Top QB recruit Deuce Knight publicly flipped his commitment from Notre Dame to Auburn Wednesday night. Apparently, he was impressed with Auburn making him a priority for 2 months after publicly failing to flip 2 other quarterbacks, versus the two years ND made him their #1. (I’m not bitter at all.)
Personally, and I swear this isn’t ex post facto reasoning, I had an uneasy feeling about Knight’s commitment from the moment it was given. Admittedly, bringing in another QB recruit (Bear Bachmeier, now locked in at Stanford) for an official visit as a clear signal to a reluctant Deuce that he needed to jump in or have someone take his spot was not necessarily the type of move that precedes a long and happy marriage. (Deuce took the hint and called the staff to commit literally as Bachmeier was flying to South Bend. Because all that is old is new again, there has been some recent reporting that despite this situation, Bachmeier would be willing to re-engage with the Notre Dame staff. Stay tuned.)
However, despite the weird circumstances, for the bulk of the time between Knight’s commitment and his flip, all seemed well. Rumors constantly flew of his wandering eyes – especially after the major recruiting services did not follow the CJ Carr script of dropping him in the rankings without any particular explanation, but instead went the other way and kept trumpeting how great he was and could be. (Most indications are that Knight will end up being a consensus 5-star recruit.)
But amid those rumors, Knight kept visiting Notre Dame, kept publicly recruiting other players, kept talking about how much he loved the idea of working with new OC Mike Denbrock. Sure, there was chatter, but actions spoke louder than words.
Once his actions changed to match those words – supposed secret visits to Alabama, to Ole Miss, to Auburn – it was clear he was gone. And when these things happen, it’s sort of annoying the kids don’t just announce their decommitments immediately. This spring and summer’s fruitless pursuit of highly-touted wide receivers couldn’t have been helped by the fact everyone knew Knight had a foot out the door.
Deuce ended up being little more than a more method-actor version of Dante Moore, who pulled a similar act on Notre Dame in the spring and summer of 2022, doing all the same things Knight did when he was pretending times were good, just more quietly. Now ND fans have to hope the coaching staff can pull a rabbit out of its hat again as they did in that class, when the rock-solid Kenny Minchey flipped from Pittsburgh very late in the process.
However, I have a simple question: Does it really matter that much?
Losing Deuce is more about the narrative than the practical
You’d always rather have the 5-star QB than not. Let’s say that right up front. With that said, only one can play at a time, and so far most indications are CJ Carr is going to be the 2025 starting quarterback at Notre Dame unless something very bad happens in the next 12 months. And unless something very bad happens in the next 12 months, he’ll be the quarterback at Notre Dame in 2026, too.
Would ND rather have had Deuce Knight come in, back up Carr (or be #3, depending on transfers) in 2025 and take a real chance at overtaking him in ’26? One thousand percent. But outside of the Manning family, how many highly-rated QBs are signing up for that? And even if Deuce Knight did, do we really believe he wouldn’t have just portaled out if we got to the end of the ’25 season and he didn’t see his chance coming? This is part of the reason I was skeptical Knight would ultimately stick.
Winning Knight’s commitment would have, in all likelihood, been more important for what it signaled about Notre Dame and Marcus Freeman than it would have meant on the field. The combined chances of Knight sticking at ND and hitting his tremendous athletic ceiling were never high. But it would’ve been a big feather in the program’s collective cap to pull a 5-star QB from a public school in Mississippi, the heart of SEC country. That much is undeniable. The questions that still exist, even among some Irish faithful, about whether Freeman is capable of proving predecessor Brian Kelly wrong about “shopping down a different aisle,” would have an answer.
Auburn dropped a bag, but there are bigger issues at play
One complaint I don’t want to hear is Auburn dropping a bag to lure Knight away. Of course they did, but the way of things now is that that’s allowed. Sure, there are rumors of Auburn offering things beyond mere NIL inducements to get Knight’s commitment, but in a CFB recruiting world where effectively everything is legal, the question honestly isn’t as much whether that’s ethical as whether it’s smart. I guess the Tigers will eventually discover whether they were right to go as all-out to pursue Knight as they did.
