The Insane Numbers Behind Notre Dame's Latest Five-Star, Albert Simien

Notre Dame football has been on a recruiting tear of late. That heater only got hotter on Friday when five-star offensive guard Albert Simien of Lake Charles (Sam Houston), Louisiana, announced his commitment.

Simien is a five-star recruit which is always a massive thing for a college program to land, but the fact Notre Dame was able to land him from where he came from is the real upset.

Numbers Behind Notre Dame Landing Albert Simien

Simien is rated as one of the nation's very top players regardless of the recruiting outlet you ask.

The 247Sports composite ranks him as the 14th overall player nationally while On3 calls him the 20th best player in the class.

Either way, it's an incredibly good thing for Notre Dame to have landed his talents, instead of not.

Albert Simien, the No. 1 offensive guard in the nation, joins SportsCenter to announce his commitment to Notre Dame 🚨 pic.twitter.com/Gb1JJYRi1k
— SportsCenter NEXT (@SCNext) June 26, 2026

The fact it was able to pull him out of the state of Louisiana is almost unheard of, though.

Kyle Kelly of Blue & Gold Illustrated did the work and shared some numbers regarding five-star talents from the state of Louisiana. Let's just say those type of players don't leave home often, and the rare times they do, they don't end up very far away.

According to Kelly, who shared this on a recent podcast episode with Mike Singer:

Since recruiting rankings have been tracked in the online era, dating back to 2004, 35 high school players from Louisiana have been given a five-star grade, including Simien.

Of those 35 players, 25 of them ended up playing college football at LSU.

Aside from Simien, the remaining 10 went to various different SEC programs including Alabama, and Tennessee.

And here's the real kicker - of all 34 (besides Simien), the farthest any went away to play college football was in Knoxville, at the University of Tennessee.

Nick Shepkowski's Quick Takeaway

Well, the lyrics to the Notre Dame Victory March don't say "what tho the odds be great or small" for no reason.

This recruiting win is just further validation of Marcus Freeman's attitude from the second he stepped foot on Notre Dame's campus as defensive coordinator following the 2020 season.

Almost immediately, those who worked in the recruiting office were flooded with requests for more. It was clear that there wasn't a single prospect too big, too far away, or from a place that Notre Dame didn't traditionally have success that it wouldn't go big-game hunting for.

With Notre Dame now having two 5 ⭐️ OL in this 2027 class in Albert Simien and Olu Olubobola, the Irish have landed SEVEN 5 ⭐️ OL in the last six cycles.

Doesn’t get much better than that at one of the most important position groups in football.

🔥🔥🔥
— Notre Dame Recruiting (@NDrecruiting01) June 26, 2026

When Freeman was promoted to head coach following Brian Kelly's departure to LSU, that was clearly only more the case.

Hours after having his introductory press conference, Notre Dame media released a video of Freeman and then-offensive coordinator Tommy Rees getting on a private jet to go recruit.

The saying is that "the fish stinks from the head" but in this case its clear that it thrives from there as well.

Marcus Freeman's attitude towards recruiting is crystal-clear and is reflected by every single member of the coaching staff.

As former Notre Dame great Julius Jones recently said, this is the Notre Dame that every former player thought they were getting when they committed.

And that starts with the head coach.

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