Notre Dame Football: What's Up with Deuce Knight?

Is Notre Dame's big-time quarterback recruit coming, going, undecided?

Nov 13, 2021; Charlottesville, Virginia, USA; A view of a Notre Dame Fighting Irish player's helmet on the sidelines against the Virginia Cavaliers at Scott Stadium. / Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Notre Dame's top-ranked and most important recruiting commitment in the 2025 class is none other than quarterback Deuce Knight of Mississippi.

Most are familiar with his game and story so far but in case you're not, a quick background:

Knight is listed as a four-star quarterback on the 247Sports composite but is knocking on the door about as loudly as one can to be a five-star. Knight is rated the 34th best player in the 2025 class and a top-five quarterback by 247Sports.

Knight hails from Lucedale, Miss. where he stars at George County high school and checks in at 6-4.5", 206-pounds.

Knight would enter Notre Dame as the most gifted quarterback the Fighting Irish have had in at least 15 years.

Deuce Knight's Notre Dame Commitment

Notre Dame was working hard to land a quarterback commit for the 2025 class just under a year ago and in the week leading up to the highly anticipated game against Ohio State, landed a commitment from Knight.

Knight has continued to receive offers as seen his stock grow ever since.

This summer, Knight won the Alpha Dog award at the Overtime's OT7 Finals after showing up and showing out for three days.

Despite being committed to Notre Dame for almost a year, teams have continued to recruit the highly-regarded Knight, as you would expect.

Ole Miss has been leading that charge from afar, but recently another SEC team got into the fold.

Despite that, Knight has made his commitment to Notre Dame very clear though it all, despite plenty of rumors circulating.

Deuce Knight Visits Auburn

Last weekend, Knight took a visit to Auburn during the "Big Cat" weekend.

It's often said in recruiting to follow the visits. Knight has made countless trips to Notre Dame over the past couple of years and that should mean good things for the Fighting Irish. However, while being committed to Notre Dame he chose to still make this visit to Auburn.

Those actions alone at best leave plenty of questions if you're Marcus Freeman and the Notre Dame staff.

Brian Smith, the recruiting insider for Locked On and recruiting analyst for Auburn Daily and recently joined the Locked On Irish podcast with host Tyler Wojciak.

Smith gave some behind-the-scenes insight to latest recruitment of Deuce Knight during that podcast appearance. Below are some of the highlights he shared.

Why the Auburn Visit Suddenly?

"They (Auburn) were after Julian Lewis for a long and that fell through," said Smith, "and then they went on to try and get an offer to an in-state kid, KJ Lacey. KJ got an (NIL) offer match from Texas and I got a phone call saying he' sticking with that."

Smith made it known that from there it was pretty much Auburn going down it's quarterback list for 2025 and then coming to Knight's name to whom Auburn offered a deal similar to that of Julian Lewis' according to Smith.

"I've heard Notre Dame would match that and I don't know if that's true, but we'll see," added Smith, "It's all business, this is not recruiting with elite quarterbacks, this is about business now".

Is Notre Dame of Auburn in Driver's Seat with Knight?

"Notre Dame is not in the drivers seat," Smith said, "but neither is Auburn."

"With elite recruits, the player is the one who is in the driver's seat, that's just the way it is".

Smith was also asked who remained in the Deuce Knight recruiting race and although Notre Dame, Ole Miss, and Auburn were all mentioned, Smith again noted that schools that have a spot and can compete with NIL money, would seemingly all be interested in Knight.

With that said, he did seem to think the relationships Knight has at Notre Dame and Ole Miss especially put them ahead, as Auburn tries to make up ground in a hurry.

So What's Next With Deuce Knight?

Knight has been all about trying to sell Notre Dame to fellow recruits and been very open over nearly the past year.

Recently when big-time wide receiver prospect Derek Meadows committed to LSU, Knight took to social media to post "It's not over" with a shamrock emoji to his story.

However, for whatever social media is worth, that's not trending great for Notre Dame either if you do just a little digging.

Thursday was the open of when official scholarship offers can be presented to recruits in the 2025 class.

Plenty of Notre Dame's current commitments took to social media to post photographs of the official offers they had received from Notre Dame but one who didn't was Deuce Knight.

So what does it all mean then?

From afar it seems right now to be essentially a question of just how committed is Deuce Knight to Notre Dame?

The more these visits take place the more speculation will grow and that's something he could certainly squash with a simple social media post reaffirming his commitment or showing something positive to Notre Dame.

I have no idea in terms of a timeline, when to expect what or anything along those lines. It was always going to be a challenge to hold onto Knight in this class as the SEC schools were going to keep calling and this is exactly that playing out.

Until something comes from Knight's camp that is positive towards the Fighting Irish though, I would feel very shaky at best if I were the Notre Dame football staff.

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