Besides, Notre Dame has proven beyond doubt it’s in this new CFB world for the long haul. There were credible reports of Notre Dame trying to get Derek Meadows, the most well-known of the aforementioned highly touted receivers it missed on, by (for lack of a better phrase) getting into a bidding war with his ultimate destination, LSU. (Go figure.) The Irish are beefing up facilities with the Shields Family Hall now under construction. Anyone with a functioning brain knows financial inducements are part of why Sam Hartman, Riley Leonard and other high-profile transfers have made Notre Dame their choice to continue their college career – and why Xavier Watts, Howard Cross and the like are still here instead of playing on Sundays. Bag-dropping, or some version of it, is just the cost of doing business now.
The only thing that really concerns me is if this sort of thing is just going to be what happens most every time the Irish try to go “off-profile” and secure the commitment of some crazy talented guy from the South that isn’t necessarily from the high-academic private-school background that, say, Kyle Hamilton came from. Is ND always cursed to be the placeholder for such guys until some SEC program gets desperate and starts throwing cash around?
The fact of the matter is, Notre Dame cannot move its campus from South Bend, Indiana, and unless they make a phone call to Greg Sankey (one he’d accept in a second, incidentally), they can’t play an SEC schedule. And maybe those two things are always going to sway high-caliber recruits in the end, no matter how cool Marcus Freeman is or how well he articulates a 4-for-40 message. Because 4-for-40, and “choose hard,” simply do not strike the same chord when a guy can (legally) accept major money from a power program in his home region and get all the things he wants on the field without dealing with the stuff he doesn’t want off the field. How can it?
A few quick thoughts as I mull this over. First off, good article, well written and lays out the major frustrations I have too.
Can you elaborate on why ND shouldn’t be outresourced in sports by anyone? I’ve see this written quite often, and I don’t think I necessarily agree with it. I work with people who went to SEC schools whose only reason they went there was the football program. They’re people who would never donate to their school, but would immediately give money to a sports collective that makes that schools’ football program better. When they talk about college, the part of their time there that they care most about is going to football games. To them, any college degree would serve them exactly the same as the one they have. But any other football program would have no special meaning to them.
As an ND grad myself, football is so far down on the list of things that were most important to me during my time there. If I’m going to donate money to benefit ND, it’s certainly not going to be to a sports collective. I don’t think it’s wrong to want to give money to NIL. But none of the ND grads I know have ever given to NIL, despite some giving generously to many programs at ND.
(Also ND is one of the smallest P5 schools. The base of donors is simply smaller. That plays a factor too.)
Herein lies the rub when it comes to Notre Dame to me and the part that I think a lot of ND graduates struggle to reconcile. I’m a non-graduate who’s older brother went to ND from 99 to 2003, grew up in a small Illinois town 90 miles southwest of Chicago with a very large Catholic population.
I understand your opinion that ND shouldn’t throw an unlimited amount of resources to athletics specifically football and that as a grad your life didn’t revolve around ND football. I however think this opinion is somewhat disingenuous and fails to give enough credit to why Notre Dame is where they are at in Americana. Football is why an overwhelming majority of people care about Notre Dame because as you mentioned it’s one of the smallest P5 schools.
I would argue it’s been an ultimate grift to take in the amount of money they have accumulated since 1993 because of football (both in the past and since 1993) and not invested more of that money to win a championship.
I think they got lazy in their long term thinking and assumed that everyone will be a Notre Dame just because my family is a Notre Dame fan. Well as college became more accessible students that don’t go to ND become fans of the college teams that they went to and then Louisville (example here) becomes the number 1 team in the next generations household especially when Notre Dame isn’t winning championships. Alabama, Clemson, UGA are all pulling students from the North who’s families will pay out of state tuition to go to a “football school.”
All of this is to say is, if ND doesn’t want to be a football school, that’s totally fine and as a non-graduate it’s not my place to weigh in on what happens with campus life or the education curriculum or food halls or even if athletes should have separate dorms. But as long as Notre Dame University wants to to market that they want to be compete at the highest levels in football and they’re willing to take my money for tickets, merchandise, and season ticket “donations” then I think as an ND fan I’m ok to demand that ND football fan stand behind their word and dump as much resources as possible into football.
As an alumnus, I’d rather be known for football than academics. At least football is something interesting that attracts people, versus the mindless, self indulgent warrens academia goes down. Besides, if the past few decades have taught us anything, trying to claw into the top of the US News and World Report rankings either ruins you or leaves you in the company of some awful actors.
