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Football Cross, Morrison make Lott Impact Trophy Watch List

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Most of these Watch Lists won't come out until late July/early August.

Here's a rundown of the award from Fighting Irish Media:

Graduate student defensive lineman Howard Cross III and junior cornerback Benjamin Morrison were named candidates for the 2024 Lott IMPACT Trophy this week.

The Lott IMPACT Trophy annually goes to the Defensive IMPACT Player of the Year, a player who has had the biggest impact on his team both on and off the field. IMPACT stands for Integrity, Maturity, Performance, Academics, Community and Tenacity. The award is named for NFL Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott during his illustrious playing career.

Morrison and Cross III join a watch list comprised of 42 candidates including 18 defensive backs, 13 defensive linemen and 11 linebackers.

Cross III was a quarterfinalist for the award in 2023, and earned Lott Trophy Player of the Week honors for his performance against Duke that season. In 2023, he earned Second Team All-America honors from FWAA, Walter Camp, the Associated Press and The Sporting News. He was a semifinalist for the Bednarik Award, starting all 13 games for Notre Dame. He piled up 66 stops in 2023, which ranked second among all Power 5 front-four defensive lineman.

In 2023, Morrison was a semifinalist for the Thorpe Award, and earned Freshman All-America honors in 2022. He led the Irish with 10 pass breakups in 2023, recording 31 tackles (25 solo). Morrison also intercepted three passes on the season, a mainstay on a defense that led all FBS teams in pass efficiency defense in 2023 (97.09).

Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o won the Lott Trophy in 2012, and is the only Notre Dame player to have won the award.

The annual winner is selected by a national voter panel, consisting of former winners, members of the media, coaches, and members of the Board of Directors of The IMPACT Foundation.

The winner will be announced at a gala, black-tie event at The Pacific Club in Newport Beach, California on December 8.

Football Updated Notre Dame depth chart heading into summer workouts; veterans report Sunday

We'll give this another refresh in a few days when we get updated heights and weights. Not a lot of movement since the last update in terms up ups and downs. I still expect Aamil Wagner to overtake Tosh Baker in August, for example, but am leaving Baker at the top for now. The Rocco Spindler/Pat Coogan battle will be interesting. I know the Irish are going to hive freshman Brauntae Johnson a look as a backup nickel, so that might be a move that sticks, and I included that for now. I'm also fairly confident we'll get announcements of some medical retirements very soon that will get ND down to 85 scholarships.

Recruiting Notre Dame extends a new offer to 2025 3-star WR from Indiana

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JonAnthony Hall from Fishers High near Indy reports 17 offers, and has visited Northwestern officially. He has officials scheduled in June to Indiana, Purdue and Stanford.

Hall is set to compete in the Indiana state track and field meet Saturday in the long jump and 4x100 relay. He's the fourth seed int he long jump and finished fourth as a sophomore in last year's meet. Notre Dame incoming freshman safety Brauntae Johnson is competing in the same two events for Fort Wayne North High.

Football Recovery timeline revealed for Notre Dame CB Benjamin Morrison


Lots of interesting stuff today from a small media gathering with head coach Marcus Freeman. I still have a notebook coming tonight ... will update the depth chart in the morning and get into some big picture stuff tomorrow afternoon. If I miss your questions today, I'll scoop them up tomorrow and answer them.
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Recruiting New Rivals national analyst roles

There's been some news in the last couple of weeks on the Rivals national analyst front that I wanted to bring to your attention.

Sam Spiegelman has returned to Rivals after a stint with On3. He's our national recruiting analyst with a focus in the Southeast. His state responsibilities include Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina. That will allow fellow national recruiting analyst John Garcia Jr. to focus solely on Florida.

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Adam Friedman, who's been our national recruiting analyst focused on the East Coast, has now become a transfer portal analyst. He'll continue to our rankings director with a hand in both high school and transfer portal rankings. North Carolina was one of the states Friedman oversaw, so Spiegelman will have that covered.

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Rivals will announce in June an analyst who will be covering the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic (basically everything north of North Carolina in the east).

If you haven't been keeping track, these are our other national recruiting analysts and their primary coverage areas ...

Greg Smith - Midwest
Marshall Levenson - Mid-South
Adam Gorney - West

Recruiting 2025 QB commit Deuce Knight will compete in Irish Invasion

We'll be continuing to update our expected visitors list for Sunday's Irish Invasion (which can always be found in the running visitors list thread) throughout the week.

@Eric Hansen will be doing much of the preview work as I'm taking a few days away later this week to start packing for a move later this month, but I'll be back to cover Sunday's camp.

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Football Football Never Sleeps: Notre Dame's path, obstacles to a national title in football

Watch on YouTube as @Eric Hansen and Tyler James present the next weekly edition of "Football Never Sleeps."

We discuss Notre Dame's path and obstacles to a football national championship, inspired by the men's lacrosse team's title runs. We also chat about QB Riley Leonard's non-vacation, the top summer storylines, and the latest on the recruiting front .. and more, while answering questions from viewers.

Football Never Sleeps is sponsored by Legacy Heating & Air.

We hope you join us live with questions or submit some ahead of time. Hit the bell to set a reminder to get notified when we go live.

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If you'd like to submit questions, make sure you click through so you're watching on YouTube's site or in the YouTube app if you're on mobile. You can do so by clicking the headline at the top of the embedded video above. So where it says "Football Never Sleeps: ..." Or there should be spot that says "Watch on YouTube" in the bottom left.

Then to submit questions, there's a chat box to the right of the video on desktop or below the video on mobile.

Click here to subscribe to Inside ND Sports on YouTube.
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Recruiting Official visit dates for Notre Dame's 2025 commits

I've been working on nailing down the official visit dates for Notre Dame's 2025 commits. I expect them all to be on campus in June, but I haven't confirmed all their dates yet. Some didn't know for sure when I asked them either. Here's what I've learned so far.

June 7-9
RB Daniel Anderson
TE James Flanigan
CB Dallas Golden
VYP Dominik Hulak
LB Ko'o Kia
DE Joseph Reiff
LB Anthony Sacca
CB Cree Thomas
CB Mark Zackery

June 14-16
OL Matty Augustine
WR Jerome Bettis Jr.
OT Will Black
DE Christopher Burgess Jr.
DT Davion Dixon
QB Deuce Knight
S Ethan Long
OT Owen Strebig
S Ivan Taylor
RB Justin Thurman

I'll add the others when I get clarification.
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