Um, you know, there's, there's a couple of guys who are just really, really good players expected to come here, so.

Just a couple that stick out from those two.

Um, Austin Phillips for sure, the 2029 linebacker.

He actually goes to where my wife went to high school.

Um, so I'm in, I'm in Kendallville, Indiana a lot.

Um, and I've known about Austin Phillips for, like, I feel it's, like, two years now.

But really burst on the scene last year in the state, in, as they were kind of in the state playoffs.

It's a multifaceted question, right? Uh, Tom, you wanna take a stab? [laughs]

I want deep polls, you guys.

Yeah, I felt I was wanting to being asked a question and being told like the rules of my question or my answer.

But you know what? Like and yeah, I do feel like the guys that he mentioned, Theo Shaw, Jack McNamara would probably be on my list, but we will.

We'll take it a step further.

I think I'm going to go a little bit more than five because I just want to kind of provide some context.

At quarterback, I do believe it'll end up being, whether people love this or don't, I think it'll end up being Brady Quinn or Hunter Fujikawa.

I do believe that Josiah Boyd, like I've mentioned a couple weeks now, he's absolutely a contender to get the next scholarship offer from Notre Dame at quarterback.

But if you come in here and do the things we ask you to do, like Marcus Freeman said the other day, clear your plate and keep asking for more, like we're going to get you on the field.

What does the 2028 quarterback board look like? Is Notre Dame going to try and flip one of their top targets who committed elsewhere, or are they making inroads with any uncommitted prospects? Tom, we'll start with you on this one.

Man, this has been, uh, this has been something to track closely.

They look, like, if we could just look at a couple names.

They love Donald Tayron II, but I'm expecting him to pick, uh, Texas A&M on Saturday.

They have not made a run at Anthony Turner, a guy that I'm a huge fan of, in our top 100.

They obviously lost Demon Lawrence.

They weren't gonna get him.

Who are some guys from the Freeman era or heck even the Kelly era with whom Notre Dame actually had a good shot with but that many Notre Dame fans might not know about?

They fit some of the recruiting areas for Notre Dame here in this class.

I mean, I have no argument with any of those guys.

I mean, if Notre Dame lands any of them, they are in a great spot, and those are three of the top players.

So that's three priority targets, like you said.

But I'll take it a different direction.

I'm going to go, for the most part, defense, but I want to throw in one guy on offense.

I think the guy that everybody would be jumping for joy to land is top 100 linebacker Taj Gray.

I

But Tom, what does this mean for the class to have him in the fold?

Yeah, this is a home run all the way.

I mean, I'm one of Julius Jones' biggest fans.

I mean, I get it.

He's light in stature.

He's not 6'2".

He's probably 5'9", 5'10".

But yeah, I don't, I don't know that it's a major factor in the Chicago land area specifically.

the following weekend, but they have five priority prospects and two commits on campus.

Yeah, I mean, I'll start with, I think Abraham Cisse is probably the one that everybody's going to be looking at because this is a big-time player, top prospect, one of the most elite edge rushers in America, and I think Notre Dame's in a really good spot.

We've made that very clear at Irish Illustrated that we like Notre Dame's chances, and when you talk to people inside the goo, there's a lot of confidence in this one.

Like, you know, there was some chatter about Duke potentially pulling off, and there was some chatter about LSU, but...

In the end, I think that this kid sees a fit at Notre Dame that's tremendous.

I think that the entire defensive staff has made him a priority.

They're pushing for him, and he's connecting with them extremely well.

Do you think that's significant for Notre Dame, that they're going to maybe get the last word before he presumably shuts it down and makes a decision?

So it's an exciting time to kind of track the quarterback recruiting because it's about as much motion as we've gotten in, I don't know, two years? Yeah.

Yeah.

Just to kind of like put a bow on everything.

I think once the decision was made to cancel the visit with Peter Bork, it was, the writing was on the wall that the wonderful Mons was likely bound for Notre Dame.

So we'll see what happens there.

But yeah, I mean, it's hard to argue with everything we've heard behind the scenes, like the Irish in a really good spot there.

And then with Neiman Lawrence, look, man, we, I sat down and had a great conversation with him recently in Dallas at the OT seven regional there.

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