It’s also a weird thing to pretend like the choices are either or. You don’t have to go full Free Shoes University
I don’t think anyone thinks it’s Either Or. Notre Dame has one of the best basketball facilities in the country now, after decades of having arguably the worst. Notre Dame spent $400 million on the Campus Crossroads stadium upgrades. The Shields complex they just announced is going to be another $100 million+ project. There is clearly significant investment in the athletics programs. But I don’t think it will ever be anywhere near the level of the big boys in the SEC, and I have no problem with that.
But they do – if you suggest doing what it takes to field a national title caliber football team, inevitably you get “we can’t lower academic standards for the team it’ll somehow magically negate the value of my degree” and/or “I’d rather spend the money somewhere else anyway.” You’ve opted for the latter.
I guess, to me, $100 million dumped into football seems like a significant investment to something that is literally entertainment. ND isn’t ignoring the football program. It’s funding an entertainment venture more than 98% of American colleges.
I don’t think most people related to the school are asking them to decrease funding. But this is still a school. It’s not the NFL. The primary function of Notre Dame is to educate students. I don’t know why people would be surprised when an individual wants to donate money to the academic endeavors of the school vs. the entertainment endeavors of the school.
Notre Dame also gets and has gotten a massive return on investment from its historical football success. And since this is a website for talking about Notre Dame football (well, athletics generally), this may shock you, but I have something of an interest in seeing Notre Dame football win a lot of games. If you want to play the game of mission, we can bemoan how Notre Dame has handled its Catholic mission – or celebrate successes – but that too is also a distraction from the underlying point of this entire article. I’m okay with spending more than 98% of schools but spending more than 99% is preposterous for ahem, crass entertainment is an odd stance to take. If you feel that way, then at this point Notre Dame may as well go D3. Hey UChicago did it and they’re an even better school.
So what level of investment in football would be the appropriate level to you? If Notre Dame gets outspent by a single school, is that a failure?
One where we don’t lose the top guy in our class every year to another school more willing to direct their alumni towards winning.
It isn’t about money. ND has plenty of that. It’s about bringing kids in that want to get educated. ND has accepted there will be a $$ cost but, FB players have to go to class and pass their courses, like the other students. Not so true at other “schools”. I hope ND never caves on that. If that’s what it takes to win a NC…then I’m fine with ND being grouped with the 120 or so schools without a legitimate chance.
Do we have any reason to think Knight, Bowen, Moore, Keely, or any of the other guys who flipped or never signed on that we were supposedly close on couldn’t hack it at Notre Dame academically? They would have gotten in and like 99% of guys, done enough to stay on the field. Give me a break. This comes across as NDNation-tier head in the sand rhetoric. No one thinks less of an Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, Michigan, or Clemson degree because they did what it takes to play big boy football.
Not saying they couldn’t hack it academically, maybe they just didn’t want to. It’s also the problem now that it’s all (i.e., only) about going to the NFL, and leaving after three years has become normalized, so why even bother with academics at that point? If we’re being honest, the “4 for 40” pitch has never been less relevant for the players ND needs to be elite.
Notre Dame football hasn’t won a national championship since 1988. ND supposedly has the lowest acceptance rate it has ever had. I don’t think Notre Dame being elite at football is the driving force behind people currently choosing to apply to ND.
Those two things may be related, and might be part of the problem. I’d rather be the Notre Dame that developed a cross country fanbase that had never set foot on campus than some kind of Catholic Stanford.
Fanbase-wise, we absolutely coast on decades and decades of good will going both ways between the school and non-alumni, mediated through the football team. Notre Dame doesn’t have a stadium seating almost 80k without that relationship – look at the similarly sized schools and you see 30-40k seaters and I’m going to guess they are routinely more empty too. Suggest continuing football excellence is in the long term interest of the school and you get met with “actually I don’t want to win that much”
Sure, the football team may have laid the foundation for the success of the university 65+ years ago. But the football team hasn’t been a real national title contender for 3 decades, and the school is more successful than it’s ever been. I see no evidence that the school needs to invest more money in the football program than it currently is in order to be a top tier US college.
I guess it depends on your view of the higher education system, amd if you take the view that it’s propped up by even more smoke and mirrors BS than college football.
It’s already a top tier college. At this point, pushing it up the rankings also requires huge spending on what are ultimately very diminishing returns for anyone learning there. It’d involve more spending to spend on things USNWR rankings like than meaningful boosting the value of a degree. “I was going to hire you but I see Notre Dame is still only #18 in the country, sorry, top 15 candidates only” – literally never happening in any meaningful sense.
