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Nick Kremer ᐧ Irish Tribune Notre Dame has a continued hold on the nation’s number 1 recruiting class ranking. In the month of June, Notre Dame can grow that lead even more with the visitors they have coming to South Bend. Can the Irish finish at number 1? A lot will depend on two weekends in June. Photo by ESPN The first big recruiting weekend will take place June 9-13, where the Irish will host official visitors with a lot of star power. Notre Dame commits Sullivan Absher , Devan Houston , Sam Pendleton , and Adon Shuler will be on campus for their official visits starting June 9th. Several more big time Notre Dame targets will arrive on June 10th. 5 ⭐ ND commit Keon Keeley will be on campus and will be trying to persuade other Irish targets to join him for a title run at Notre Dame. 5 ⭐ safety Caleb Downs , 4 ⭐ DL Jason Moore , 4 ⭐ LB Jaiden Ausberry , 4 ⭐ CB Christian Gray , 4 ⭐ ATH Micah Tease , 4 ⭐ WR Rico Flores Jr , and 4 ⭐ ATH Ronan Hanifin will all be arriving on campus for their official visit. This list contains some of the top targets left on Notre Dame's recruiting board. Of these visitors, I would not be surprised to see a commitment from Moore, Ausberry, and Flores either on their visit, or shortly after. I feel very confident that the Irish will end up landing those three, and eventually Gray. The Irish have a chance to make a monumental impression on all of these visitors during this weekend. The final visitor, who will arrive on Monday, June 13, is 5 ⭐ RB Richard Young . Young was a late addition to the Official Visitor list, and is the elite type of running back that Notre Dame has been missing over the years. Young is the type of back that goes to Alabama, and ends up winning a Heisman trophy. You would expect for him to end up in the SEC, but he has serious interest in what is happening at Notre Dame. Look for Marcus Freeman and Deland McCullough to roll out the red carpet for this elite back. Photo by One Foot Down June 17-19 will include just as much star power visiting campus as the weekend prior. ND commit Cooper Flanagan will be on campus for his official visit, and he will take on the role of recruiter for the weekend. 5 ⭐ ATH Samuel M’Pemba , 4 ⭐ WR Jaden Greathouse , 4 ⭐ WR Christian Hamilton , 4 ⭐ CB Jasiah Wagoner , 4 ⭐ RB Jeremiyah Love , 4 ⭐ LB Jordan Hall , and 4 ⭐ CB Micah Bell will be on campus for official visits. Additionally, 4 ⭐ OL Charles Jagusah will arrive on Sunday, June 19. Among this list, I would look for a possible commitment from Greathouse, Wagoner, Love, Jagusah and Bell either during, or shortly after their visit. I feel very confident that the Irish will end up landing Bell, Jagusah, and Greathouse. Back to back LOADED visitor weekends show that ND is ready to solidify this as the nation’s number 1 recruiting class. The missing piece in these two weekends is 5 ⭐ QB Dante Moore . The Notre Dame coaching staff pushed to get Dante on campus for either one of the big recruiting weekends, but Moore decided to take an unofficial visit to Texas A&M on the weekend of the 17th, and has 7 on 7 plans for the weekend of the 10th. With Dante still expected to commit to Notre Dame, this is a missed opportunity for him to help recruit and build for his future offense. While my confidence in landing Moore is still high, the longer this recruitment goes on makes me increasingly nervous about the QB position for this class. With or without Dante Moore on campus, these two weekends in June are loaded with talent. If the Irish can close on the prospects they are supposed to, and get a couple of surprises, this will prove to be the class that changes the program. The class that brings a National Championship back to Notre Dame.

Written By Liam Gaudet, Senior Editor With the recent de-commitment of five star edge rusher Keon Keeley, the Notre Dame fanbase is disappointed, but is this a sign of things to come for the Irish? To put it simply: No. As the old adage goes, “the path to success is not a straight line” and I think there is no greater advice to fans that are overreacting to this news. Recent Notre Dame De-Commit Keon Keeley Let me put it this way. If I had told you in 2019 that in just two seasons, Notre Dame would be competing against top programs for the services of multiple top-30 prospects, would you have believed me? I personally would not have seen it that way after being brainwashed by Brian Kelly that the best we could do is a 50-50 split class of three and four star players. We shouldn’t be so naïve to believe that in less than a year under a new coaching regime, we would land the number one class in the country, hold hands and sing Kumbaya. Although it looked possible at one point, realistically I think we all believed that the SEC powerhouses were going to gain momentum on the recruiting trail and dethrone us at some point, albeit at the cost of our best recruit. Is this disheartening? Sure. Is the program going to implode? Absolutely not. Notre Dame has been seeing the world through rose colored glasses since the hiring of Marcus Freeman at the end of last season. Since then, we have been spoiled into believing that Freeman is invincible on the trail. The reality of the situation is these things happen when you’re competing with the big boys. Alabama, Georgia and others lose 5-star commitments all the time, but because we’re not used to having legendary blue chips in the fold, our failures are a little more magnified. Even if we lost Peyton Bowen, which looks more likely than not with every passing day, our recruiting class is much more successful than anyone would have anticipated in previous years. In the grand scheme of things, I still believe this recruiting cycle has been a massive success. Sure, we’ve missed on a few big names, but with more success on the field, and perhaps a more fleshed out NIL plan, more talent will likely be accumulated in the coming cycles. Speaking of accumulating talent, how about we talk about the kids that are still in the class. In the 2023 class, we have addressed positions of need extremely successfully. Three top 150 wide receivers in Greathouse, James and Flores is a win that cannot be understated, and they show no sign of going back on their pledge. An offensive line class spearheaded by a monster in Charles Jagusah, and two speed demon corners in the secondary in Bell and Gray. All this without mentioning the heart and soul of the class in high 4-star linebacker Drayk Bowen. As diehard fans, it's easy to see shortcomings and focus entirely on the negatives. However, I encourage the fans to embrace a glass-half-full approach until signing day. Yes, the loss of a blue chip stings, but the sky is not falling. I touched on this a little bit earlier, but I’m hoping that the staff will learn from this setback and work to employ new methods for retaining recruits. The elephant in the room is obviously NIL opportunities. Regardless of whether or not Alabama offered Keeley a pay day, Notre Dame needs to find an NIL strategy that can compete with offers from larger schools. Yes, I’m aware that the core values of this university aren’t aligned with handing out millions of dollars to 17 year old's *cough A&M cough*, but clearly more competitive offers are a must. If other schools want to play dirty in an unregulated landscape, Notre Dame needs to find a strategy that falls within their morals to compete. Until more rules are put into place to stop the bag men in their tracks, a competitive plan needs to be set in motion. In closing, I felt it necessary to release this in hopes of relieving a small amount of tension that seems to be building amongst fans. I know it’s hard not to make a mountain out of a molehill, but given our recent recruiting successes, I think the fact that this is an issue is only a testament to the tremendous job this staff has done this cycle. Could the de-commitment come as a result of NIL? Who knows. What we do know is that recruiting failures thus far have not been for lack of effort. This staff has been relentless, and we can’t win every battle. What we can do is continue to count on this staff to put the work in, and the results will speak for themselves. As far as NIL goes, I expect a well thought out plan from everyone in the athletic department to ensure failures like these are not consistent. Keep your heads up folks, we’re still in good hands.