Notre Dame's first of three evaluation camps will be held on campus Thursday.

A pair of Notre Dame legacies will be competing hoping to earn an Irish offer: 2024 ATH Lawson Pritchett and 2025 TE Marshall Pritchett. Their father, Wes Pritchett, was four-year letterwinner as a linebacker at Notre Dame and led the Irish in tackles during the 1988 national championship season.

Login to view embedded media
I was intrigued by Marshall as a prospect last June when he camped at Notre Dame. Obviously tight end, especially in the 2025 class, is a very competitive position for the Irish. So it might be hard to land an offer. But I'm interested in seeing how he's improved.

Marshall has 11 offers including North Carolina, Wisconsin, Boston College, Cincinnati and Vanderbilt.

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Lawson, a safety and wide receiver, has offers from UAB, Army, Navy, Air Force and others.

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

After making some calls today, I’m ready to share what I’ve learned about the recruits who visited Notre Dame the last few days.

Let me start with four-star DE Elijah Rushing, since he’s already been a hot topic since I shared quotes from him this morning. Similarly to how many of you reacted to his quotes, Notre Dame doesn’t feel very confident in its chances with Rushing following the visit. I’d been hearing for months that it was a longshot, but the fact that he followed through on the official visit was a glimmer of hope. Rushing’s worth continuing to fight for in case ND has a bad read on the situation, but it’s not looking good for now.

Login to view embedded media
Now, let’s get to the more positive updates.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the weekend, from my perspective, is how much Notre Dame resonated with three-star LB Bradley Shaw. The Irish truly believe they can pull the Hoover (Ala.) High linebacker out of the South. So much so that there have to be discussions about finding room for potentially two linebacker additions in the class if both Shaw and four-star recruit Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa both want to join. Notre Dame certainly won’t turn down Viliamu-Asa. Now it might not with Shaw either. Auburn and Georgia are the teams I’m monitoring with Shaw.

Login to view embedded media
What shouldn’t be surprising is that Notre Dame hit the right notes with four-star tight end Carter Nelson. Word was Georgia really impressed Nelson last weekend, and the Irish seem to have done the same thing. This is going to be interesting recruitment moving forward with the Irish, Bulldogs and home-state Nebraska.

Login to view embedded media
Notre Dame continued to build momentum with unrated safety target Oliver Miles III. The Irish coaching staff likes him a lot and the feeling appears to be mutual. However, Notre Dame hasn’t closed out the competition for Miles yet. The Texas Tech official visit scheduled for this coming weekend looms large. Pulling Miles away from his home state has been a concern.

Login to view embedded media
Referring to The Heat Index, we had Shaw and Nelson at medium and Miles at hot coming into the visits. I’m considering bumping Shaw and Nelson both up to hot but I want to do some more digging first. As of right now, Notre Dame has a legitimate shot at landing all three of them at some point.

Let’s not forget the nine verbal commits who also made their official visits this past weekend. I was told everything with the committed recruits went “incredible.”

Some bonus notes here on a couple of 2025 targets who were on campus for unofficial visits:

LB Madden Faraimo blew Notre Dame’s staff away. He’s quickly rising to the top of the linebacker wish list for the 2025 class. A little bit like Viliamu-Asa has been for the 2024 class. Faraimo spent time connecting with Irish linebacker Marist Liufau while on campus Friday.

Login to view embedded media
QB Blake Hebert became Notre Dame’s latest quarterback offer during his visit Saturday. I was told he’s definitely a ND-type of kid and would be a program fit. I’m not sure that he’s the most coveted target at the position in 2025 right now, but he’s certainly a name to keep in mind.

Login to view embedded media
Speaking of 2025 quarterbacks, I was also told ND expects Deuce Knight to reschedule his second ND visit after visiting Alabama on Saturday instead of ND.

Login to view embedded media

Notre Dame women’s basketball announced the hire of new player development program director Carlos Knox Monday.

Login to view embedded media
Inside ND Sports has confirmed this is a new position on staff.

Knox began his coaching career in 2001 and has spent time in the WNBA, NCAA Division I women’s basketball, International Basketball League, Continental Basketball Association and American Basketball Association.

He served as the interim coach of the Indiana Fever in 2022 and was an assistant coach for the Fever during the 2012 WNBA Championship.

As a player, Knox started college at UT-Martin (1993-94) before transferring to IUPUI (1994-98). He was named NCAA Division II Player of the Year in 1998 and was inducted into the IUPUI Hall of Fame in 2004.

He went undrafted in the 1998 NBA Draft and played shortly for the Indiana Pacers during the 1998-99 season before playing overseas in Croatia, Germany, Italy and Venezuela.

