WILL IT EVER STOP?!? Notre Dame added yet another commit to its 2026 class yesterday, its fifth in six days, when offensive lineman Charlie Thom announced his committment. My typing muscles are getting tired… The Irish just offered the 6’6″, 275 pound Nutmegger last Monday, his most recent in a sudden flurry of major offers. I’ll cover the details of his offer timeline in the cohort section below, but it would be fair to characterize his recruitment as “blowing up,” as the kids say. (I think – do they still say that? I feel old.) This may feel like a long time ago now, but many Notre Dame fans saw the Thom offer as a sign that Grayson McKeogh was about to commit to Penn State. McKeogh committed to Notre Dame 24 hours later, so then fans pivoted to wondering whether Thom’s offer was still committable. There was no indication to the contrary, and six days later Thom himself popped for the Irish.
A few other items worth highlighting here:
- Thom, as noted above and as will be detailed below, was racking up Power 4 offers but there was a sense right away that the Notre Dame offer would loom large for him – his mother is a Notre Dame alumna and by his own profession Thom grew up a huge Irish fan. He made an unofficial visit to be evaluated by the staff, got his offer on that visit, and set an official visit for the following weekend. There was little mystery at that point that he would commit if given the chance.
- He played tight end for Darien through last season, then transferred to Avon Old Farms and moved to offensive tackle for the upcoming season. The position change is part of the explanation for his ranking, and being in Connecticut is probably the other part of the explanation. The recruiting-obsessed among you may remember Avon Old Farms as the home of two recent Irish targets – QB Ryan Puglisi (sort of) and DE Benedict Umeh (definitely), who signed with Georgia and Stanford respectively in the 2024 cycle. New England football is not the strongest, but Avon Old Farms is definitely a higher level of competition.
- One of his other recent offers is from Penn State; he also camped there, got an offer, and came back the following weekend for an official visit – the week before his official visit to Notre Dame. LOL at James Franklin. Again. Freeman must really love dunking on him.
- Finally, Thom is the sixth offensive lineman in the 2026 class. We’re not sure how all that will work out down the road, if the staff expects to lose a couple of guys to various sorts of attrition over the next couple of years, if this is just a reset of reality with the soon-to-be-expanded rosters, or what, but it’s something to watch.
Recruiting Service Rankings
247Sports Composite — 3 star (.8700 rating), #853 overall, #72 OT, #5 in CT
On3 Consensus — 3 star (84.90 rating), #1161 overall, #92 OT, #7 in CT
The 247 Composite and On3 Consensus both combine 247, On3, Rivals, and ESPN rankings.
247Sports — 3 star (87 rating), NR overall, #74 OT, #5 in CT
On3 — 3 star (87 rating), NR overall, #62 OT, #4 in CT
Rivals — Not rated
ESPN — 3 star (76 rating), #105 OT, #6 in CT
Irish Sports Daily — 3 star (87 rating)
Note: Jamie does the recruit evaluations for ISD, and we trust his evals as much as anyone’s; while the 247 Composite and the On3 Consensus don’t factor in ISD evals, we put a lot of weight on them ourselves. ISD only ranks the top 50 prospects in each class, and hasn’t ranked 2026 yet. Based on past classes a 95 rating would be the bottom end of their top 50.
Cohort
At the start of May, Thom’s only scholarship offer was from FCS Monmouth. From May 5th to May 8th, he picked up offers from Bowling Green, Wake Forest, Akron, Rhode Island, Stony Brook, and Penn. You could say things were starting to simmer a little but still not really hot yet. Then Avon Old Farms held its spring showcase event on May 12th, which was attended by college scouts, and boom went the dynamite. On May 13th alone Thom added FBS offers from Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Buffalo, James Madison, Liberty, and UConn. On May 15th it was Nebraska. May 23rd, Michigan State. May 25th, Stanford and Boston College. Then Penn State on June 6th and Notre Dame on June 17th.
Just to summarize that all in one spot… On May 1st he held an offer from Monmouth. By June 17th he held offers from Notre Dame, Penn State, Boston College, Michigan State, Nebraska, Stanford, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest, and a score of other Group of Five and FCS schools. 247 wrote up some comments from his coach in a free article that came out between the Nebraska and Michigan State offers. What a whirlwind of a few weeks it must’ve been for this kid, capped off by an offer he may not have even dreamt he would have.
Highlights
As noted above, Thom played tight end for Darien last season, which you might think means we have limited material to review for his highlights. But no! In addition to a general highlight reel, Thom’s Hudl page helpfully includes a reel of only blocking plays, which is what you see here. In all seriousness, very good move and a good indication of how seriously he approaches his craft.
