Notre Dame struggles with 2025 wide receiver recruiting continue, miss out on dynamic Las Vegas pass catcher

When you talk about priorities in the 2025 recruiting class for Notre Dame , Las Vegas (Nev.) Bishop Gorman wide receiver Derek Meadows has been a well established one longer than just about anyone. Ever since he first visited South Bend last offseason for camp, the Irish staff began to value him tremendously. From a physical perspective, it’s easy to understand why. At 6-5 and 200 pounds, Meadows brings an impressive level of size, length, and explosiveness to the table. At that particular event, Meadows ran a 4.50 second forty-yard dash, a very impressive time for a then sophomore.

Unfortunately, Notre Dame’s high opinion of Meadows wasn’t enough. On Saturday, the Las Vegas native opted for LSU over the Irish, Alabama, Georgia and Michigan. In the end, the allure of the SEC and more stable track to send wide receivers to the NFL won out.

That concluded a disastrous month of July for the Irish, seeing Tanook Hines commit to the USC Trojans and Dylan Robinson opt for the University of Washington. That’s the worst case scenario for the Irish, who are in a rough spot with wide receiver recruiting in the 2025 recruiting class. With commitments from Elijah Burress and Jerome Bettis Jr., that is a low ceiling pairing that seems to lack big play ability.

Notre Dame is now left to go to the drawing board, and would be best fit to take things slow from here. The season is right around the corner, which should allow the Irish staff some time to take a look at the landscape and let things play out. A lot of players are found during the evaluation period early in the season, and others take big steps from the previous season, which might allow Notre Dame to find some late values.

That time will also allow them to continue to recruit some recruits they missed on. Do you think that the Irish staff is just going to stop recruiting Meadows? You would be sorely mistaken. He is a player they have invested a lot of time in and love the talent, so the staff isn’t going to stop. Meadows is a player they believe in.

How things end will determine the overall success of offensive recruiting in 2025. The class is good as a whole but the wide receiver group is a big black eye. There are some major question marks about the strength of Mike Brown as a recruiter, which nobody can blame right now. He came in with a less than ideal board standing but had plenty of time to recover. Coach Brown did not.

Widely regarded as a good wide receiver developer, this is the first time that Coach Brown would be recruiting at this high of a level. At his previous stops at Cincinnati and Wisconsin, neither school is regarded as an overly attractive destination for top pass catchers. Notre Dame is a place that can, and will need to at a higher level moving forward. Figuring out the 2025 problem and getting in early standing in 2026 are both paramount.