There have been barrels of ink spilled since Wednesday morning over how good Notre Dame's 2026 recruiting class is. The team ranking is No. 2 in the nation, the best finish in decades. But what Fighting Irish fans should be excited about, beyond the sheer talent level, is how many of them will be able to get to work early on.
The Irish hauled in 27 prospects on Wednesday. That's the good news. The better news is that almost all of them will be January enrollees.
In total, 24 of the 27 new members of the Notre Dame football team will be in South Bend at the start of the year. 24 of the latest members of the roster will be able to start practicing during the spring. They'll start working on becoming impact players as true freshmen.
Notre Dame secures No. 2 class—and an unprecedented early-arrival advantage
The three Irish signees who will join the team in the summer are tight end Ian Premer, offensive tackle Gregory Patrick, and offensive lineman Ben Nichols. Certainly, it's unfortunate that those three couldn't also graduate early, those are all positions of need.
At the same time, no team should ever simply expect a 2026 signee to be able to help out in the spring. It's long been the expectation that true freshmen show up just before fall camp begins.
Instead, Notre Dame has managed to bring in a very talented class that was also clearly measured on when the signees would be able to get to campus. Having nearly the entire 2026 class in South Bend for the spring will give Marcus Freeman's crew a leg up.