How Notre Dame Can Solve Its Wide Receiver Recruiting Problem

To be a real threat to be more dangerous, it has to get stronger wide receivers. But how?

Nov 18, 2023; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish wide receiver Jordan Faison (80) catches a pass for a touchdown in front of Wake Forest Demon Deacons defensive back Evan Slocum (14) in the fourth quarter at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports / Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

Notre Dame's recruiting operation has undoubtedly improved since Marcus Freeman arrived in South Bend. The roster is getting deeper, longer, and more athletic for certain.

In just a few years, the Irish have been able to quickly turn areas of historical recruiting weakness into strengths such as with the quarterback and secondary positions.

While this is encouraging, there is one area where Freeman and company have continued to struggle on the trail ...

Wide receiver.

How much of a struggle? In the 2025 class, Notre Dame has secured commitments of two of 23 players offered, culminating with a highly publicized recent week that featured an 0-for-3 commit result from nationally ranked prospects.

Freeman and his staff certainly know that this trend must change if the Irish are to be true contenders in the new CFP era. Let's examine how Notre Dame can quickly turn around their WR recruiting fortunes.

So how do they do it?

Notre Dame's offense has to be more offensive

Notre Dame has been a run-first, northern, "cold weather" team.

I'm not asking for that to change. Nor do I think it should. But for South Bend to start becoming a more desired destination for the nation's top pass catchers, the offense must begin to get more exciting and feature receivers in prominent roles that highlight their skill sets.

For far too long the Irish offense has felt like it consisted of two predictable runs followed by a pass to the tight end on third-and-long.

This approach will simply not appeal to the country's top wide receivers and nobody should expect it to. New OC Mike Denbrock is perfectly suited to be able to put together a much more exciting scheme moving forward that should be able to better appeal to the nation's best recruits.

It certainly doesn't hurt that he just oversaw the nation's highest-scoring offense and the Heisman-winning QB either.

Notre Dame needs elite quarterback play

Notre Dame's QB play has not been nearly good enough in recent years to win games against the best teams faced either in the regular season or postseason.

This dynamic seems to be shifting in a positive direction quickly with the arrival of Riley Leonard, CJ Carr, Kenny Minchey, and Deuce Knight.

Having better signal callers who are more capable passers is a critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to attracting top-tier receiving talent. These players want to know that they will be playing with QBs that are capable of getting them the ball on time and down the field.

Notre Dame has not been able to consistently offer this lately. Should that change as expected, it will go a long way toward enticing top-end players to head to South Bend.

Notre Dame wide receiver development

Notre Dame's O-Line and TE recruiting often seem to be on autopilot. Why? The Irish have a proven track record of development in these positions. Player after player shines at Notre Dame once in the program and gets drafted to the NFL with a great record of success.

This isn't the case at the WR position. No offense to Ben Skowronek or Chase Claypool, but their NFL careers don't represent the kind of recent stable NFL pipeline recruits like to see in their future should they choose to play at Notre Dame.

Notre Dame must start to better develop their players and prove that it can be a more reliable pipeline to the NFL if it wants to start changing the WR outlook quickly.

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