The Tide Continues to Turn as Notre Dame Lands Noah Grubbs

The tide has turned.

Without question, Notre Dame’s ability on the recruiting trail has been raised significantly.

Look no further than last weekend for proof as Mark Zackery IV became the third 247Sports Top 100 defensive back to commit to Notre Dame’s 2025 class. He joined consensus Top 100 DB’s in Dallas Golden and Ivan Taylor out of Florida, a pair of recruiting wins that were outside of the ordinary.

There was the superstar linebacker from St. John Bosco, Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, who chose the Irish over Ohio State and USC. This followed Jaiden Ausberry in the previous cycle, another stud linebacker out of Baton Rouge who followed Jaylen Sneed a cycle earlier, a five-star from South Carolina.

They weren’t typical recruiting wins for Notre Dame. And neither was Bryce Young, the first five-star defensive end signed in well over a decade.

After whiffing on AJ Henning, Tyler Morris, and Kaleb Brown, Notre Dame finally scored a high-end receiver from Chicago in Cam Williams. In the previous class, Marcus Freeman closed on Jaden Greathouse who broke just about every receiving record at Texas powerhouse Austin Westlake.

Four days prior to Greathouse’s commitment announcement, cornerback Christian Gray chose the Irish over LSU, Ohio State, and USC.

Perhaps the most notable wins had been the back-to-back Top 75 quarterbacks. And it wasn’t only their skill and rankings that cut against the grain. One passer was Lloyd Carr’s grandson. The other came from Mississippi, a region that was practically considered a recruiting dead zone for Notre Dame.

Now the Irish follow CJ Carr and Deuce Knight with another blue-chip quarterback.

It’s another recruiting win that previously would’ve been considered darned near out of reach for the Irish – a super polished, 6-foot-4 quarterback out of Lake Mary, Florida.

As they say, the best of the best programs sign high-end quarterbacks on a yearly basis. And if there was any lingering doubt around Notre Dame’s ability to land blue-chip passers in consecutive fashion, it should vanish with Noah Grubbs announcing his pledge to the Fighting Irish today.

Prior to promoting Freeman to head coach, it felt like the Irish resigned to signing a potential franchise quarterback in every other cycle. It was clear that approach wouldn’t suffice when Gunner Kiel, Brandon Wimbush, Phil Jurkovec, and Tyler Buchner failed to reach that franchise QB status.

What’s more, with the expanded transfer activity, increasing NIL opportunities, and the thinning patience of quarterbacks in this new era of college football, that every-other-cycle approach was even less viable.

That approach is now on the scrap pile as former high school All-American Kenny Minchey and CJ Carr prepare for a spring camp battle while Deuce Knight and Noah Grubbs inch toward their varsity seasons, known as two of the very best high school quarterbacks in SEC Country.

Some say that Notre Dame’s recruiting outcomes haven’t changed between Brian Kelly’s Fighting Irish and Marcus Freeman‘s first three cycles.

I beg to differ.

**Our special edition of Tracking the Trail, our recruiting podcast, we discussed Noah Grubbs at length. The pod is shown below