Notre Dame Line Recruiting Is Dominating College Football
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Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman has said from the moment he was hired that his program would be driven by line play. Dominating in the trenches requires a proper attitude, technical prowess that comes from good coaching and it is something that must be emphasized in how you run your program year round.
It also requires that you recruit the lines at an elite level. That wasn't always true early in Freeman's tenure, but over the last two recruiting cycles there isn't a program in the country that comes close to recruiting the lines as well as Notre Dame. That's not hard to digest when talking about the offensive line, a position that Notre Dame has recruited very well for over a decade, but it's also true for the defensive line.
Don't believe me? Let's look at the Rivals/On3 rankings over the last two cycles (2026, 2027), beginning with the defensive line.
Notre Dame is tied for first in recruiting five-star defensive linemen, with the Irish landing the No. 8 overall player in the 2026 class in defensive end Rodney Dunham, the No. 8 overall player in the 2027 class in defensive tackle David Folorunsho and the No. 15 overall player in the 2027 class in defensive end Abraham Sesay. All three are ranked as five-star recruits.
With Brayden Parks also now in the class, Notre Dame has landed six four-star defensive line recruits to go with the three five-stars over the last two cycles. Notre Dame landed five four-star edge players and four four-star interior players, showing great balance with its defensive line recruiting.
Notre Dame's nine four and five-star defensive line commits is more than any team in college football. Of the top six, only one was a SEC team (Texas), and programs like Georgia, Alabama and Oregon aren't on the list. In fact, Notre Dame has signed more five-star defensive linemen (3) than Georgia and Alabama have landed Top 100 defensive linemen combined (2).
On Monday, elite 2028 defensive end Darieon Prescott — the No. 24 player in the country — is expected to choose between Notre Dame, Oregon and Texas A&M, which means the Irish have a shot to keep this going into the 2028 class.
It's the same story on the other side of the ball with what Joe Rudolph and the offensive staff is doing with line recruiting.
When Notre Dame landed a July commitment from Louisiana offensive lineman Albert Simien it gave the Irish a second five-star blocker in the 2027 class and a third in two seasons. Simien is ranked as the No. 9 player in the country, and classmate Olu Olubobola is ranked as the No. 19 overall player in the nation. In the 2026 class, Notre Dame landed Pennsylvania star Grayson McKeogh, the No. 7 overall player in the country.
No team in college football has signed more than one five-star offensive linemen in the last two cycles. Notre Dame is also tied with Michigan for the most four-star commits, but the Wolverines have zero five-star offensive linemen. Only three teams (Georgia, Miami, Michigan) have more than four offensive linemen in the 2026 and 2027 classes. Notre Dame and Florida are the only teams with three Top 100 offensive linemen in the last two cycles, and the Gators also have a five-star in the 2027 class.
Landing Simien meant that Notre Dame had signed at least one five-star in six straight cycles and a total of seven five-star linemen, with the Irish landing Aamil Wagner (2022), Charles Jagusah (2023), Guerby Lambert (2024), Will Black (2025), Grayson McKeogh (2026), Albert Simien (2027) and Olu Olubobola (2027).
When you look at overall line recruiting, with both sides of the ball in view, the dominance is even more impressive. It shows that Notre Dame is by far the most dominant line recruiting program in all of college football right now.
Notre Dame's 17 total four and five-star linemen in the last two years is five more than any other teams in the country. That means the team at the bottom of this list is as close to the No. 2 teams (Miami, Michigan) as those No. 2 teams are to Notre Dame. Notre Dame has more four or five-star linemen in the last two classes (17) than Georgia and Alabama combined (16).
Notre Dame has landed six total five-star lineman, looking at both offensive and defensive lines. That's double the second best program (USC), and the Trojans are the only program with three. Five SEC teams made the College Football Playoff last season: Georgia, Alabama, Ole Miss, Oklahoma and Texas A&M. Notre Dame's six linemen in the 2026-27 classes is more than those five teams …. COMBINED! You'd have to throw in the two Texas five-stars to just tie what Notre Dame has done the last two cycles.
Freeman has certainly built what he said he would at Notre Dame, this is a line driven program, and it's the most dominant line recruiting operation in all of college football right now. Next step for Notre Dame is that this recruiting success starts to show out more on the field, which Irish fans hope to see during the 2026 season.
NOTE: In the 2027 class, Rivals/On3 is still doing their annual "update" of five-star commits. It's nothing more than clickbait, and the rollout is nothing more than creating news. The reality is every year they will have exactly 32 five-stars in each class. So for the purpose of this article, any player ranked in the Top 32 was credited as a five-star in this breakdown. For example, Miami defensive end Jaiden Bryant is ranked as a four-star by Rivals/On3, but he's the No. 29 player in the country. If the final update was made, as the No. 29 player he would be graded as a five-star, so he counts as a five-star in this breakdown. No Notre Dame players earned this bump, as all the Irish five-stars are already ranked as five-stars, this is more about proper context for teams who do have a player in that range.
Also, Rivals/On3 will have several rankings updates, so things might change a bit with a player dropped or added to five-star status, but the point stands here, and it tells an excellent story about Notre Dame recruiting.
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