Hmm I don’t know that I buy all of this; what word is ND not standing behind? ND has never promised to dump as much resources into football as possible. In fact, in the last 10 years, ND has actually threatened to leave NCAA level athletics if it becomes a professional league (lol sure).
Many of the best colleges in the country do not have great football programs. I think many Notre Dame administrators believe that ND can fall into this space. It isn’t that they necessarily don’t want ND football to be good; they just believe that football is not the reason for a college to exist, and it shouldn’t be the main focus of resources. But ND hasn’t won anything of note in decades, and the school is doing great. So they don’t feel the need to make football a bigger priority than it currently is. And I don’t know that I disagree with them. (I’ll still complain about losing to MAC schools on this site though!)
Notre Dame exists because a bishop offered a priest land. Notre Dame is Notre Dame instead of Great Lakes Holy Cross because the football program buoyed it. Not that there haven’t been wise decisions and fortuitous circumstances since then, but the two are intertwined.
Exactly. No one is making movies about Marquette or Georgetown, or putting references to their sports teams is the background of Die Hard, Godfather Part II, Full Metal Jacket, etc.
As you point out with your “lol sure” which is spot on, ND Administration/BOT have talked the talk over and over again for 30 years. They’ve said they are dedicated to winning championships, but I think they’re just dedicated to more money without actually putting in the 100% effort it take to win championships.
I will say I think they are currently closer as a whole than they’ve been since Father Ted was the president. But as you’ve mentioned in other comments it’s now been 30 years and that apathy sets in that excellence in football isn’t attainable, so let’s move funds into other areas and if we can milk the football fans for their pennies by saying we’re trying to win a championship we can do that.
My argument is that I think ND is closer to fully funding football and trying to win a championship is because they’re finally seeing the erosion of the 3 decades of not winning championships has done. Having to put out fliers and notifications to not sell your tickets to Ohio State fans, having to ask wealthy donors to purchase large ticket allotments to continue a sell out streak, seeing Michigan win a NC, seeing the tv draw is that the SEC is getting, and the average demographic of ND fans.
Bama realized it in 2006. If we don’t win again soon, we’re sunk because people don’t care about what happened pre internet. Notre Dame the education school doesn’t need to be great at football right now, you’re right. You can get a great job and have a great network and have an awesome 4 years without football, that’s 100% true. But it also helps a lot. Georgetown basketball, Duke basketball, DePaul, hell Gonzaga is on the map because of basketball. Not because they are private Jesuit school in Eastern Washington.
I don’t think that ND is being outresourced. My impression is that ND tries to be a little bit smarter with their spending and not wanting to throw it around like monopoly money. As noted in the article, ND was (reportedly) making a nice offer to Meadows and clearly offered enough to lure Hartman and Leonard the past two offseasons.
A huge factor that a lot of people don’t mention is that Auburn is close to home for DK. I think that factor, combined with his familiarity growing up around SEC football and Auburn (reportedly) throwing more upfront money into their offer is what happened here.
Said it better than I could have and not coincidentally I have a very similar story as a non graduate. I very specifically mentioned the fanbase at large because while the school itself is on the smaller side, the fanbase is not. If you look it up, Notre Dame has somewhere between the fifth and second biggest fanbase in the country. Probably could be number one if there were more success since c. 1993, but what’s done is done. Nor do I for a second buy that Notre Dame alumni and again fans at large are disinterested in the program and lacking the resources compared to a larger school.
I think DK’s situation is what it is and as a one off, things happen. I think the state of the program and us whiffing here, on Moore, on Keeley, on Bowen, etc., well that starts to add up.
Reply fail to kevin up above, thank you tiny tiny indents when using mobile.
As for being out resourced, we definitely are on the incoming freshman classes. We’ve done pretty good the last two transfer classes, especially landing big QBs, but we’re also still rolling dice there for the most part.
My concern is keeping two of three QBs still on the roster not DK. Him we can replace easier.
