Notre Dame’s Newest Football Commit Gets High Praise from Recruiting Guru

Notre Dame plucked a tight end out of northern Ohio on Monday

Sep 7, 2024; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish Offensive Coordinator Mike Denbrock watches warmups before the game against the Northern Illinois Huskies at Notre Dame Stadium. | Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

Notre Dame landed its 20th commitment in the 2026 recruiting cycle on Monday when tight end Preston Fryzel announced he would be playing for the Fighting Irish.

If you base it solely off recruiting rankings you probably won't get overly excited about the commitment, but one of the best and longest-running recruiting experts out there sees big thing for the newest Golden Domer.

Fryzel checks in at 6-4, 220-pounds from Toledo (Central Catholic), Ohio and is rated as a three-star prospect by the 247Sports composite rankings. Those numbers peg him as the nation's 33rd overall tight end in the class as well.

Tom Lemming has been covering college football recruiting for decades and remains among the biggest names in the business. Lemming's reaction to Fryzel announcing his Notre Dame commitment however brought up the name of one of the best to ever play the position for the Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame landed a Tyler Eifert type TE today getting a commitment from Preston Fryzel 6‘4“ 220 Toledo Central Catholic HS. Averaged 18.8 ypc in 24. Sure handed and athletic more of a WR in HS. Outstanding potential. In fact a 4* based on production and projection as a TE. pic.twitter.com/gTSmWq3APJ

— Tom Lemming (@LemmingReport) June 23, 2025

For comparison, Tyler Eifert had eight listed scholarship offers when he chose Notre Dame back in the 2009 recruiting class. Those programs besides Notre Dame included Cincinnati, Indiana, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue, Vanderbilt, and Wake Forest.

Plenty respectable of schools, but for the most part hardly the elite of college football.

Eifert went on to become a huge receiving threat for Notre Dame, catching 140 passes and scoring 11 touchdowns during his time in blue and gold. If Notre Dame can get anywhere near that with Fryzel then we'll look back at the Toledo product as being one of the absolute steals of this impressive recruiting class.