Notre Dame's offensive transformation wins over top TE prospect
The Notre Dame football team is done with spring practice and can focus entirely on building up its recruiting classes for the next few months. In that regard, the quarterback position and wide receivers got the most attention. However, the coaching staff recently turned its attention to one of the best tight-end targets in the 2026 class.
Mt. Zion Illinois' JC Anderson visited Notre Dame during the final days of their spring practices and came away quite impressed with everything he saw. But it was the visit earlier this week from new offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock that has the Fighting Irish seemingly front-running for the 6-foot-7, 235-pound prospect.
It's not just that Denbock came to see Anderson that has the tight end so excited about Notre Dame. He's also fired up about a revamped offense that could be quite explosive.
“He was telling me I’d fit right in,” Anderson told Irish Sports Daily about Denbrock's offense. "They’re going to try to get more vertical like they did at LSU and I’d fit right into their tight end spot. Me and my parents love Coach Denbrock. We have had great conversations."
Anderson's parents are the only ones who love Denbrock either. It turns out the monster tight end's coaches are all massive Notre Dame fans. Though Anderson claims they're not steering him to South Bend.
Notre Dame football selling tight end prospect on offensive fit
While the Fighting Irish look very good for Anderson, the race for the 2026 prospect is far from over.
Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, Oregon, Penn State, Tennessee, Texas A&M, and Wisconsin are all going hard after Anderson, among many others.
It appears the Wolverines might be the biggest roadblock to winning the right end's commitment. In particular, he was impressed with the Wolverines' facilities. On the other hand, he didn't love his visit to Ann Arbor because he went to their spring game.
Anderson made it clear that's not a big plus for him because he can't spent much time with the coaches. The fact that JC Anderson was able to come to South Bend several times during spring practice could be the ace in the hole.
Notre Dame football is in this fight to the end.