Link to full story:

I just got off the phone with Elijah Rushing, the highest-ranked target who visited Notre Dame this weekend. Rivals ranks Rushing as the No. 3 weakside defensive end and No. 53 overall in the 2024 class.

Login to view embedded media
How did his official visit with Notre Dame go?

"It went really good," Rushing said. "I got to learn more about the players and the program."

Rushing connected with sophomore defensive end Junior Tuihalamaka and said going out with the players was the highlight of his visit.

Rushing, who hadn't visited ND since April 2022, said his relationships with defensive line coach Al Washington and head coach Marcus Freeman were the reasons why he made an official visit with the Irish.

Notre Dame has pitched Rushing a role as a vyper end but is also open to him playing the field end. He's confident that Washington can develop him into an NFL Draft pick.

"I don’t want to put a number on it, but I’m confident in what he can do," Rushing said.

Rushing previously made official visits to UCLA and Arizona and plans to be at Oregon this week and Tennessee next week. He's closing in on a commitment decision in July.

What will separate his eventual school from the rest?

“My family will have to come to a consensus on what makes sense," Rushing said. "All the places I’ve gone, they’ve made sense. They make sense for me as choices. Now where does my family fit into all of this? Where’s the most comfortable for me?”

Updated with full story:

Freeman selected Parker as his new OC. Parker had a great interview. Let's think about that.

Parker has known Freeman a long time and participated in the interview process enough to go to a hockey game with Freeman and a top candidate. I think it is fair to assume that Parker knew pretty well what Freeman was looking for. That, logically speaking (inference), is what Parker delivered.

The intererview was the interview, out there between Parker and Freeman. The Great Interview occurred in Freeman's head and heart. Parker just gave it his best shot. Freeman interpreted and felt it as great. No one, TMK, has claimed that Parker was brilliant or innovative or forced Freeman to think about something he had never thought before. Rather, it is fair to assume, Parker said things Freeman already knew and was looking for.

Now consider the OC from Kansas State, Collin Klien. He and Freeman, TMK, had not met before the interview. It seems fair to ask why Freeman interviewed Klien. He only had one year of experience as an OC, maybe the Covid year plus two, but I could only find evidence of one. Certainly there were more qualified candidates than Klien. Still, setting aside his lack of OC experience, he was a KSU QB and QB coach under Bill Snyder before becoming the KSU OC. He had considerable offensive knowledge and experience in the BIG 12. Freeman is a defensive coach from the Big 10. His mentor is Jim Tressel, a fine coach who was old school even in 2010, his last year coaching.

So why didn't Freeman interview more candidates with more experienc? What an opportunity to learn from some great sources about offensive football!

The interview with Klien seems to have gone badly for both. Klein knows way more about offensive football than Freeman could have learned in a year. Maybe more important, he did not know what Freeman knew and was looking for. He probably talked to Freeman as he would Bill Snyder and Chris Klieman two coaches he worked under with vast HC experience and success. There were times that Freeman probably did not know what he was talking about and probably did not know how to think like Klien was thinking. And being young and inexperienced, he probably did not have the confidence and curiosity to say, "That's all new to me. Tell me more about, but start from the beginning.

Now consider his confidence and curiosity when interviewing DC candidates. He landed Al Golden and they had long, deep conversations about defense. And Freeman was willing and able to learn from Golden who started the conversation with a story about talking with his wife about how much he admired Freeman.

I'm afraid Freeman hired an OC who made him comfortable, not an OC he needed. Parker is on a steep learning curve with little time to climb it. From the end of Spring ball to early summer is a huge opportunity for him to work with his staff and to reach out to the best O minds he knows. After that, he needs some time to process what he has gathered, then start building his plan for the '23 season with his staff. Realistically, he needs at least two years. That's the choice Freeman made.

Login to view embedded media
Notre Dame 2025 defensive end target CJ May is scheduled to visit Notre Dame Monday. He reported a Notre Dame offer on Pot of Gold Day and holds 12 total offers including Auburn, Clemson, Georgia, Miami (Fla.), Penn State and Tennessee. The 6-foot-4, 225-pound defender was named ASWA Class 2A Second-Team All-State as a sophomore.

The Highland Home (Ala.) High product is visiting Tennesee today and went into detail previewing his visit with the Irish early this morning.

On why he wants to visit Notre Dame:

"The fact of coming this far out from Alabama excites me [the] most because it’s a different environment than Alabama," May told Inside ND Sports. "I’m all in to try it."

On what he wants to learn while visiting:

"I just want to get a true feeling of the program and see how the coaches coach their program because as we know, every coach has his own way."

On what he associates Notre Dame with:

"You think of the championship history with the program and every time you see the gold dome you automatically know who that is," May said. "Also, Justin Tuck went to high school one hour away from me."

On important factors in recruitment:

"The deciding factors for me are going to mainly be relationships and also you have to look deep into the little things."

