Last Thursday, the Notre Dame football team lost a big showdown to Texas A&M for 5-star linebacker Kaden Henderson. On Friday afternoon, Marcus Freeman got a measure of payback on former Irish defensive coordinator Mike Elko and the Texas A&M Aggies when he scored the commitment of 5-star offensive lineman Albert Simien.
The two commitments have come together in a very similar fashion. Multiple predictions came in for Henderson to land with the Irish before he announced the Aggies, but he ended up picking Texas A&M. Earlier in the process, the 6-foot, 4-inch, 280-pounder was thought to be a lock for Mike Elko’s squad. However, on Wednesday, just two days before his official announcement, analysts declared they thought Notre Dame would be the pick.
Albert Simien announced he was Notre Dame-bound during an appearance on ESPN’s SportsCenter. Of course, that announcement wasn’t without some drama. The monster recruit first slapped on an LSU hat, making many in the audience of his Lake Charles, Louisiana, ceremony think he was staying home.
He then took that hat off and put on an Ole Miss ballcap. However, that, too, was a misdirect, and he eventually said his real pick was indeed the Fighting Irish.
Notre Dame football lands Albert Simien after misdirect reveal
That particular approach is almost certainly going to have plenty of fans bellyaching about his behavior during his few minutes of the limelight on Friday. Especially considering the roar of approval when he first put on the LSU hat, and then the crowd went mostly silent when he revealed it was a trick. However, as he’s hardly the first player to do so, the incident will likely blow over fairly quickly for everyone not in Baton Rouge.
Fans in South Bend are almost certainly perfectly fine with how things went down, since they are the ultimate winners. In landing Simien, they scored one of the best players in the entire 2027 class. He’s ranked No. 14 overall as well as the No. 2 interior offensive lineman and No. 2 player in the state of Louisiana.
The reason Simien’s misdirect worked so well is that his recruiting really came down to the last few days before his commitment. Before Notre Dame won the race and Texas A&M became the frontrunner, Nebraska looked like it might be able to pull off a coup. LSU and Ole Miss also looked like they were in good standing at one point, while working to secure his pledge.
In landing Albert Simien, Notre Dame continues quite a hot streak, as the Irish have landed five commitments this week alone. In addition to the 5-star offensive lineman, they scored 4-star wide receiver Julius Jones Jr., as well as his younger brother and member of the 2028 class, Andre Jones. Then they landed 3-star defensive lineman Segun Alexander and 2028 4-star quarterback Trey Tagliaferri, and then wrapped the week up with Simien.
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