While there’s plenty of excitement about Notre Dame football’s 2025 season, the program’s recruiting in the 2026 cycle leaves much to be desired. This week alone, the Irish have lost out on two of their top prospects in this class.
What makes it even more frustrating is that the two recruiting losses happen to be to the same team. An ACC rival that shouldn’t be able to compete with Notre Dame when it comes to NIL dollars. Perhaps this is a situation where spending several weeks looking for a replacement to Chad Bowden set the program back a bit.
This weekend, 2026 wide receiver prospect Connor Salmin gave his pledge to Dabo Swinney. On Tuesday morning, the Clemson Tigers stole another one from the Notre Dame football team in the form of safety prospect Kaden Gebhardt. That’s not just two losses in a couple of days, it’s two losses at positions that the Irish would very much like to beef up in the 2026 class.
Notre Dame football loses out on two 2026 targets in less than a week
Gebhardt, especially, is a big loss for Marcus Freeman and company. The safety prospect is considered one of the biggest hitters in the class.
Now that Mike Martin is in place and is the Notre Dame football general manager, there is a chance that they can start to right these wrongs. There is, of course, a long time between now and the December signing period. Perhaps both Salmin and Gebhardt, or at least one of them, can be lured away from Dabo Swinney’s clutches.