Recruiting Comparison: Notre Dame vs California

Breaking down how Notre Dame and California stack up from a recruiting standpoint

Notre Dame will look to get off the schneid this weekend when it hosts the undefeated California Golden Bears. Marcus Freeman and Justin Wilcox are considered two of the better defensive minds in the game, and it should be a physical game.

We kick off our coverage of this week's matchup with a look at how the teams stack up from a recruiting standpoint.

Here are the 247Sports composite rankings for the starters and top rotation players for the Notre Dame offense and the California defense.

The big change for Notre Dame is former four-star recruit Drew Pyne stepping into the starting lineup after former Top 100 recruit Tyler Buchner.

Ten of Notre Dame's 11 starters on offense were either a five or four-star recruit coming out of high school. Junior tight end Michael Mayer is Notre Dame's lone former five-star recruit. 

For all the talk about Notre Dame's lack of talent at wide receiver, the unit certainly doesn't lack from a high recruiting profile. All three of Notre Dame's wide receiver starters were four-star recruits, and two more players in the rotation were also four-star recruits.

California doesn't have a single former four or five-star recruit in its starting lineup. The only four-star in the rotation is defensive end Xavier Carlton, who had a Notre Dame offer coming out of high school.

Here are the 247Sports composite rankings for the starters and top rotation players for the Notre Dame defense and the California offense.

Notre Dame only has five former four-star recruits in its starting lineup on defense, but its depth chart has several more four-star recruits. Notre Dame doesn't have a single former Top 100 recruit in its starting lineup.

California has three former four-star recruits in its starting lineup and all of them are pass catchers. Sophomore wide receiver J Michael Sturdivant is Cal's highest ranked former recruit in the starting lineup. Freshman running back Jaydn Ott has been an early season standout for the Bears, and he's also a former four-star recruit.

CLASS RANKINGS

Here are the class rankings of the two programs from the last five seasons. (247Sports composite)

NOTRE DAME

2022 - 7
2021 - 9
2020 - 18
2019 - 15
2018 - 10

CALIFORNIA

2022 - 55
2021 - 32
2020 - 40
2019 - 47
2018 - 42

Advantage: Notre Dame

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Ranking The 2022 Signees - Offense
Ranking The 2022 Signees - Defense

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