Chad Bowden heard Marcus Freeman screaming and wasn’t sure what was going on.

Turns out the Irish head coach was on the phone early Wednesday afternoon with 4-star linebacker Madden Faraimo who told Freeman he was coming to Notre Dame.

The last minute addition for the Irish on Signing Day capped off a 25 player recruiting class that is ranked as the 11th best in the country according to Rivals.

Freeman said the courtship of Faraimo was a unique one.

“We talked last night and his mind wasn’t made up,” Freeman explained. “We talked this morning. His mind wasn’t made up. Sometime after his conversations with our coaching staff,
myself, Chad Bowden, he came to the realization that this was the place he wanted to be.”

Freeman says as he was trying to convince Faraimo–he kept telling him to ‘choose hard’ –which is a mantra the Irish use in recruiting.

“He said, ‘I chose God,'” Freeman relayed. “I thought that was a powerful statement and speaks volumes about the young man and his family. One of those ones that came down to the last minute, and until the papers came in, you still were on pins and needles.”

Bowden, Notre Dame football’s general manager, said they were pretty fired up when Faraimo became official.

“The whole staff came out,” Bowden explained. “Everyone was hugging each other. It was a really special moment, a moment I’ll never forget.”

Notre Dame almost certainly benefited from the timing of USC linebackers coach Matt Entz accepting the head coaching job at Fresno State today. Bowden said it had a lot to do with the respect the Irish coaching staff commands with respect to the linebacker position.

“We have Coach Freeman, he’s a linebacker guy as our head coach,” Bowden said. “You have Coach Bullough, who will obviously coach the linebackers, and Coach Golden, who in the NFL coached linebackers. Those three are the reason why Madden is here today and why he signed with the Irish.”

Faraimo is the 53rd ranked player in the nation, according to Rivals, and the 4th best linebacker. Notre Dame snatched him away out of USC’s backyard and he’s the 3rd highest ranked player in the class behind 5-star offensive lineman Will Black and 4-star defensive end Christopher Burgess.

Notre Dame’s class ends up with 1 5-star player and 14 4-star prospects.

While the Irish lost the 2nd ranked dual threat quarterback in the country in Deuce Knight a few months ago, they landed the 18th best pro style quarterback in Blake Herbert out of Connecticut. Freeman said Notre Dame will continue to look to take a quarterback in every class while also declaring that the Irish have no intentions of going to the transfer portal for a quarterback this off-season.

The class also had some recognizable names including 3-star wide receiver Jerome Bettis Jr, son of Notre Dame great and Pro Football Hall of Famer, Jerome Bettis and 4-star tight end James Flanigan, son of former Notre Dame defensive lineman Jim Flanigan.

Notre Dame signed three players from the state of Indiana and three players from the Chicagoland area. Both are areas that Notre Dame wants to be able to land the best prospects from.

The Irish also landed the nation’s 2nd best kicker late in the cycle, signing Erik Schmidt.

13 of the 25 members of the class will enroll early beginning in January with the other 12 arriving in June.

You can see Notre Dame’s full Signing day list by clicking here.