a sack as well as an interception, 10 pass breakups, two fumbles caused, two fumble recoveries and a QB hurry. He told me the Irish coaching staff is working on getting a visit scheduled for him, and he's looking forward to making the trip.

Carter had no FBS offers coming out of high school. He has almost 20 now, with 14 of those coming from Power 5 schools.

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I’m up in Chicago this morning and will have an opportunity to speak with several recruits including many Notre Dame targets. Here are a few I’m expecting.

2024 five-star DT target Justin Scott

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2024 four-star WR commit Cam Williams

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2024 four-star WDE target Marquise Lightfoot

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2024 four-star APB target Darrion Dupree

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2025 four-star WR target Talyn Taylor

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2025 four-star WDE target Gabe Kaminski

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2025 three-star ILB target Dominik Hulak

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2025 three-star WDE target Christopher Burgess Jr.

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Only No. 1 Virginia, with 10, had more.

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Man i hate Mulkey and Lsu. Morrow from depaul now going there.

Young Mr. Bowles,

Welcome!

May seem late, but I wanted to read your work so that my welcome could be heartfelt. Eric and Tyler are right. You are young, talented, and hardworking. And you have two awesome men with tons of experience and talent to work with.

Best of luck in this important work. (In my experience, it's better to be lucky than good.)

JHS61

Among the recruits Notre Dame's coaching staff is expected to see today: the top two overall prospects in the 2025 class.

The three former Penn State signees who announced their commitments to Notre Dame last week have officially signed with the program.

Head coach Micah Shrewsberry released statements on each of the players.

On forward Carey Booth:

“Carey will be a great addition to our program. His combination of size, athleticism, & skill will make him a unique player for opposing teams. He is a player that keeps rapidly improving. I can’t wait to get him on campus, because his best days are ahead of him,” Shrewsberry said.

On guard Logan Imes:

“Logan’s versatility will be a big asset for us. He can play multiple positions and is comfortable with or without the ball in his hands. He is also a tenacious defender who enjoys taking on tough challenges on the defensive end. Logan is a strong student and a great teammate. He will be a great fit at Notre Dame,” Shrewsberry said.

On guard Braeden Shrewsberry, his son:

“Braeden is going to be a great addition to our program. He is a great shooter who has also improved his overall game. He is a relentless worker who will embrace the culture of hard work that we want our program to be about,” Shrewsberry said.

Our previous stories on the trio ...

Booth:


Imes:


Shrewsberry:

I just got off the phone with three-star athlete Teddy Rezac following his Sunday-Monday visit to Notre Dame.

Rezac, who the Irish are recruiting as a linebacker in the 2024 class, described his meeting with head coach Marcus Freeman on Monday as the highlight of his visit.

"It was really cool to check out the campus, because of how gorgeous of a campus it was and see all the kids walking around and the college life." Rezac said.

Notre Dame's assistant coaches were out on the recruiting trail, so his time was spent mostly with the recruiting staff like director of recruiting Chad Bowden and recruiting analyst Dre Brown. But he was able to meet with graduate assistant linebackers coach Max Bullough.

Bullough had Rezac doing so much during their meeting that Rezac was sweating during it.

Notre Dame's staff told Rezac he's being recruited initially as a rover with the ability to grow into the inside linebacker roles.

Since Notre Dame offered, Missouri entered the fray as well. It was meaningful to Rezac to receive an SEC offer, but he didn't have much else to say about the Tigers.

He's been hearing from more schools such as Virginia, Nebraska, Stanford and Oklahoma as well.

"It was cool to see the waves that the Notre Dame offer brought," Rezac said.

I asked Rezac specifically about what a Nebraska offer would mean to him as someone who plays at Omaha (Neb.) Westside.

"It would be pretty cool, but it's not ..." Rezac said, "Growing up being a huge Husker fan, we were season ticket holders and went to every home game. Nebraska's a great school and I think they're getting better, especially with Coach [Matt] Rhule. We went to a spring practice. He seems pretty intense over there. But it's nothing crazy. It's kind of like another college for me now."

Updated with story:

I've gone ahead and submitted a FutureCast prediction for Notre Dame to land 2024 LB target Teddy Rezac. I considered doing so before he made his Notre Dame visit, but I wanted to make sure everything went well and he had a green light from ND.

I'm hearing that both those things are true following his visit, so I'm predicting an eventual commitment for the Irish.

If you missed my previous story on Rezac, it's linked below.


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Notre Dame has extended an offer to Max Granville. Granville is a 6-foot-3, 205-pound weakside defensive end and attends Sugar Land (Tex.) Fort Bend Baptist.

Rivals rates him as a four-star prospect in the 2025 recruiting class. He is ranked as the No. 14 weakside defensive end in the 2025 class.

He reports 14 total offers including Notre Dame, Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Tennessee and USC.

