Just ahead of National Signing Day, the Notre Dame football team had hoped to add one more top prospect to its class. Unfortunately, it looks like the Irish lost their fight with USC for the 4-star linebacker even if they beat the Trojans head to head on the field right in front of him.
Top 100 linebacker Madden Faraimo was in attendance to watch the Blue and Gold take down the newest Big Ten team, but that ended up not swaying his choice, according to some of the most well known recruiting analysts in the country. Instead, he’s leaning towards the California school despite once being thought to be heavy lean towards South Bend.
On Monday, National Analysts Blair Angulo and Tom Loy of 247Sports put in Crystal Balls for Faraimo to chose USC on signing day. That decision will effectively close the Notre Dame football recruiting class with the commitment of kicker Erik Schmidt.
Notre Dame football loses out on Top 100 linebacker
That he’s headed to USC is a bit of a surprise, previously all of the projections had Faraimo landing in South Bend, but as the early signing period approaching fast, it looks like they Irish will have to work some magic for him the end up in the class.
Currently, Notre Dame football has just one linebacker committed in the 2025 class, Ko’o Kia, so getting another has been one of the big recruiting goals. Now it appears the Irish will need to look at those who don’t sign on Wednesday to fill that spot.