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Link to full story:

Notre Dame welcomed the final 11 members of its 2023 recruiting class to campus Friday.

After the Blue-Gold Game, Inside ND Sports listed five 2023 summer enrollees who might have the chance to follow in the footsteps of former June enrollees Benjamin Morrison and Joe Alt.

Login to view embedded media
Featured in the tweet includes:

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Director of player development Amir Carlisle introduced Notre Dame's players to speakers intended to help them take advantage of their opportunities at Notre Dame and beyond. The speakers included former NFL players Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder of Pivot Podcast, representatives from NBC Chicago and Erik Averill of AWM Capital.

Login to view embedded media

This one went under the radar, but I confirmed that four-star linebacker Madden Faraimo, a 2025 recruit from California, visited Notre Dame on Friday. He did so after camping at Ohio State on Thursday.

Faraimo is ranked by Rivals as the No. 4 outside linebacker and No. 39 overall in the 2025 class. Notre Dame offered him on Pot of Gold Day in March.

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Blake Hebert, a rising junior at Lawrence (Mass.) Central Catholic, reported a Notre Dame offer Saturday that he received during a campus visit.

Quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli evaluated Hebert at his school in May. Hebert was teammates with Notre Dame freshman linebacker Preston Zinter at Central Catholic.

Hebert has offers from Clemson, Auburn, Penn State, North Carolina, Pittsburgh and others. Most of his offers have come in the last three-plus months.

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Login to view embedded media
I caught up with Notre Dame 2025 cornerback target Mark Zackery Saturday night. He participated in the Indiana All-Star futures basketball game earlier this afternoon at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and returned to watch a couple of his Indianapolis (Ind.) Ben Davis teammates in the Indiana vs. Kentucky All-Star Senior Boys Game.

The 6-foot, 160-pound cornerback camped at Notre Dame last summer and took a game day visit for the Clemson game last fall. Zackery told me he's scheduled to visit Notre Dame Monday.

"I'm looking forward to that," Zackery told Inside ND Sports. "Just getting to see everything. I didn't really get to see a lot when I went to my game day visit and camp. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the campus, athletic facilities and seeing how their practice works."

Zackery received an offer from the Irish in May and spoke extensively about his athletic background and working out in front of cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens.

"I've been in contact with Coach Mickens a lot these past weeks since they've offered me," Zackery said. "I'm getting excited to see him in person again and get to talk things out with him and with my family."

The three-star defender is coming off an Ohio State visit this past Thursday where the Buckeyes extended an offer.

"It's very special," Zackery said. "It's one of my dream schools that I've been watching since I was little. Having the opportunity to go to a school like that means a lot. I know I have a lot of potential to grow. I'm planning to keep working and to make it to the highest point in my game so I can make it to the next level."

Zackery has 26 total offers, including those from Notre Dame, Ohio State, Cincinnati, Indiana, Iowa, Louisville, Michigan, Minnesota, Penn State, Purdue, Tennessee, Texas A&M and USC.

Login to view embedded media
Link to full story:

Login to view embedded media
Notre Dame 2024 safety target Brauntae Johnson announced he plans to announce his commitment June 24.

Login to view embedded media
The 6-foot-3, 175-pound recruit attends Fort Wayne (Ind.) North Side and took his official visit to Notre Dame earlier this week.

Johnson is rated as a four-star recruit by Rivals. He is ranked as the No. 4 athlete in the 2024 recruiting class.

He lists Notre Dame in his top 10 along with Cincinnati, Colorado, Louisville, Missouri, Michigan State, Miami (Fla.), Penn State, Purdue and Tennessee.

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

I'm going to wait until tomorrow morning to put these in publicly, but I wanted to give the update to our subscribers on The Insider Lounge first.

I plan to submit Rivals FutureCast predictions in Notre Dame's favor for safety targets Brauntae Johnson and Davis Andrews following their respective official visits this week.

I'll share some more thoughts later when I'm done with the Jack Swarbrick coverage, but I didn't want to wait any longer to inform you of my plans.

Update: So here's the intel that led to these predictions.

Confidence is high on Notre Dame's end following the official visits for Johnson and Andrews.

Now that Johnson has a green light to commit, I see it ending up that way. He's still expected to visit Purdue this coming weekend, but I just don't see the Boilermakers pulling ahead of Notre Dame at this point. The Irish have sold him on their vision for him as a safety, and folks around Johnson are supportive of that plan as well.

As for Andrews, he's always felt like an ND fit to me. Notre Dame continued to move in the right direction for him on his official visit. He's traveling back to Utah today, so I'm still working on getting some details directly from him. He planned to visit Utah this weekend, and I'd like to confirm that he's still following through on that. Regardless, I think the Irish are in the lead here too.

