But ultimately, the circumstances have changed.

Yeah, I don't have the exact breakdown of when things flipped on the dot or anything, but really, after he committed to Texas A&M for months, Henderson maintained that, look, Notre Dame's talking to me.

They never wavered.

I think Notre Dame was on the phone with him maybe that night, the day after.

It was immediate that they were like, hey, by the way, we're not going to stop, so get ready to hear from us.

But obviously, over the course of the summer and into the season, Henderson maintained, I don't have interest in taking other visits and when he did talk about it, it was like, if I were to take another visit, it has to be a situation that's right for me.

And he kind of gave a lot of little notes.

I had to interrupt there.

People want to see some of these young guys get involved, but... how big of a deal would it be to land a guy like that? And I know you mentioned he's shown a lot of interest in Notre Dame, but where kind of is that recruitment and yeah, how important is that one?

I mean, in terms of impact, it would be massive.

For one thing, it falls right within Notre Dame sort of trend line, right? They love the son of NFL players.

He's the son of former Colts running back, Joseph Adai, Superbowl champion.

He is a freak of freaks.

And again, The way I describe it is there was, when you look at like wide receivers who have made their way into the NFL, there's a certain twitch and quickness to some of the recent guys coming out of LSU.

You think of your Justin Jeffersons, your Brian Thomas juniors, at least as a rookie, like Malik neighbors, these guys have a certain explosiveness and twitch that makes them such a problem to deal with.

So we'll see what happens, but that's, that's a list of guys that I think Notre Dame needs to lay the red carpet out for.

So what do you get a sense from him after getting to talk to him too?

Yeah, you know, I think before even going into the visit, Notre Dame did a great job of connecting with him and kind of laying groundwork to, to set the table coming into this trip, 'cause he came in kind of excited about the Florida Dame stuff and understanding the connection from the staff with, with the local area and kind of, you know, the, the amount of Florida natives, the amount of time they're investing there.

And that really appealed to him.

So coming into it, like, I think he already was, rather than being like totally new to the experience for a first time visitor, it was like, "I've been kind of primed of what to expect.

I have these notes that I really like," and it was confirmation of those things.

And getting that kind of confirmation on the trip really moved the needle for him.

I mean, he really appreciated the time that he got to spend with the coaching staff.

But a win over Miami is going to catch the attention of every single player in the country.

And again, I think that's, that's all about the, um, hardworking, good quality human beings that Marcus Freeman, uh, and his staff pursue every cycle.

Yeah, I mean, when I, when you hear that quote, you kind of hear about the, the onus being on the player obviously as part of the program.

But from a recruiting perspective, I think there's a flip side to that where, look, Notre Dame is not heavily involved in the portal.

Obviously they've only recently started grabbing underclassmen transfers.

So for them, every single take is an investment.

This is not like a short term, we'll see if it works, we're worried about guys flipping or leaving after a year.

Like look, it happens, but by and large it happens with guys who Notre Dame realizes maybe aren't gonna make the impact that they thought coming out of high school, right? For, for the Irish it's all about we want to invest in you, and we wanna make sure that from the ground up we're building good habits, we're building not only just for like practice and, and, you know, football things, but for everyday things.

Trust them to put you in position to make you a great player.

What's the latest on him and how interested is he in the Fighting Irish?

Yeah, this was an important back-to-back series of visits.

So Wyatt told me after the first visit for the Rice game, he was like, look, I had a free weekend.

I thought Notre Dame home opener is a great experience.

It's an opportunity for me to get around the coaches.

It's something worthwhile.

So he took it upon himself to make that first trip, even with Michigan State on the docket already.

I think eventually the Irish will offer and I think they're going to be tough to beat.

So which 2027 commits have been turning heads at the start of their senior seasons or I guess junior seasons for the guys who reclassified?

Yeah, it's been a very good season for a few guys.

The first guy that comes to mind is Jackson Coleman.

He's had remarkable consistency throughout the course of the first few games.

He went up against modern day the other the other weekend or they went up against modern day and despite the fact that.

modern day in California, Los Angeles is powerhouse.

They were more talented than Valor Christian was.

Who are some of the other top prospects in the 2020 class who are trending toward Notre Dame right now?

