We are working our way through Notre Dame’s 2025 recruiting class composed of 24 signees from all over the United States. Today we’re taking a look at the top player in the class and another excellent addition to the offensive line room.

Offensive Tackle Will Black

Bio:

Hailing from London, Ontario halfway between Toronto and Detroit, Black moved to prep school in Connecticut enrolling at the prestigious Choate Rosemary Hall where he fully focused on the game of football after playing various sports in Canada.

He started picking up solid offers in early 2023 and things picked up steam that summer when the Irish offered. Once decent blue-chip recruit, Black shot up the rankings during his final season of high school football. He committed to Notre Dame at the end of his junior year and finished the cycle as a Composite 5-star, see below.

Ranking:

26th overall, 4th IOL, 1st in Connecticut with a 0.9867 Composite score.

Size:

We don’t have an officially approved school size yet but Black checked in at nearly 6’8″ at the On3 Elite series last summer and that height was verified again during the All-American Game last month.

Last summer, he was listed at 283 pounds and was up to 295 pounds at the January all-star check in recently. By all accounts, he has elite tackle specs for his age.

Hype Factor: 9.5/10

Black is one of the highest rate Irish recruits this century and a rare 5-star for the program. While that’s great, other schools such as Ohio State, Texas, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, and Oregon all have multiple 5-star commits for 2025 ranked higher than Black. Since he hasn’t played football for a super long time, Black’s ceiling could be enormously high and as good as anyone else’s in the class. If he was ranked a bit higher we might have to give him a 10/10 ranking here, even if it’s not at the glamorous quarterback position.

Outlook: The Next Great One

Black looks scary good already for his inexperience, although it’s probably a good thing he won’t be expected to jump right in and compete right away. He’s also the only offensive lineman from Notre Dame’s 2025 class that isn’t enrolled early anyway. Should we expect a quiet redshirt year? Probably, although let’s hope we don’t have to experience the injury crisis again like in 2024.

The 2026 season could be really interesting. There are decent odds at least one tackle position is going to open up and Black could be the front-runner to fill that spot.

Offensive Tackle Owen Strebig

Bio:

Strebig had a big spring 2023 with many offers and Notre Dame was immediately in the mix from the beginning of his recruitment. Coming from the state of Wisconsin it was assumed the Badgers would be the prime competition, although Strebig took several visits to other school across the country. By early 2024, Notre Dame was in the driver’s seat and he committed in February before taking an official visit last summer.

Ranking:

215st overall, 23rd OT, 2nd in Wisconsin with a 0.9207 Composite score.

Size:

We’ve already discussed large humans in Black and Augustine from this offensive line haul and Strebig comes in as the biggest of them all. Officially listed at 6’8″ the freshman from Wisconsin steps on campus and should be the tallest player on the roster with the departure of Tosh Baker.

Strebig tips the scales at 298 pounds according to Notre Dame, although he looks so much heavier. In all of the pictures I’ve seen of him he’s just a mountain of young kid. He has 330 pounds as an upperclassman written all over his body-frame.

Hype Factor: 7/10

Of course Strebig is overshadowed by Black in this class. He’s a solid 4-star recruit, although pretty far away from being a difference maker in the rankings. However, he’s another player in this class that is underrated to me. This might be the best offensive line class in the country and one of the best that Notre Dame has recruited in a while. Is that plenty of hype?

Outlook: A Step Ahead

I’m curious to see how quickly Strebig acclimates himself to the college game. He’ll probably be well over 300 pounds by the summer time and as mentioned he’ll be practicing this spring, unlike the 5-star Black above. I think Notre Dame will try to remain patient with Strebig as the starters still have a lot of eligibility remaining and depth is very good across the board. Still, talent and size tend to shine through quickly and he has both.