Under head coach Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame football has made it a priority to pursue a high volume of sons of former NFL players via high school recruiting. The Fighting Irish clearly value genetics and upside as a part of their player evaluations. It has become a bit of a running joke (not in a bad way) for how often the team has prioritized those types of players.

While I was watching the Notre Dame staff extend an offer to 2027 athlete Erik Walden Jr., I was reminded about how frequently this has occurred over the years.

Over the last three recruiting classes from 2024-2026, Notre Dame has signed the likes of Bryce Young (son of Bryant), Kennedy Urlacher (son of Brian), James Flanigan (son of Jim), Anthony Sacca (son of Tony), Elijah Burress (son of Plaxico), Jerome Bettis Jr., Thomas Davis Jr., Devin Fitzgerald (son of Larry), and Kaydon Finley (son of Jermichael). While he doesn’t quite fit into this bucket, 2024 wide receiver Micah Gilbert is also the cousin of former New York Jets All-Pro cornerback Darrelle Revis, who was recently inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. There is a lot of NFL experience amongst that group of fathers.

As is typically the case for every recruiting tactic, especially those somewhat unconventional, nothing is ever going to bring perfect results. When it comes to the NFL dad strategy, the results have mostly been underwhelming so far, but it is still early. The Irish staff will wait for more of a sample size, and the 2026 season could give some great insight into just how successful this ideology could be.

The early returns for Notre Dame

Outside of Young, who is a starting defensive end for the team, there haven’t been a ton of hits from the group yet. Now it is still early, with most of those players entering their sophomore and junior seasons, making next season a great opportunity to gain some deeper insight. Even Young hasn’t quite lived up to the hype he came to South Bend with, but with defensive line coach Charlie Partridge now tutoring him, there is an expectation that the 6-7, 265-pound pass rusher could morph into a star player in 2026.

The only other players we have seen from that list are Flanigan, who played some as a blocking tight end in a couple of blowout games last season, as well as Burress and Bettis in those lopsided affairs. Urlacher and Sacca have already transferred, ending up at USC and UCLA, respectively. It isn’t the end of the world, but the results certainly haven’t been great thus far.

The importance of the 2026 season

The 2026 college football season could provide proof about whether this strategy is the best to consider moving forward. As I mentioned, many believe that 2026 could be the year of the breakout for Young. Many also expect Flanigan to figure heavily into the tight end rotation along with Cooper Flanagan and Ty Washington. It will also be interesting to see if a couple of those younger wide receivers can also break their way into the rotation. Notre Dame doesn’t necessarily need them to do so, but it would be a huge bonus if they do.

Freeman and Co. have proven to be an adaptive staff over the years. If this genetic ideology doesn’t lend to great results, I have zero doubts that they will pivot. While the experiment hasn’t yielded great results so far, there should still be optimism for what the future could bring, and it could start next season, hopefully anyway.

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