For more information, see Kalshi.com/regulatory.

Yeah, for this weekend, there's a few guys, uh, and obviously we're, we're still working to confirm, but there's two guys that really jump out at me.

Uh, number one, 2029 linebacker, Austin Phillips.

He's a top 100 prospect.

He has a ton of interest in Notre Dame.

Six two, 215, this kid is a workhorse.

I mean, he, he's dedicated to the craft.

So he is the guy in '28 that they need to go out, spend every dollar possible to get him, and make sure he ends up at Notre Dame.

Eric, quickly, just to start us off, could you provide the latest on offensive tackle Jackson Hill, interior lineman Richie Flanagan, and 2028 safety Andre Jones, the younger brother of Julius Jones Jr.?

Yeah, so several injuries that took place over the last week and change or so.

Andre Jones is a little bit older, but I'll start with Hill.

Jackson Hill did not appear in their game last Friday night.

Before the game, it was made clear that he was unavailable, but no further comment was made.

After the game, Eric Sondheimer of the LA Times, he's like the Don of West Coast football recruiting, man.

That guy's been doing it forever.

And you know what? Kudos to Marcus Freeman because he is a big game hunting across the country.

But Eric, I know you got some too for this ans- or this question.

Yeah, I talked, I've talked about this one before.

Clark Phillips was a corner.

He committed to Ohio State, ended up going to Utah.

Notre Dame was in on it.

They were right in that top grouping.

He was talking about taking visits in the summer, and the Notre Dame staff was like, "No, no, no, you should visit in the fall.

They are pushing all the right buttons.

And Eric, we'll start with you for this one.

Yeah, I have three names here.

And the first one, I mean, he's a consensus blue chipper, cornerback Langston Pridgen from DeMatha Catholic.

Look, he's an elite physical presence on the perimeter.

He's a big time hitter.

He's going to put dudes in the ground.

In coverage, he looks very, very fluid.

That being said, if you had one position in 2028 that would be great to shatter and get a true five-star recruit, is it wide receiver, running back, or quarterback perhaps? And what chances and who do we have a reasonable chance of winning a composite five-star there?

I just want a rundown of all the remaining targets and where do we stand?

This is a pretty simple one for 2027.

Brayden Parks and Roman Iguobike.

And Roman is announcing on July 11th.

Notre Dame is the heavy favorites.

Brayden Parks is a little bit more complicated.

And Tom, I know you've been following this one very closely as well.

If it was my system and my department, I mean, these are the guys that I'm going all in for.

Eric, is that concern warranted?

Yeah, I mean, we continue to hear that things are in a good spot for Notre Dame and Braden Parks.

Continue to hear that, you know, the visit went well.

There was definitely a lot of confidence and momentum coming out of the weekend.

But as I mentioned, like myself, my colleague Brian Donut, 247 Sports and several others were told at the time that like it doesn't sound like the Oregon business is going to happen.

And now that that is happening, he's supposed to fly out there if he's not now or already tonight.

Now that that is happening, there's a little bit of concern, right? Like even when you get the crystal balls and the excitement and everything that kind of comes with that coming out of the last official visit, like he's still taking this trip.

So he's much closer to those other two schools, similar to parks is much closer to South Bend than he is to Oregon.

So can you just walk us through the timeline with Kayden Henderson and how we got to this point from the time Notre Dame first started to gain traction to when they became the perceived favorite, and what ultimately changed over the last couple of days?

Yeah, I guess if you wanna start with Notre Dame getting traction, it goes back to his visit this spring.

Uh, Henderson was high on Notre Dame coming into that trip, but that really was kind of a landmark trip in his recruitment.

It really reshaped things, and from that point, Notre Dame just continued to rise and rise and rise.

And look, at, at, at various points there was a lot of confidence in other places.

There was crystal ball picks put in for Miami after a trip there.

Texas A&M continued to have confidence.

But really, all the eyes are gonna be on Albert Simeon this weekend.

The fact that he's still taking a visit sounds like that's a positive development.

Yeah, with him, because of how up and down the recruitment had been and so many different lead changes over the course of the spring, it was clear that he was still taking on new data and kind of setting his footing on who are going to be the finalists moving forward.

