On Sept. 5, I was exchanging messages with a Notre Dame source about 2025 quarterback recruiting, and they said, \u201cSomething is going to happen soon on one of the two. I just don\u2019t know which one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, the source was talking about the saga that was Notre Dame\u2019s hunt to find a quarterback in the 2025 class. Quarterbacks come off the board early; five of the top-10 signal-callers per the 2025 On3 Industry Ranking are already committed to a school. And Notre Dame put itself to land a quarterback pledge early in the fall and capitalized. <\/p>\n
During the weekend that Notre Dame had Murietta (Calif.) Valley\u2019s Bear Bachmeier<\/a><\/strong> on campus, the Irish got word that it\u2019d be landing its quarterback of the 2025 cycle. It wasn\u2019t Bachmeier like most of us on the Notre Dame beat expected leading into the weekend, but rather, it was Lucedale (Miss.) George County\u2019s Deuce Knight<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n How did this all come together? Here are reflections from a Notre Dame recruiting writer who covered it from start to finish.<\/p>\n \u2014 On Friday morning, I was in my hotel room in Charlotte, N.C. having covered Notre Dame class of 2024 tight end commit Jack Larsen<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s high school game the night prior. I wasn\u2019t expecting my Friday to have any drama, but it did when I got a text from Knight saying, \u201cI\u2019m going to be at the O State game.\u201d To which I replied, \u201cThe ND-OSU game?\u201d<\/p>\n I had to clarify because it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Bachmeier would commit to Notre Dame over the weekend, and Knight wouldn\u2019t get a chance to even take that visit. As one source put it earlier that week, \u201cDeuce isn\u2019t ready [to commit]. Bear is.\u201d I was on the phone with sources a lot Friday to try to figure out what was happening and what was going to happen. Knight certainly made things go from a foregone conclusion that Bachmeier would be the guy to indicating that he (Knight) was indeed ready to commit. Bachmeier visited, left campus without making a decision and Knight called head coach Marcus Freeman<\/a><\/strong> to commit.<\/p>\n \u2014 If just one thing will stick from this article to Irish fans reading it, I want it to be this: The Notre Dame staff played this whole situation to perfection<\/strong>.<\/p>\n As a reporter, I have to figure out what\u2019s being put out there for just a narrative and what\u2019s actually true. And in digging for the purpose of this article, I asked a source point blank the following: \u201cWas it really first come, first served between Knight and Bachmeier?\u201d<\/p>\n It was. To recall discussion I had with Blue & Gold\u2019s Kyle Kelly<\/strong> during our recruiting live show last Thursday, Notre Dame \u201cprioritized\u201d both quarterbacks. But don\u2019t mistake priority with preference. The staff would have taken Bachmeier and been very happy; you only take a quarterback this early in the cycle if he is a priority. But there was no denying that they preferred Knight.<\/p>\n Going back to the bolded sentence above. By offering Bachmeier in July and prioritizing him (of course, along with Knight), they not only had a second option at the position in 2025 but it also allowed for them to put pressure on Knight. And without Notre Dame recruiting Bachmeier, my guess is that Knight would probably still be uncommitted right now. It was a brilliant move by Notre Dame, and the staff executed this beautifully.<\/p>\n \u2014 A Notre Dame source called Knight\u2019s verbal commitment to the Irish Monday as the \u201cbest day in the Freeman era.\u201d It\u2019s a major recruiting win for the Irish to beat out Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, Tennessee and others for Knight, the nation\u2019s No. 39 player and No. 3 passer per the 2025 On3 Industry Ranking.<\/p>\n \u2014 I understand that some reporters are saying that Knight actually committed to Notre Dame Friday. I\u2019ve received several messages about it from folks who need to know all the behind-the-scenes drama in recruiting. Could Knight have given the staff some indication Friday that he\u2019d commit? Sure. But Knight told me<\/a><\/strong> that he informed Marcus Freeman of his decision to commit on Sunday. And from what I understand, Bachmeier did not attempt to commit during his visit. That\u2019s all that matters.<\/p>\n \u2014 Notre Dame fans: stop mentioning Knight and Dante Moore<\/a><\/strong> in the same sentence with your worries that Knight won\u2019t end up signing with the Irish. The two recruitments are not similar. Moore was a \u201csilent\u201d commitment at one point, but this meant absolutely nothing as he continued to take other visits and had no intentions or plan to actually announce a verbal commitment.<\/p>\n Knight did give Notre Dame a verbal, public commitment. He\u2019s visiting South Bend this weekend to help recruit. He\u2019s already active on social media. Heck, Knight is even coming on the Blue & Gold live show<\/a><\/strong> Wednesday night. He\u2019s embracing being the face of Notre Dame\u2019s 2025 class. Moore did none of this. <\/p>\n And Knight told me that he\u2019s done taking other trips. Could that change? Sure. Any of this stuff could change. It\u2019s recruiting. But until Knight gives you indication that he could flip, stop projecting that on social media and on message boards.<\/p>\n \u2014 Knight\u2019s ceiling as a passer is incredibly high. His floor might be low \u2014 lower than Bachmeier\u2019s. But Bachmeier doesn\u2019t have the ceiling of a Knight. That\u2019s at least the opinion I\u2019ve formed in seeing the film of both players and consulting football minds smarter than me. But I think landing Knight after a very high-floor quarterback prospect in Saline (Mich.) High\u2019s CJ Carr<\/a> <\/strong>\u2014 who also has a high ceiling in his own right \u2014 is a superb pairing in back-to-back classes.<\/p>\n Quarterback recruiting is in a fantastic spot under Freeman, offensive coordinator Gerad Parker<\/a><\/strong> and position coach Gino Guidugli<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n The post Reflecting on Deuce Knight\u2019s Notre Dame commitment and a wild 2025 QB recruiting saga<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Sept. 5, I was exchanging messages with a Notre Dame source about 2025 quarterback…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}