Big Ten head coach tells the unfiltered truth about why Notre Dame missed out on their top quarterback recruiting target
Top Notre Dame 2027 quarterback Kamden Lopati is expected to land with the Michigan Wolverines. We all now know why.
While Notre Dame football recruiting has been riding a ton of momentum in the 2027 class recently, the program is expecting some difficult news on the horizon. That centers around an expert prediction being logged for 2027 Salt Lake City (Utah) West quarterback Kamden Lopati to land with Michigan, and it appears barring something unforeseen, the talented signal caller will indeed land with the Wolverines.
Lopati had taken an unofficial weekend trip to South Bend recently, and optimism was high that head coach Marcus Freeman and the Fighting Irish had enough positive momentum to flip him from his Illinois commitment. Michigan was one of the other programs in contention, but it felt like the Irish had separated itself from the pack. That was true until Lopati visited Ann Arbor last weekend.
Coming out of that trip, the predictions are flying for Lopati to land with Michigan. It feels like everything is happening very quickly, leaving many to wonder just how the Wolverines were seemingly able to close the deal so quickly. Illinois head coach Bret Bielema gave his opinion about the situation.
In an X post with a recruiting update from the Michigan side, Bielema decided to quote tweet and gave his two cents on the situation. As is typically the case, the Illinois head coach didn’t hesitate to pull the curtains back for everyone to see. It’s now very clear how the Wolverines were able to close the deal.
“Been hearing several million different things.. anything specific?”
Bret bielema, Illinois head coach
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In the wonderful (?) world of NIL, this is how a lot of recruiting battles go nowadays, and nobody can really blame the Lopati side when so much money is flashed in front of them. For Notre Dame, losing out on Lopati is a tough blow. The team must now either go all in on Florida signal caller Champ Monds or choose to expand the quarterback board.
It’ll be interesting to evaluate their next move.
Kamden Lopati’s recruiting background
The recruiting rankings are a bit all over the place for Lopati right now – some outlets rank him as a four-star and others as a three-star player. On the 247 Sports Composite ranking, Lopati sits as a four-star, the No. 122 overall player, the No. 9 quarterback, and the No. 2 player from the state of Utah for the 2027 recruiting class. If the interest over the last couple of months is any indication, those rankings should continue to trend upward.
While his rankings are all over the place, the Utah native boasts an impressive offer list so far. Some of his top offers include the Fighting Irish, Georgia, Oregon, Florida, Tennessee, Michigan, Arizona State, Utah, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Boston College, Houston, Illinois, Arkansas, Cal, Duke, Stanford, and Purdue, among others. More and more schools are continuing to show a lot of interest in the talented passer.
As a junior in 2025, Lopati put together a tremendous season. The 6-3, 220-pound passer managed to throw for 2,671 yards and 34 touchdowns, completing over 64 percent of his passes and throwing just eight interceptions. Lopati also ran for another 730 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground, averaging a stellar 8.1 yards per carry. That part of his game has been extremely underrated.