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Notre Dame incoming freshman point guard Hannah Hidalgo is headed to Colorado Springs, Colo., with a chance to represent Team USA in international competition again. Last summer Hidalgo 2022 was a member of the U17 National Team and helped lead USA Basketball to a 7-0 record and a gold medal in the 2022 FIBA U17 World Cup in Debrecen, Hungary. She averaged 7.7 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game.

The trials start Friday, with the team being announced next Monday, May 15.

Here's the release from USA Basketball about her tryout with the 2023 USA U19 team that will compete in the FIBA U19 Women’s World Cup July 15-23 in Madrid, Spain:

USA Basketball today announced 24 athletes expected to participate in the 2023 USA Women’s U19 National Team trials at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Trials begin May 12 with the 12-member team expected to be announced on May 15. The 2023 FIBA U19 Women’s World Cup is scheduled for July 15-23 in Madrid.

Athletes attending trials were selected by the USA Basketball Women’s Junior National Team Committee, chaired by DePaul University women’s basketball head coach Doug Bruno.

“On behalf of the USA Basketball Women's Junior National Team Committee, I am thrilled to announce this group of two dozen gifted athletes who will compete for a spot on the 2023 USA Women's U19 National Team,” Bruno said. “Many of these young women have prior USA Basketball experience which will make trials even more exciting. The FIBA Women's U19 World Cup is a challenging competition and we look forward selecting a team that will represent the U.S. in the best possible way."

Included on the trials roster are eight athletes who enrolled early or were college freshman in 2022-23, 10 representing the graduating class of 2023 and six representing the class of 2024. Athletes eligible for this team must be U.S. citizens, born on or after January 1, 2004.

Sydney Bowles, Talaysia Cooper, Londynn Jones, Chloe Kitts, Talana Lepolo, Cotie McMahon, Kiki Rice and Grace VanSlooten recently completed their freshman years.

The class of 2023 includes Kamorea “KK” Arnold, Madison Booker, Essence Cody, Breya Cunningham, Aalyah Del Rosario, Jadyn Donovan, Hannah Hidalgo, Alyssa Latham, Courtney Ogden and Juju Watkins.

From the class of 2024 are Joyce Edwards, Kiyomi McMiller, Mackenly Randolph, Kennedy Smith, Sarah Strong and Allie Ziebell.

Joni Taylor (Texas A&M University) will serve as the USA’s head coach along with assistants DeLisha Milton-Jones (Old Dominion University) and Teri Moren (Indiana University).

Helping as court coaches during trials will be Jennie Baranczyk (University of Oklahoma) and Niele Ivey (Notre Dame University). Baranczyk was previously a court coach at the 2017 U19 National Team trials while Ivey will serve in her first USA Basketball appointment.

Twenty-two of the 24 athletes have previous USA Basketball experience.

Most recently, Arnold, Booker, Cunningham, Del Rosario, Donovan, Hidalgo and Watkins were members of the inaugural USA women’s team at the 2023 Nike Hoop Summit. The U.S. defeated the World Team, 100-79.

Edwards and Strong participated in the USA Basketball Women’s Junior National Team minicamp at the 2023 NCAA Women’s Final Four in Dallas.

In 2022, Del Rosario, Jones, Kitts, McMahon, Ogden, Rice and VanSlooten helped the U.S. capture its 10th-straight gold at the FIBA U18 Women’s Americas Championship. Cody and Latham participated in trials.

Booker, Cunningham, Donovan, Hidalgo, Randolph and Watkins captured gold for the USA at the 2022 FIBA U17 Women’s World Cup, while Arnold, Edwards, Smith and Ziebell attended trials.

Arnold, Booker, Cunningham, Donovan and Watkins won gold at the 2021 FIBA U16 Americas Championship. Edwards and McMiller participated in trials.

Jones and Rice also have a FIBA U16 Americas Championship gold medal from the 2019 competition. Bowles and VanSlooten were at trials for that event.

Arnold, Rice and Strong are FIBA 3x3 U18 World Cup champions, with Arnold and Strong winning gold in 2022 and then Rice in 2021.

Cooper and Lepolo will make their USA Basketball debut.

The 2023 FIBA U19 Women’s World Cup features 16 teams. Recently, FIBA announced that the U.S. drew Group B with Chinese Taipei, Germany and Mali. For more information, click here.

The USA has won the gold medal at the competition in eight of the last nine editions, including the last two. The event, now in its 15th staging, will be the first FIBA competition to use an innovative glass floor court.

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2025 outside linebacker Anthony Williams reported an offer from Notre Dame Monday evening.

The 6-foot-4, 205-pound defender attends Pearland (Tex.) Shadow Creek and holds 10 offers including Notre Dame, Arizona State, Baylor, Nebraska and Washington State. In eight games as a sophomore, he registered 26 tackles including eight for loss.

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NHL pick.

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Perry is a four-star point guard from Eddyville (Ky.) Lyon County. He is ranked the No. 87 overall player in the 2024 recruiting class.

