Notre Dame Recruiting: Fighting Irish Solid in Latest ESPN 2026 Rankings

ESPN released its updated 2026 college football recruiting class rankings on Thursday and Notre Dame is still looking good.

Feb 19, 2025; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman and team are honored in the first half of the game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the SMU Mustangs at the Purcell Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-Imagn Images | Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

ESPN updated its 2026 recruiting class rankings on Thursday, and nothing has changed on the Notre Dame front.

The Fighting Irish sat in the No 5 spot back on August 8th when ESPN previously released its recruiting class rankings, and 13 days later Notre Dame still remains fifth.

In fact, the top five teams still remain the same. USC is at the top, followed by Georgia, Texas A&M, and Texas.

It might seem hard to believe, but USC remains No. 1 despite finishing a disappointing 7-6 a year ago. They're loading up with 19 ESPN Top 300 recruits in their class.

But overall, head coach Lincoln Riley's time at Southern Cal has been a disappointment, and there could quickly be several decommitments with another mediocre year.

And if Notre Dame can make another deep playoff run this season, those potential "decommitted" recruits from USC could end up in South Bend when it's all said and done.

Head coach Marcus Freeman has done a great job of recruiting during his short tenure as ND's head coach, and it's hard not to think about how much better of recruits he could land if the Fighting Irish can go all the way this season after falling a game short last year.

The Fighting Irish have 18 ESPN 300 top recruits, led by a pair of five-star recruits in edge rusher Rodney Dunham and safety Joey O'Brien. After that, ND has 14 four-star recruits. Overall, the strength of Notre Dame's 2026 recruiting class is its defense, which has both Dunham and O'Brien, plus four, four-star recruits.

Even if Notre Dame doesn't win the National Championship this year, Notre Dame needs better play out of the quarterback position to improve its chances of finally winning it all. ND's poor track record of quarterbacks in the NFL speaks for itself, and for the most part, the Fighting Irish passers have been solid, but not necessarily sensational.

This class should change that.

Maybe freshman quarterback CJ Carr is finally that guy, or maybe four-star recruit Noah Grubbs is, but until a Fighting Irish quarterback plays at a Heisman level, expect Notre Dame to continue to fall short of a National Championship or the top spot in the recruiting class rankings.

But still, No. 5 after losing quite a few seniors last year is impressive to say the least. And again, that could change, for better or worse, depending on how Notre Dame does this year.