Notre Dame football and their bizarre 2023 quarterback search nearly altered Roch Cholowsky’s athletic career
UCLA Bruins star Roch Cholowsky just went 1st overall to the Chicago White Sox in the 2026 MLB Draft, a former Notre Dame recruiting target.
Notre Dame football recruiting history is full of what-ifs, and the story of Roch Cholowsky might be one of the most fascinating “misses” in recent Fighting Irish memory.
The former UCLA infielder and Hamilton High School quarterback was selected by the Chicago White Sox with the 1st overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft this past weekend, capping a storied college baseball career. But before Cholowsky became one of the top prospects in all of baseball, he was a dual-sport star from Chandler, Arizona, who had real mutual interest with head coach Marcus Freeman and the Notre Dame staff as a quarterback in the 2023 recruiting class.
Cholowsky’s UCLA career and draft stock
Cholowsky ended his time with the Bruins as one of the most productive players in their program’s recent history, finishing with a .329 batting average, 52 home runs, 167 RBIs, and 191 runs scored. A versatile infielder with the ability to play shortstop, third base, or second base at the major league level, Cholowsky’s combination of offensive production and defensive flexibility made him a clear choice at the top of the draft board.
The Notre Dame connection
What most people don’t realize is that Cholowsky’s path could have looked very different.
Notre Dame took a strong liking to Cholowsky as a quarterback prospect out of Hamilton High School, where he starred in both football and baseball. Things escalated quickly during the offseason before his senior year. There was even a visit set up for Cholowsky to come to South Bend, meet with Freeman, the coaching staff, and the baseball program, and begin exploring what a dual-sport or football-only future might look like with the Fighting Irish.
That visit never happened. Both parties went their separate ways, with Cholowsky opting to sign with UCLA as a baseball player, effectively ending his football career after his senior season of high school.
The 2023 quarterback chaos
The Cholowsky connection makes even more sense when you remember how chaotic Notre Dame’s 2023 quarterback recruiting was.
The Fighting Irish held a private commitment from former five-star signal caller Dante Moore, now an All-American at Oregon after beginning his career at UCLA. Moore decided to never go public with that commitment, and once the CJ Carr commitment appeared on the horizon (a part of the 2024 class), he reopened his recruitment.
That left Notre Dame scrambling. The staff circled several quarterbacks, including Kenny Minchey, who eventually signed with the Irish in that class, and Aidan Chiles (among several others), who has taken a winding path from Oregon State to Michigan State to Northwestern. Cholowsky was another name in the mix during that frantic search, and the interest was genuine on both sides before the two went in different directions.
What could have been
Notre Dame recovered in that class by signing Minchey, who was in consideration for the starting quarterback job before the 2025 season before Carr won the role. But had Cholowsky landed in South Bend, there was no certainty he would have stuck with football. The Notre Dame baseball team wouldn’t have complained, however.
A hard decision about his professional baseball future likely would have come eventually, and based on the results of this draft, pursuing baseball would have been the smart move (duh).
I came across Cholowsky’s name while eyeing scouting reports ahead of the draft, and it immediately sent me into a blast from the past.
From a player who was nearly a Notre Dame quarterback commit in the 2023 class to the No. 1 overall pick in the MLB Draft, Cholowsky’s story is a reminder of how thin the margins are in recruiting and how dramatically paths can diverge. What a fascinating career, and clearly, Cholowsky made the correct decision several years ago.