It's still very early in Notre Dame's relationship with running back Cayden Gould, but the two sides already seem to have hit it off quite well.
Gould, one of the best running backs in the 2029 class, is so good that the Irish wasted no time offering a scholarship to a player who can't sign with the team for several more years. One of the reasons they've been able to take this kind of action is how far along they are in locking down the 2027 class and already have quite the foothold in the 2028 cycle.
There's still a long fight ahead for Notre Dame before they can even feel confident that Gould will commit, but they're off to a good start. The running back recently spoke to Irish Sports Daily and was quite excited to have garnered this kind of attention from Marcus Freeman and Co.
"I was very excited," Gould said. "I know about the program and the players they develop like Jeremiyah Love and everybody else at the position. I was just really excited."
Cayden Gould says Notre Dame football offer left him excited
The offer to Gould came when he impressed the staff during a satellite camp at Florida International University. The coaches told him that they went out there to see him and definitely liked what they saw.
Gould said he spoke with running backs coach Ja'Juan Seider and has a great deal of respect for the man who would be his position coach. "He's a really good coach. He developed a lot of backs in his time at Notre Dame and at Penn State."
The next step is obviously to get Gould to South Bend for the first of what will likely be several unofficial visits.Â
"Hopefully I get to go up there and see them play, get to a couple games," Gould said. "But right now I'm just focused on getting better and getting ready for the season this year."
The 6-foot-0, 195-pound running back from IMG Academy (Bradenton, FL) also demonstrates that Notre Dame is continuing its Florida Dame push well into the next couple of classes. Considering the excitement it's generated among Florida players in 2027, it's the kind of approach that will allow those guys to work with the young kids who come after them.
Gould doesn't have any recruiting rankings yet, but it's clear that he's shown the kind of talent that has teams interested. In addition to Notre Dame, he has offers from California, Florida, Florida A&M, Florida State, Georgia State, Georgia Tech, Howard, Louisville, LSU, Memphis, Miami, Michigan, NC State, SMU, South Florida, Southern Miss, Texas State, UConn, and UTSA.
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