Recruiting Fallout: How Notre Dame Loss to Northern Illinois Affects Future Prospects

Things could get ugly quickly for Notre Dame's tenth ranked 2025 recruiting class.

Lipscomb's Deuce Knight (2) sets to pass again IMG at Lipscomb's Reese Smith Football Field in Nashville, Tenn., Friday night, Aug. 18, 2023. IMG went on to win the game 35-10. / Denny Simmons / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK

Saturday's loss hurt Notre Dame on so many levels and degrees that it wil make your head spin.

Losing to a MAC team as the No. 5 team in the nation as a 28-point favorite is so insane and mind-numbing that it is hard to type. The loss on the field is just the beginning of how this hurts Notre Dame's entire football operation.

On top of sliding out of the top five and nearly out of the rankings entirely, Notre Dame went and lost a game to a much inferior opponent in front of a couple dozen recruits and commits. Not ideal.

Among those in attendance were 2025 commits Owen Strebig, Chris Burgess Jr., and Mark Zackery.

Uncommitted prospects in attendance included 2026s: Ben Nichols, Khary Adams, Izaiah Wright, Ryland Watters and more.

A key 'committed' prospect, if you want to call him that, that was not in attendance was 2025 Irish pledge Deuce Knight. Knight was at Auburn for the second week in a row, with a de-commitment and flip to the Tigers seemingly imminent.

However, after how Notre Dame played on Saturday, it may have been better that Knight was elsewhere.

Auburn did not fair much better, though as the Tigers lost to Cal, 21-14. While that is not quite losing to a MAC team, it's not a great look for Auburn who were likely trying to get Knight to flip that day.

With a better performance against an average Cal team, it likely would have got the job done based on reporting and crystal balls surrounding Knight these days.

As things move forward, Notre Dame needs to get back to winning ways and FAST. If there is any doubt in recruits mind's that the Irish are no longer a perennial top-10 and that Marcus Freeman is on the hot seat, things could get sideways.

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