As a junior, the 6-foot-2, 170-pound guard broke the career scoring record in Kentucky. He surpassed the previous record of 4,337 points held by Kelly Coleman (1953-56).

He led Lyon County to a 30-5 record and averaged 32.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 4.7 steals per game. He was also named the 2022-23 Gatorade Kentucky Boys Basketball Player of the Year.

He plays on the grassroots basketball circuit with Indiana Elite, the same program that 2023 signees Braeden Shrewsberry and Logan Imes played with in high school.

Perry led Indiana Elite to the 17U championship this past weekend in the Bill Hensley Memorial Run N Slam in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He scored a game-high 25 points in Indiana Elite's 81-73 win against the Midwest Basketball Club.

Perry reports 15 offers including Notre Dame, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio State and Purdue. He took official visits to Michigan and Purdue last September.

Roster for next year, I have a few questions. Is it worth a damn? I mean, there seem to be a lot of positives about all the commits, but also a lot of underwhelming reviews or lack of data against any type of competition type stuff too.

Who would be the prospective starting five with the potential of the DII kid or without?

The most recurring complaint we've received about how we've run the board over the last 16 months has been our decision to make news stories into sticky threads for the first 24-48 hours.

So I'm finally caving and will give you all a chance at what you want. Indefinitely, we will not make our news stories into pinned threads (the actual name is sticky threads, but I don't like that name either).

Pinned threads will be reserved for announcements and items that are constantly updated like the running visitors lists, depth chart, scholarship chart, transfer tracker, etc.

However, if we don't see an uptick in engagement with those story threads that were previously pinned, we're likely to revert back to the old system. So please, if you prefer the unpinned threads, make sure your eyeballs are counted and your voices are heard by reading and commenting in those threads.

Members of the Notre Dame community have united to raise funds as part of the Concussion Legacy Foundation’s Race to End CTE. This was brought to my attention by the family of former Notre Dame offensive lineman Taylor Dever (2007-11).

Following his death in 2020 at the age of 31, Dever was “diagnosed with Stage 2 (of 4) Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) through a clinical diagnosis from researchers at the Veterans Administration-Boston University-Concussion Legacy Foundation Brain Bank.”

Dever finished his career as a two-year starter at right tackle and served as a gameday captain twice in 2011.

Contributions to the Race to End CTE will be directed to programs such as:

• Stop Hitting Kids in the Head, which aims to prevent CTE in youth sports
• The CLF Global Brain Bank, an international network of experts focused on learning how to cure CTE
• The CLF HelpLine, providing 1-on-1 support for patients and caregivers battling suspected CTE

Click here if you’d like to donate in honor of Dever.

The program ends May 21.

Other members of the Notre Dame football community being honored include: Nick Buoniconti '62, Pete Duranko '66, Dave Duerson '83, Justin Hall '93, Taylor Dever '11, Leo Collins '66-'67, Bob Kuechenberg ‘69, Steve Heimkreiter '79, Boyd Jajesnica ‘64, and Peter Grant ’83 (Intramural football).

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With ND cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens in California today, a 2025 cornerback recruit has reported a new Irish offer. Adonyss Currie is a four-star prospect at Lancaster Quartz Hill.

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First, check out On3's NIL Top 100. Hartman is #19 at $1.1 m. #1 is LeBron James' son, Bonny James, who is still in HS and has not committed to a college team. #2 is a very attractive LSU woman gymnast who is also a social media star. Prime's CU football team has two in the top ten, one is his QB son. A bunch of football and both men's and women's basketball players are getting a lot of money. #100 is a senior CB from Arkansas at $513K.

Perspective: He could put that $500k down on my house and still have a $1.5m mortgage. Of course, we bought our house 38 years ago and couldn't come close to buying it today, even though our income is three times what it was then. Which speaks to just one of the major financial challenges young people face today.

Having enough money is a huge challenge for young people, even college graduates. Also, college students whose parents put them through school so that they graduate with no debt have a huge advantage over scholarship athletes who graduate with no debt and return to their modest or poor homes. They have their degrees and no debt which is a huge advantage over most, but still face significant challenges.

ND is run by a priest who has taken vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. I don't know about the other two, but he has no clue about poverty. AIR, his dad was a successful MD in Nebraska. He joined the Holy Cross order and has never wanted for anything. He has always been and couldn't be more secure. I think it is worth suggesting that he has no clue what many of his students and most of his athletes face upon graduation.

ND must develop competitive, big time NIL opportunities for her athletes and advertise and promote them to recruits and current athletes. ND is making so much money on football, and stands to make so much more if it competes, that to do less would be a shame.

Then go compete: in recruiting, in the Portal, and on the field.

@Eric Hansen and I will be back for another Inside ND Sports podcast Tuesday. Send us some questions you'd like us to discuss. We like to give priority to questions submitted on The Insider Lounge.

If you have multiple questions, try to be succinct and ask them separately. Thanks!