Notre Dame Football Mailbag: The truth about Quinn Ewers and the Fighting Irish, 2027 quarterback recruiting, and another elite secondary
Holiday, smoliday… it’s never a bad time to talk Notre Dame football. We may be a couple of months away from the 2025 college football season kicking off, but the roster is mostly set and ready to go. Fresh off of a program record 14-win season, the Fighting Irish head into 2025 with some very […]
Holiday, smoliday… it’s never a bad time to talk Notre Dame football. We may be a couple of months away from the 2025 college football season kicking off, but the roster is mostly set and ready to go. Fresh off of a program record 14-win season, the Fighting Irish head into 2025 with some very high expectations.
On this week’s Notre Dame football mailbag, we discuss the Quinn Ewers rumor, 2027 quarterback recruiting, and the future of the Irish secondary. As always, shoutout to those who submitted questions this week. Let’s talk Notre Dame football.
The Quinn Ewers clickbait
Look, the person who asked this question is a good ole fashioned Twitter troll, but I am happy he asked the question. This connection between former Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers and Notre Dame has been brought up several times this offseason, and it couldn’t be any less true. Ewers was never coming to South Bend because they had no interest in him.
The Fighting Irish staff believes in the young quarterbacks on their roster, and they weren’t going to go into the transfer portal unnecessarily. I do believe there was one quarterback that could have made them rethink their strategy, but it definitely wasn’t Ewers. From what I’ve been told, they never reached out to him, and they sure didn’t offer him anything. That is nothing but clickbait that people keep circulating out there.
Future for Mike Mickens
To my knowledge, there wasn’t any real promises made but head coach Marcus Freeman continues to let Mike Mickens know how much he believes in his abilities as a coach. Coach Mickens is going to get a defensive coordinator job at some point, and honestly, we should prepare ourselves for him to leave every offseason. I’m hoping a deal has been struck for him to be the heir apparent to Chris Ash, but I have no idea if that is true or not.
2025 Secondary
Smith should be a rock solid player inside at the nickel. I don’t think his hip fluidity is great, so it could limit his overall man skills. His combination of physicality and experience, however, should serve well both in zone coverage and run support. Smith strikes me as a player that could end up being an unsung hero for a really good defense.
I’m very high on Adon Shuler. I think he could have a tough decision on whether to enter the 2026 NFL Draft or not, but has the talent to do so. He is a really explosive downhill player with great instincts. Shuler needs to play with a bit more control heading into the 2025 college football season.
Quality of the tight end room
I think Notre Dame has the talent at tight end to make an impact, yes. The problem is that the team is really lacking depth right now. They will be depending on senior Eli Raridon to develop into a difference maker. He has the talent to do so without question, but Raidon has spotty career production right now (16 receptions for 141 yards and three touchdowns), and a rough injury history as well. If Raridon does miss any type of time this season, then things begin to get really dicey. You just have no margin for error right now.
2027 quarterback recruiting
There have been a lot of question surrounding 2027 quarterback recruiting for Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish staff has continued to let the evaluation process play out, and hasn’t offered a single signal caller from the class yet. While I expect a couple of offers to come out over the next couple of weeks, things have been very secretive so far. I’d be lying if I said I knew exactly who this staff was targeting for sure.
There are, however, a couple of quarterbacks I would have high interest in that I know the staff has continued to evaluate. One is Shreveport (Louis.) Evangel Christian star Peyton Houston. I could not care less that Houston might not be 6-0, that kid is a star. He visited South Bend once this offseason, and it sounds like Notre Dame a nice impression. Houston is a smooth athlete in and outside of the pocket, and has some outstanding arm talent.
I would have some level of interest in three other quarterbacks in this class, which include Pete Bourque from Marion (Mass.) Tabor Academy, Malachi Zeigler from Benton (Louis.) High School, and Teddy Jarrard from Kennesaw (Ga.) North Cobb. Each of them have also visited this offseason. I would feel best about Notre Dame being able to land Bourque out of the three, but think they would have a chance with all of them potentially.
Notre Dame football is going to have the last shot at the missing element for an elite defensive line class in 2026
Notre Dame set to get last chance at priority defender
