Notre Dame Opens Up its Recruiting Board at Wide Receiver

When Notre Dame suffered a string of tough recruiting losses in July, most notably from 5-star Derek Meadows, it became obvious that the Irish would have to expand their receiver board. Instead of throwing out a bunch of quick offers in panic mode, the staff regrouped and reset their board. In the last 24 hours, we’ve seen three new offers from Notre Dame for the class of 2025 receivers.

This morning, Antavious Richardson of Greenville, Georgia, tweeted an offer from Notre Dame.

Blessed to receive and offer from the University of Notre Dame !!🍀 @Marcus_Freeman1 @Im_MikeB @NDFootball pic.twitter.com/PH8VorwOGS

— Antavious Richardson (@Antavious545) August 23, 2024

Richardson is a 3-star prospect committed to USF with offers from Georgia Tech, Mississippi State, Duke, North Carolina, and Vanderbilt. At 6-0 175 lbs with a verified 10.68 100m time, Richardson has good speed for the position and is an option at the field and slot positions. He is a pure athlete who plays quarterback and defense for his Greenville HS squad but is being recruited as a receiver by all the programs listed above. Richardson has already flipped his commitment once from Georgia Southern to USF.

On Thursday, Jace Brown from Downey, California, also reported an offer from Notre Dame.

After a great conversation with Chad Bowden and coach Brown I am blessed to say I have received an offer from Norte Dame @TEAMTOARECRUITS @WHSBearFootball @Nic_Iamaleava pic.twitter.com/sB6iX6UXrT

— Jace Brown (@JaceBrown_) August 23, 2024

Brown is also a 3-star recruit committed to UCLA at the moment with offers from Arizona, Washington State, Utah, Kansas, and Colorado State. He is more of a boundary target at 6-4 200 lbs with an 11.06 100m time. As a junior, he had 46 catches, 560 yards, and 6 touchdowns last fall. Brown has seen his stock rise this summer with impressive showings on the 7v7 circuit.

Also on Thursday, borderline 4-star prospect Jalen Cooper from Cibolo, Texas, reported an offer from the Irish staff.

After a great conversation with @marcus_freeman1 and @im_mikeb I am blessed to receive an offer to @ndfootball. @football_steele @Defcontx7v7 @samspiegs @swiltfong @coach9cg @mikeroach247 @craighaubert @gpowersscout @dctf @satxhsfb @ghamiltonotf @rivals @_rl_martin @bdammone pic.twitter.com/gRXAfD5PO1

— Jalen Cooper (@RouteKingCoop) August 23, 2024

Cooper is rated as a 3-star on the composite rankings but holds 4-star status on both On3 and 247. Like both of the other offers, Cooper is committed elsewhere. In this case to SMU. Baylor, Houston, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Michigan State, and Utah have all also offered. Cooper hauled in 68 catches for 1,661 yards, and 23 touchdowns last year. He’s got more long speed than the other two offers with a 23.42 200m time. With his size (6-2, 165 lbs) and speed, he is a candidate for the field wide receiver position.

Notre Dame is far from an ideal position where – just as they are in a less-than-ideal position at quarterback with Deuce Knight set to visit Auburn next weekend – but the staff took their time in making these evaluations instead of just throwing out a bunch of offers and hoping they got some traction. Look for them all to visit Notre Dame at some point this fall.

Also, look for Notre Dame to continue recruiting Derek Meadows in hopes of flipping his commitment. The Irish had led that recruitment for a long time, and if they can put a passing game product on display this fall that shows things will be different at Notre Dame with Mike Denbrock running the offense, they’ll at least have a fighter’s chance in their flip attempt.