Based on this film, there is a lot of projection at play here – and I think that’s fine given Thom’s position and who else the Irish have in this class. He doesn’t need to be ready early. A lot of his blocking technique on here is, charitably, not great, but that’s not the main takeaway, which is that he’s really big, he moves really well, and he arrives at potential tacklers in a foul mood. Okay, those are three takeaways, but look, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. Anyway, according to Charlie’s coach in the article linked above, he’s added 15 pounds of good weight this spring but still moves just as well. I’d love to have access to tape from the showcase to see what got so many scouts so excited. For now, it’s enough that Joe Rudolph, Phil Trautwein, and a bunch of other guys who know what they’re doing really wanted this kid.
Impact
Since Thom’s future involves so much projection it’s hard to say what his impact will be with any degree of clarity. I don’t see him contributing early or needing to, for that matter. I think he’ll likely spend a couple of years learning on the finer points of the position, and at that point potentially push for a spot in the two-deep. You can’t teach 6’7″/300+, which is likely where his frame is headed, and that’s going to open some pathways for him if he gets there the right way. Based on his athleticism and work ethic today I like his chances.
Welcome to the Irish family, Charlie!
I count 8-9 players at ND from Mass. Cath. schools or Ct. preps in the last 2-3 years. Those schools recruit from lesser leagues in N.E. and elsewhere. Players from those schools fit the ND profile and ND is wise to take advantage that.
Don’t know about CT but MA is getting scouted more heavily than ever, and producing more college prospects every year. Good for ND because they tend to be good cultural fits.
They’re on the come-up a little bit lately, but more in the sense of “don’t ignore them because it’s possible to find a player there” (which is an improvement in perception for sure) than “you need to recruit kids from here.” I would argue that’s more true for Massachusetts than the rest of New England too, but I’m not super dialed in to the region so I could be off on that.
Thom is the only New Englander in the 2026 class. On the roster right now, not counting walk-ons or specialists, we have seven players from New England.
CT – Matt Augustine, Ethan Long
MA – Blake Hebert, Guerby Lambert, Boubacar Traore, Preston Zinter
ME – None
NH – None
RI – Jason Onye
VT – None
Massachusetts clearly far more productive than the rest of the region.
For comparison, if we look at what I’ll call the “Breadbasket” region, we have seven players from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska:
IA – Eli Raridon
KS – Joe Otting
MO – Christian Gray, Jeremiyah Love, Gabriel Rubio, Aneyas Williams
NE – Teddy Rezac
Nobody in their right mind would suggest we de-emphasize the Breadbasket – especially when you consider that the roster just lost Nebraskan Xavier Watts, who I hear was pretty good. On the other hand, I don’t know that it makes much sense to target it either other than St. Louis area prep schools (which, holy crap). That’s probably the right approach to New England and aligns with your profile thought – Mass prep schools profile well to ND and turn out a pretty steady amount of talent, the rest of the region is pretty meh.
I noticed a year or two back that the CT/MA prep schools seem to be on the up a bit for producing ~4* players. And that seems like a real boon for us in particular, nice of you to lay them out like that. I’d add too you can kind of add Will Black to the list. He’s a Canadian but he did finish at another CT high school.
Will Black, Choate Rosemary, CT.
Nobody mentioned, ME, NH, VT, or even RI schools. Area wise the midwest states mentioned are much larger in area than CT. & MA.
Brendan I have to add this. Watching Ian Premer’s junior tape in KS., he’s really good, the competition is not. The best teams in the Mass. Catholic League, (Cent. Cath., Cath. Mem., Xaverian) would do quite well vs. those teams….IMO.
I missed Will Black – I was going off the hometown listed for players on the ND roster, which for him is London, ON.
I expanded it to the New England region because “New England football” is a more common topic in recruiting discussions than “Massachusetts football.” Also including Rhode Island adds Jason Onye to the list of current players.
The midwest states mentioned are much larger geographically but that doesn’t really have anything to do with how many football players they have. MA, CT, VT, NH, ME, and RI have a total population of just over 15 million, while IA, KS, NE, and MO have a total population of about 14.5 million. I chose those four states as an example of a geographic grouping that has a similar population base and a similar amount of production of D1 talent.
Also I compared Missouri to Massachusetts, and specifically St. Louis prep schools to Mass prep schools, as areas where ND should focus while staying aware of the possibility of talent in other parts of the region. So I don’t think we’re that far away from each other.
I fully understand why you chose those 4 states to label as “breadbasket” for this exercise, but as a native Illinoisan, I take a lot of umbrage with your omitting Illinois. (#1 in Soy, #2 in Corn, #4 in Pork)
Heh… I left Illinois out of the comparison, btw, because we have as many players from Illinois as we do from all of New England. Not a fair comparison. 🙂
This is the exact type of player I was hoping ND would try to target with expanded roster limits. Guys who are huge mysteries, may take 3 – 4 years to develop, but the draw of ND makes them desperate for an offer. While he still feels like a guy who is more likely to never start a game than start a full season, being able to stash him in a roster spot as the 6th OL of the class without blocking recruiting at another position is huge. Good work by Freeman to move quickly here.
Some of those guys turn out to be Pat Coogan
He’s a pretty good lacrosse player, we wouldn’t mind him walking across the street to Arlotta during the offseason.