So as we got into the official visits, it felt like if any of the visits were standout, especially for the Buckeyes, who he called the leaders heading into that period, it could be a situation where he decided to close things off.

But ultimately, he's making this trip to Notre Dame.

They're longtime contenders, even longtime favorites in this race.

And for the Fighting Irish, I think the biggest thing with Fakitu is they were very very close to landing him like it was not even outright favorites is a nice way to put it when Al Washington was still in place and obviously his departure for the Miami Dolphins after briefly being named a linebackers coach through wrenching things and for him the relationship side of things with Notre Dame felt like it started over but the Irish have really bridged that gap and they've done it despite not having him on campus a ton of times um Charlie about making those connections and making sure that they're building the relationship moving forward and this is a prime opportunity for Notre Dame to snatch back the lead and show him hey here's why you were close to committing before even with new leadership in town you know this is why you want to be here now and kind of going that direction in that angle and on the midweek thing I mean obviously it's it's suboptimal from the perspective of like We want to get in there on the big weekends and surrounded by people and there's a different energy on the weekends and there's a total focus on the visits.

But at the same time with a small group like this, when you have, you know, especially top priority guys, but a small group, you really are still able to dedicate quite a bit of focus and you can still replicate those experiences, even if it's less about the group communal aspect with your peers and more about, hey, we want you to spend time with current players.

What are your thoughts on those two players as they get to campus next weekend? Well,

Who stood out for you among the three that we kind of highlighted off, off air?

Yeah.

It's, I'll start with KL Sam Fong Talia from Cumming, Georgia.

Really, really talented, young class of 2029 quarterback.

He stood out to me throughout the workout, really probably a head above everybody else just because of the combination of, like, accuracy, the ability to throw off platform.

Had good velocity.

It wasn't the best, like, consistent velocity of the group, but it was more than enough to do what he needed to do.

Eric, maybe you can put a fine point on that.

Um, why is he somebody you, you wanted to put on this list and, and where does Notre Dame stand in his recruitment?

Yeah, it's, this is the one that folks have been, uh, have been asking about for a long time.

And obviously when you have a legacy like this, especially a high-ranked one, it, it, it captures a lot of intrigue.

But even beyond that, I think Notre Dame losing, uh, Trent Mosley last cycle to USC really kind of put a bad taste in some people's mouth with the legacy thing.

So that kind of put the, the onus more on Julius Jones from a fan perspective.

So a lot of intrigue in this one.

Um, he has a tentative commitment date, and I say tentative because, uh, it's scheduled on 247Sports for June 27th.

You, you mention him as a wild card, so, so why is that the case and, and what do you see shaping up for him over the next few weeks?

So what have you heard about his recruiting approach and why he has been so effective so quickly?

Yeah.

You know, there's a few different points that guys bring up a lot.

Uh, part of it's just personality.

Like, Coach Partridge is someone who guys really connect with.

Um, they really enjoy spending time with him.

They feel that he's trustworthy, he's loyal, he's someone that's really, not to be overly denigrating to other coaches, but, like, he's really human.

Yeah

Eric, how did Notre Dame get this one done?

Yeah, this has been a, an interesting one to track.

So Fulh dunso is a player that, uh, started to really appear on national radars, uh, you know, in 2025, but his really big, uh, the, the explosion of his profile really came this off-season.

Um, I was looking at it before.

I think he had, like, eight offers coming into the calendar year 2026, and now he's over 30.

Um, he leaped from, like, three-star status to four-star stat- or to, you know, top 100 four-star status, borderline five-star.

And Notre Dame got involved pretty early in that ascension, uh, period.

So Eric, what did Notre Dame, though, see in these two lesser well-known prospects who maybe aren't getting the hype that these top 100 guys are right now?

Eric, what are your thoughts on Notre Dame's two newest secondary prospects?

The Notre Dame secondary just keeps rolling, man.

They're recruiting at a high level and I'll start with gay.

He's, he's not even necessarily like a true safety prospect.

He could very well end up at nickel and primarily start there.

So there's, there's some flexibility in his profile.

He's a guy who, when you watch him, he's so quick in transition.

So Eric, where are they kind of with the quarterback board in the next three classes?