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
I’m at Gainbridge Fieldhouse tonight to watch Notre Dame men’s basketball 2023 signees Markus Burton and Logan Imes in the Indiana All-Star vs Kentucky All-Star Game.

Kentucky defeated Indiana 94-90 on Friday night in Owensboro (Ky.) Burton scored a game-high 33 points while Imes added eight points.

I’ll have updates throughout.

Here's our story:


Sports Illustrated had the breaking news first this morning.

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Notre Dame men's basketball 2023 guard signees Markus Burton and Logan Imes played Friday evening in the Indiana All-Stars vs. Kentucky All-Stars game in Owensboro (Ky.).

Kentucky defeated Indiana 94-90. The two play again Saturday evening in Indianapolis.

Burton finished with a game-high 33 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals on 13-of-25 shooting. Imes finished with eight points, four rebounds, four assists and two blocks on 3-of-14 shooting.

Western Kentucky signee Teagan Moore led Kentucky with 31 points. Army football signee Kenyon Goodin added 14 points.

Box score and some clips from the Indy Star:

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Sophomore Chris Kavanagh scored five goals and senior sibling Pat added three more and five assists as No. 2 Notre Dame upended No. 1 Duke, 17-12, Saturday before a sell-out crowd of 5,000 at Arlotta Stadium in South Bend, Ind.

Pat Kavanagh came into the game fourth nationally in points per game at 5.38 and second in assists per game at 3.62. The last time the Blue Devils gave up more than 17 or more goals in a regulation game was eight seasons ago in a 19-7 loss to Syracuse.

It was the fourth 1-vs.-2 matchup in school history involving the Irish (8-1, 2-1 ACC) and Notre Dame has now won three of those games. Eric Dobson also had a hat track, with an assist, for the Irish.

Duke (10-2, 3-1) led 3-2 after the opening period, but a dominant 7-1 second period gave the Irish a lead they’d never relinquish.

Grad senior Chris Fake smothered Duke star Brennan O’Neill, holding the nation’s No. 3 player in points per game (5.55) to a single point. It marked the first time in 23 games O’Neill hasn’t scored at least three. Senior goalie Liam Entenmann had season-high 15 saves for ND.

The Irish have an open date next weekend before returning to action April 22 at home against 10th-ranked North Carolina (7-4, 1-2). The game is set for noon EDT and will be telecast on ESPNU.

BOX SCORE

Notre Dame's official visitors for the June 9-11 weekend arrive on campus Friday morning.

The 2024 recruits visiting include DT commit Sean Sevillano Jr., DE commit Loghan Thomas, DE commit Cole Mullins, LB commit Bodie Kahoun, CB commit Karson Hobbs, TE target Carter Nelson, S target Oliver Miles III, DE target Elijah Rushing, LB commit Teddy Rezac, LB target Bradley Shaw, WR commit Cam Williams, CB commit Leonard Moore and S commit Kennedy Urlacher.

Login to view embedded media
Click here to subscribe to Inside ND Sports on YouTube.

ICYMI: Our visitors preview.

Five-star DT Justin Scott discussed last weekend's Notre Dame visit and the other top schools he's considering with our guy @Clint Cosgrove.

Story from @JedMay on our Georgia site following five-star DT Justin Scott's official visit to Georgia:

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Notre Dame men’s basketball 2025 in-state targets Jalen Haralson and Trent Sisley are participating in the Nike Elite 100 camp this weekend.

Login to view embedded media
Haralson, a five-star shooting guard, attends Fishers (Ind.) High. Sisley, a four-star power forward who visited Notre Dame last week, attends Santa Claus (Ind.) Heritage Hills. Both play together on the grassroots basketball Nike EYBL circuit with Indy Heat Gym Rats.

Haralson featured in the top right photo of this tweet below (second tweet of thread).

Login to view embedded media

Login to view embedded media
Notre Dame 2025 quarterback target Deuce Knight shared a basketball clip showcasing his athleticism on Friday morning.

Login to view embedded media
Knight, a four-star recruit in the 2025 recruiting class, is ranked as the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback in the 2025 class.

The 6-foot-4, 190-pound quarterback from Lucedale (Miss.) George County is scheduled to visit the Irish tomorrow. He visited Notre Dame in April for spring practice.

The Irish are in Knight's top 10 along with Auburn, Georgia, Ole Miss, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennesee, TCU, Texas A&M and Washington. Its worth noting Knight released his top 10 before his Alabama offer, which came yesterday.

Knight visited Tennesee last weekend and Ole Miss in late May.

Login to view embedded media

The second official visitors' weekend at Notre Dame is here. The Irish are hosting several commits and targets. The wave of recruits arrived just a few minutes ago.

2024 defensive tackle commit Sean Sevillano Jr.

Login to view embedded media