Notre Dame football may have just found the next big wide receiver recruiting riser – Fighting Irish set for intriguing push

There is an extremely intriguing new wide receiver recruiting target for Notre Dame fans to know.

Ryan Roberts — National College Football Writer
Add as preferred source on Google
Notre Dame wide receivers coach Mike Brown at Notre Dame spring football practice Thursday, March 7, 2024, at the Irish Athletics Center in South Bend.

Notre Dame football has improved its wide receiver recruiting efforts recently, especially in the 2026 recruiting class with the likes of Kaydon Finley, Bubba Frazier, Brayden Robinson, Dylan Faison, and Devin Fitzgerald. That was a good mixture of top talent, production, and a couple of underrated finds by head coach Marcus Freeman and the Fighting Irish staff. The future of that room is in a much better place than it was previously.

In the 2027 recruiting class, wide receivers coach Mike Brown just made an intriguing offer to Malvern (Pa.) Prep athlete Cade Cooper, a player who projects favorably as a boundary receiver on the college level. When you first pull up the recruiting profile and background, most people will probably be a bit underwhelmed. The more information you gather, however, there is a good chance that the vision for a player like Cooper makes a lot of sense.

A bigger wide receiver with plus length and impressive explosiveness, the raw tools to work with here are extremely intriguing. Cooper is not one of the better pass catchers in the class when it comes to nuance or ability to play early in his career on the next level, but the upside conversation raises some fun future conversations. If Brown is as good a developer as some think, a player like Cooper could make a lot of sense to build up after creating a solid foundation.

There is no telling if Cooper is a player that Notre Dame is going to push for, or if he is simply another intriguing addition to bolster the wide receiver board. Cooper does bring a lot of upside to the table and is worth monitoring, especially if Notre Dame gets him to come visit South Bend. That could go a long way in figuring out just how important a player this could be for the Irish in the 2027 recruiting class. For now, Cooper is a talented athlete with a world of upside and promise.

Cade Cooper’s recruiting background 

Depending on which of the major recruiting platforms you look at, Cooper is rated between a three-star and four-star player, but mostly for the former. On the 247 Sports Composite ranking, the Pennsylvania native is currently pegged as a four-star, the No. 363 overall player, the No. 21 athlete, and the No. 14 player from the state of Pennsylvania for the 2027 recruiting class. 

Despite those underwhelming rankings, Cooper’s offer list has continued to expand quickly over the last couple of months. Some of his top offers now include the Fighting Irish, Penn State, Ole Miss, Kentucky, Pitt, Boston College, Illinois, Cincinnati, Maryland, Michigan State, Minnesota, Virginia Tech, Northwestern, Duke, Wake Forest, West Virginia, and Syracuse, among several others. 

As a junior, Cooper turned in a good season for Malvern Prep. The 6-3, 192-pound pass catcher managed to haul in 44 receptions for 644 yards and six touchdowns, an average of 14.6 yards per reception. Cooper’s combination of size, twitch, and physicality brings an intriguing skill set for the next level. 

Related Articles