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Notre Dame Football: Grading the Class of 2022 after NSD

By Daniel Morrison

GLENDALE, ARIZONA - JANUARY 01: Head coach Marcus Freeman of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish prepares for the Play Station Fiesta Bowl against the Oklahoma State University Cowboys at State Farm Stadium on January 01, 2022 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images)
GLENDALE, ARIZONA - JANUARY 01: Head coach Marcus Freeman of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish prepares for the Play Station Fiesta Bowl against the Oklahoma State University Cowboys at State Farm Stadium on January 01, 2022 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images) /
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SOUTH BEND, IN – SEPTEMBER 18: A Notre Dame Football flag is seen before the game against the Purdue Boilermakers at Notre Dame Stadium on September 18, 2021, in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /

Notre Dame football put together their first recruiting class under Marcus Freeman. All things considered, pretty good. Here are the grades for the class.

By now, you’re probably sick of hearing about how important recruiting is to a program, especially Notre Dame football. You’re also likely sick of hearing about how the difference between Notre Dame football and teams like Ohio State or Alabama is their ability to recruit a depth of great talent.

At the same time, it really can’t be talked about enough. Brian Kelly (nice videos, buddy) left because he felt there was a cap to his potential success at Notre Dame, due to recruiting. It’s Marcus Freeman’s job, in large part, to fix that problem.

Now, as National Signing Day has come and gone, it’s time to evaluate that recruiting class.

The first thing you need to remember about this class is that it’s difficult to judge first-year head coaches on their first class. That’s because they didn’t build the class. Instead, they inherited players recruited to play for another coach.

Oftentimes, those players de-commit or at least think about it. So, the weeks leading up to signing day are spent trying to retain players and decide which players they even should retain. Just look at Washington (93rd), USC (65th), and TCU (44th) who are all below their average class ranking.

Things are a little different for Freeman and the Irish, though. He was an internal promotion, who retained the offensive coordinator and several position coaches. That makes it easier to retain those recruits, who you had already been recruiting. Still, Notre Dame did lose a few recruits with the mix-up on the staff.

In the end, Notre Dame’s 2022 recruiting class finished 7th in the nation and was top of the Independent schools as usual. The Irish, notably, beat out Oklahoma, Michigan, LSU, and Clemson in terms of class rankings this year. But, how did the Irish really do in practical terms?

Here are grades for Notre Dame’s Class of 2022:

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