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As the Irish gear up for their own 2023 football season, many of Notre Dame’s 2024 commits began their senior seasons last weekend.

Inside ND Sports breaks down the top performances from opening weekend.

Players highlighted include:

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most important coach that Marcus has hired to this point at Notre Dame. My gut just tells me Coach Guiduli has already added some excitement to the QB room. His coaching style seems to have connected well with the whole room, including Sam Hartman. He's teaching the basics, good footwork, keep your feet moving in the pocket, at what point to release the ball. He's a fundamentals guy and this room needed a change at the top.

Brady Stevens, son of Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens, is heading into his senior season at Wellesey (Mass.) High. He was one of 15 selections for the Bay State Conference All-Stars last season. He announced a commitment to Notre Dame on Saturday.

Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry coached with Brad Stevens at Butler and with the Celtics.

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Here are sophomore highlights for Brady Stevens. I couldn't find his junior season.

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Ohio State graduate transfer Javontae Jean-Baptiste has been a bit of an enigma since arriving at Notre Dame. He shared more about his experience and outlook in a one-on-one with Inside ND Sports.

@Eric Hansen and I will go live on YouTube at 7 p.m. EDT for the next edition of "Football Never Sleeps." Throughout the season, we will plan to be live every Monday at 7 p.m.

Tonight we'll discuss head coach Marcus Freeman's Monday press conference, the top storylines heading into Notre Dame's season opener against Navy in Ireland and answer questions from viewers.

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.

This is the fourth and final story on our preseason enterprise collection of stories. If you missed one of the others, here are the links:

Like the sunset follows the sunrise we longtime ND fans expect a roster surprise or two before Game 1. Discipline, grades, suspensions, concealed injuries etc.


Lay it on us before they board the airplane guys.

Includes an update on Notre Dame 2024 DE commit Bryce Young.

Rivals is updating its ratings and rankings for the 2024 class again this week.

The updated five-star prospect list was released Monday, and Notre Dame QB commit CJ Carr did not make the cut.

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The last rankings update in June put Carr at No. 21 overall as the highest-ranked four-star recruit. Rivals now has 21 five-star recruits in the August update. The final 2024 rankings should include roughly 32 five-star recruits.

Ohio State QB commit Air Noland, who was ranked at No. 67 overall, jumped ahead of Carr into the No. 20 spot.

You can find the full five-star countdown below:

Every year The Athletic's Bruce Feldman compiles a list of college football's physically freakiest players. Among the 101 he wrote about for this season, Rylie Mills (10), Cam Hart (32) and Javontae Jean-Baptiste (82) all made the list. For Mills and Hart, the speed gains over last season are staggering.

Bill Wagner, the Navy athletics beat writer for Capital Gazette, discusses Navy football's head coach transition from Ken Niumatalolo to Brian Newberry, which quarterbacks are likely to play against Notre Dame, how coordinator Grant Chestnut has tweaked the offense, who is expected to be playmakers on Navy's defense, Navy's future with conference realignment and more.

Then @Eric Hansen and I answer questions from Twitter and The Insider Lounge (16:44).

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Haven't been able to watch any preseason games

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Notre Dame 2025 four-star quarterback Deuce Knight made his debut for Nashville (Tenn.) Lipscomb Academy against Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy on Friday night.

Rivals National Recruiting Analyst Sean Williams caught up with the 6-foot-4, 190-pound signal caller after the game to discuss his transfer, recruitment and visit plans.

"I think I'm very close to a decision," Knight told Williams. "I think I'll have a decision made in a month or two."

"I'm gonna try to get to Ole Miss. Obviously, Tennessee is an easy drive. I wanna get to Vanderbilt, that's like ten minutes away. I want to get back to Auburn. Probably won't get back to Notre Dame just because of how far it is, but they are a top team."

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Chat Transcript: How long will it take for the Notre Dame WRs to catch on?​

Great questions today. Thanks to all who asked ... and those who lurked.

Apparently some discussion from MU beat writer Gabe D’Armond (Power Mizzou) that “There’s some chatter that the commitment to ND is tenuous on both sides. Definitely keep an eye out here.”

This would be pretty surprising to me in that Williams appears to be emerging as a leader of this ND recruiting class. Nothing to see here?

Many Notre Dame commits and targets in the 2024, 2025 and 2026 recruiting classes are kicking off their high school seasons tonight. A handful of others play tomorrow, while some have their season openers next week and will participate in preseason games/scrimmages tonight.

Inside ND Sports will have updates throughout the fall including a few Friday nights of on-sight coverage of commits and targets.

