Notre Dame Looking To Make A Recruiting Impact In Detroit
The Motor City is known for innovation in the car industry, but It’s looking like it could also turn into fertile ground for “gap closing” high school recruits that are excited about the direction of Notre Dame under Marcus Freeman.
Of course, Notre Dame has landed a few legends from Detroit, including running back Jerome Bettis and one of his teammates, the late Rodney Culver.
Just this week, Notre Dame offered 2025 quarterback Bryce Jay Underwood from Belleville, Mich., which is just outside of Detroit. As for the class of 2023, arguably the biggest target on the board - Martin Luther King Jr. quarterback Dante Moore is a Detroit player, as is defensive end Jalen Thompson of Detroit (Mich.) Cass Tech, another Fighting Irish target in the class.
Thompson’s excitement about Notre Dame hasn’t changed despite the departure of former defensive line coach, Mike Elston, who was one of his lead recruiters along with Chad Bowden. The continued connection with Bowden and Freeman as the head coach continues to overshadow anything else from a staff perspective.
“Marcus Freeman is definitely someone I can see myself playing for and I can already feel that he’s a great leader," Thompson said.
Thompson is also looking forward to visiting South Bend and the campus to validate his feelings about Freeman and the program in the future.
Until then, there is another resident of the “Motor City” that he might get a chance to talk with a lot, but the few times that they do cross paths, they share pleasantries and few football chats. That would be Moore, someone Thompson would love to be chasing around the field one year and possibly being teammates with the next.
“We’ve never really talked about going to the same school, but that would be a pretty cool thing," Thompson noted.
Moore has been quiet since returning from the national combine as he continued to turn in dime dropping performances the entire weekend in San Antonio. He continues to put in off-season work on his game and keeping a close eye on everything that’s going on across the college football landscape.
Someone that has been able to speak with Moore is former Notre Dame quarterback Malik Zaire.
“I believe Dante and his family know exactly what they want in the program that they choose and I think Tommy Rees is doing a really good job with not only Dante, but all of the elite offensive recruits in the 2023 class," Zaire told Irish Breakdown. "Dante isn’t going to rush his decision, but he won’t be hesitant to pull the trigger when the time comes.”
One of the biggest things that seems be consistent amongst 2023 offensive recruits is Rees and the strength of relationship being build amongst those targets. That could be the first hint of an assembly line of talent flowing from Detroit to South Bend in the coming years.
Other players in or just outside of Detroit to keep an eye on are 2023 defensive back Amare Snowden (Roseville), 2024 quarterback CJ Carr (Saline) and 2024 defensive back Jacob Oden (Harper Woods).
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