Notre Dame Looking Strong With Several Top 2025 Offensive Lineman

Joe Rudolph and Notre Dame eyeing fantastic 2025 class on the offensive line

The 2024 recruiting class can help to give some insight into the new Notre Dame coaches and their impact. For Joe Rudolph, the bigger gauge for just how high level of a recruiter he is will probably actually be the 2025 class. When Coach Rudolph took over, Notre Dame already had a commitment from Pennsylvania offensive lineman Peter Jones and a board already established.

Still, he’ll have some indicators of his impact from the class, including his affinity for Georgia standout Anthonie Knapp and his ability to close on talented offensive lineman Styles Prescod, and hopefully Top 100 blocker Guerby Lambert. The 2025 class, however, will solely be Rudolph’s.

So far he is off to a tremendous start. Rudolph has already built substantial bonds with several key targets, receiving a ton of high praise in recent weeks.

EARLY FAVORITES

Impressively, Notre Dame has made a tremendous impact on Waukesha (Wisc.) Catholic Memorial star Owen Strebig early in this process. Strebig has already finalized a third trip back to South Bend this off-season, visiting for the recruiting barbecue on July 30th.

The 6-8, 290-pound offensive tackle is being courted by some of the top programs in college football, specifically some of the absolute best offensive line developers like Notre Dame, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Stanford. Strebig is currently ranked as the No. 40 overall player and the No. 5 offensive tackle in the 2025 recruiting class according to the On3 ranking.

Obviously anytime you can get a player on campus three times in a few month span, it’s notable. Notre Dame has managed to separate themselves with one of the top offensive lineman in the class.

The Irish staff has also done exceptionally well with New Rochelle (N.Y.) Iona Prep standout Rowan Byrne, who was offered by the program following his performance while camping in South Bend a few weeks ago. In just a few weeks, Notre Dame is already in a top group with Byrne along with Michigan and Wisconsin.

The 6-6, 290-pound offensive lineman is considered a four-star recruit on the On3 ranking. He currently sits as the No. 151 overall player and No. 14 offensive tackle in the 2025 recruiting class. That ranking also has Byrne rated as the top player in the state of New York.

Byrne is viewed as a potential strong fit inside for Notre Dame if he opts for the Irish. As of now, he plans on making his decision next off-season. It will be interesting to see if that timeline speeds up or not.

Another player who impressed Notre Dame while camping was Greenwich (Conn.) Brunswick School offensive tackle Matty Augustine. Long and lean at 6-7 and 260 pounds, Augustine brings the offensive tackle profile that the staff is really looking for.

Augustine is a bit raw but brings a lot of upside to the table. He is not well thought of from a recruiting ranking’s perspective but Augustine has been pulling in some impressive offers over the last few weeks, including the Irish, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Wisconsin among many others.

The Connecticut standout will be making the trip back to South Bend for the barbecue at the end of the month.

During the Blue-Gold Game earlier this off-season, Notre Dame hosted Franklin (Mich.) Wylie E. Groves offensive lineman Avery Gach, who is one of the nastier blockers in the 2025 recruiting class. The 6-5, 275-pound mauler says all the right things about Notre Dame and there is obvious interest there.

The Michigan native will be a difficult pull out of the state. Coach Rudolph and his staff, however, has made it feel a lot more possible.

SHOOT FOR AN ELITE FINISH

If Notre Dame just lands the players that they are in good position with early on, it’ll be a tremendous offensive line class. The fun part is that if they do, Rudolph and company can still afford to court some of the top offensive lineman in the country as a sort of “cherry on top.”

There are two players on the board who really fit that description, Charlotte (N.C.) Providence Day School star David Sanders Jr. and Roswell (Ga.) Fellowship Christian School standout Josh Petty.

The word “elite” can be thrown around too often at times but that’s exactly what Sanders is. There is a legitimate argument that the 6-6, 255-pound offensive tackle is the top overall player in the 2025 recruiting class. That is an opinion that 247Sports already holds.

Petty is another ultra talented blindside protector with some outrageous movement skills. While he isn’t the biggest offensive lineman at 6-4 and 265 pounds, he has special ability to work with. Both players are long shots at this point but have both had nice words to say about Notre Dame in the past. 

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