For tonight, I'll provide live updates throughout the evening on different commits and targets. One big game happening in Cincinnati at 7:30 p.m. is 2024 three-star cornerback commit Karson Hobbs and Cincinnati (Ohio) Moeller against 2025 four-star cornerback target Mark Zackery and Indianapolis (Ind.) Ben Davis.

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We'll get things started tonight with 2025 four-star running back Justin Thurman. Rivals is on hand at Camping World Stadium to see Thurman in Tampa (Fla.) Jesuit's preseason game. Listen to Thurman during pregame below.

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Notre Dame 2024 three-star defensive tackle commit Sean Sevillano Jr. and 2025 four-star defensive tackle commit Davion Dixon pictured on Thursday night.

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Sevillano and Clearwater (Fla,) International Academy are scheduled to play Dixon and Miami (Fla.) Palmetto on Sept. 22.

Taebron Bennie-Powell had a 5.6 Rivals Rating and wasn't ranked among the top 65 athletes in the 2024 class when he committed to Notre Dame in June.

As Rivals updated its positing rankings this week, Bennie-Powell moved up to the No. 33 athlete and now has a 5.7 Rivals Rating, which is the highest level for a three-star recruit.

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I covered the 2024 Rivals250 movement earlier this week.

UPDATE: The position rankings I covered previously weren't fully updated yet. So here's the correct information:

Kennedy Urlacher was bumped to a four-star rating and moved up two spots as the No. 31 safety.

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Logan Saldate was bumped to a four-star rating and moved from outside the top 110 wide receivers to No. 77 at the position.

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Two other commits saw their position ranking increase: Teddy Rezac up 10 spots to the No. 31 athlete and Cole Mullins up two spots to the No. 45 outside linebacker.

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The others were drops: Jack Larsen down one spot to the No. 17 tight end. Micah Gilbert down three spots as the No. 54 wide receiver. Sean Sevillano Jr. down one spot as the No. 21 defensive tackle. Karson Hobbs down five spots as the No. 57 cornerback. Styles Prescod down two spots as the No. 63 offensive tackle. Anthonie Knapp down three spots as the No. 68 offensive tackle.

We're partnering with WSBT, the local CBS and FOX affiliate in South Bend, this season at Inside ND Sports. @Eric Hansen and I will be making some appearances throughout the season primarily on Mondays and Tuesdays. But the first one will be tonight during the Notre Dame Preseason Special. I joined Pete Byrne to discuss Notre Dame's 2023 schedule.

If you're local, you can catch it on FOX Michiana at 6 p.m. EDT before the Chicago Bears preseason game. It will also re-air on CBS on Friday at 7 p.m. EDT.

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Freshman CB Christian Gray needed to gain some confidence once arriving at Notre Dame, but cornerbacks Mike Mickens and his fellow cornerbacks assured him he belonged. Now he's proving it.

“This game is not hard once you put your all into it,” Gray said. “Your focus, your mindset, your body, your everything into it — you’ll have that great success.”

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One of the early names to know in the 2026 recruiting class is Devin Hamilton. Like the 2024 and 2025 classes, the Chicago area is loaded with talent on both sides of the ball and Hamilton is set to begin his sophomore year at Chicago (Ill.) Marist. Hamilton camped at Notre Dame in June where he flashed a high ceiling and was named as one of the standouts.

I caught up with Hamilton earlier this week to learn about his background, camp experience under wide receivers coach Chansi Stuckey and more.

"That camp was good for me because I liked how it was run and I did good at the camp," Hamilton told Inside ND Sports. "I'm going to watch them a lot more since I got the eye of some of the coaches."

Hamilton got a follow from quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli on X (Twitter) after his camp performance. He said his favorite part of camp was one-on-ones and using his size against smaller defensive backs. He was very appreciative of Guidugli's follow and hopes to get more on the Irish's radar this season.

"It means a lot to me because I've been working on my craft for a very long time," Hamilton said. "I finally got my chance to get eyes looked at me."

At 6-foot-3, 180-pounds, Hamilton said he prides himself on coming down with contested catches and making defenders miss in the open field. He admitted he's struggled with catching and that was a major point of emphasis for him while training this offseason.

Hamilton played with Midwest BOOM, the seven-on-seven program that 2025 four-star wide receiver target Talyn Taylor plays for, this spring and summer.

"Seven on seven went good for me, it's really fast," Hamilton said, "But it's good for me when I'm running my routes ... it's easier to get better at my routes"

Hamilton does not report any offers but is interested in Notre Dame, Illinois and any other colleges. He visited Illinois in the spring. Rivals has not assigned any ratings or rankings to 2026 prospects.

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