If Angeli is close to earning his degree, he might leave. Minchey might stay if he cares about the degree, or if he thinks he has a fair shot to compete for the job in the spring. It might also help that (a) ND might pay more to retain him than smaller schools will offer to lure him to transfer, and (b) he has little to no game experience, which might not make him as attractive to other teams in the portal
Of all the sec schools, why auburn? I didn’t follow his recruitment closely but it seems if you’re a 5* qb why not lsu, uga, bama, texas, or Oklahoma or even Tennessee? Auburn has a weird coach and can easily go 6-6 every year.
You mention, beefing up facilities. I’m curious, since the facility and aesthetic changes, from 2015ish on, have we seen a marked improvement in recruiting success?
most of those places are full with how early QB commits take place (there was some early Bama flirtation before they landed someone else).
Auburn also is closer to home than even Ole Miss and I think that’s important. It’s kind of been lost in the shuffle, but his junior year Deuce transferred to a big-time prep school in Nashville for ~3-4 weeks and then left to go back to his HS in Mississippi, in part saying he was homesick. At the time people minimized it but definitely a red flag.
Last, Freeze stinks and is sketchy but Auburn is throwing some major bags around and is now at #3 in the ’25 class rankings behind only OSU and Bama. They have a 5* true freshman and are in on some high profile guys in this class and may be able to make a more credible argument about showcasing QB in their offense and the passing game than ND at the moment.
Yea the home sick thing makes sense.
I just feel a little bad for deuce. I think he haa real chance to get out of the south, come to notre dame, be a legend and mentor under freeman. The auburn perks must of been insane for the kid and his parents to overlook a sketchy coach and program with no culture
And in arguably the worst state in the country though indiana isn’t exactly paradise
Wait he’s from Ohio?
Hah! Alabama makes ohio seem like tuscany
Re: The Bag. There have been some BIG numbers thrown around on the podcasts. It would be NIL malpractice to throw that much $ at a guy who is not aligned with the 4 for 40 pitch/philosophy when we have CJ. It’s a better business decision to GM that $ towards areas where it’s really hard for us to recruit like D line (and to a lesser extent receiver). I don’t really have a problem with this whole situation, it’s been a silent decommit from both sides for a couple months with neither side throwing stones about it. In the end, he’s a kid trying to make a big decision, and I think it’s been great that our program hasn’t shot themselves in the foot by publicly ejecting him. I have to think other recruits are watching and ND has handled this about as well as they could have.
Well at least we just got a WR commit (ATH Antavious Richardson out of GA), who is now the highest ranked WR by a decent margin (despite being a high 3 star/low 4 star depending on the site).
He looks really fast on tape and was apparently state champ in the 100m and 200m. Plays QB now, but tons of potential.
And Daniel Anderson decommits. A net positive for sure between adding Richardson and losing our mid 3 star RB. Of any position, RB is probably the easiest to cover up in the following cycle, and will be one of our deepest next year, even if Price leaves.
Anderson was a weird take from the start, very low-rated player. I think he was a buy-low by the staff, which usually works out pretty well (Bryce Young, Ben Morrison, Anthonie Knapp), but didn’t this time. Wouldn’t be surprised if there was a ‘look, kid, you’re still welcome here but it sure doesn’t look like you’re ever going to play’ conversation that happened.
Any chance there’s a replacement at his position or will Thurman be it?
I always like how there’s a tinge of “he doesn’t have the right character” when some kid doesn’t want to go to ND.
Maybe ND isn’t that exceptional?
Also, let’s not put too much emotional stock in the decisions of teenagers
I would push back a little on this. I don’t think anyone begrudges Deuce Knight or anyone else the right to go to school where they want. But the way this was handled, much like the Peyton Bowen saga, was not ideal; by the accounts I’ve seen, Knight was still acting like part of this class right up to this week despite also telling Auburn he was coming there. If you’re not coming, act like an adult and say you’re not coming. It’s the least you owe to a group of coaches who poured 2-plus years into developing a relationship with you. JMO.
Agree with AR on this. There were reports that DK has been recruiting receivers to Auburn over the past month or two. If that was happening, he clearly knew that he was not going to stick with ND and should have made that clear to the ND coaches a while back
Look how in-depth you’re going into the actions of a high school kid
Fine, everything the players and recruits do is fine and justified and a thumb in the eye of a repressive system that wants to keep them poor and subservient and we are never in a position to judge them. Are you happy now?
t. person posting on a Notre Dame football message board
Eh, what’s a little more crazy gunna hurt?
Anyway, welcome to the heart of football season. 55 straight days with either NFL or FBS football. Strap in.