With marketable name, Notre Dame four-star QB commit Deuce Knight ready to tackle NIL

Deuce Knight has dreams of purchasing his parents a house at some point in his football career.

The four-star recruit and Notre Dame quarterback commit is not sure when that goal will be achieved on his timeline. The long-term goal is to make it to the NFL, but the 6-foot-4.5, 200-pound quarterback knows he will have opportunities when he reaches South Bend to start monetizing his NIL rights.

Maximizing those to help his family is a top priority as he enters his senior year of high school at George County in Lucedale, Mississippi.

“I would say once I start getting some money – like, NFL money, I know when I get to the NFL, I want to get my parents a house,” Knight told On3 on Tuesday at the On3 Elite Series. “That’s the dream for me. But right now, I’d say the money you make in college, you don’t just want to spend it on something crazy because you don’t know where you’re going to end up or what you’re going to do. I still want to be able to provide for my parents.”

Deuce Knight understands Notre Dame’s marketing power

Knight had a busy junior season. He transferred to Nashville’s Lipscomb Academy over the summer just to return to his hometown school, Lucedale, in the middle of the season. Between the two stops, he accounted for 28 touchdowns across 10 games and threw only two interceptions.

Seeing what Sam Hartman accomplished at Notre Dame in 2023 in NIL gives Knight the confidence he can reach similar success during his time in South Bend. The quarterback had 135,000 followers across Instagram, X and TikTok on Sept. 19, days before Notre Dame’s matchup with Ohio State. His following grew to roughly 279,900 in October – adding 144,900 followers in less than a month last fall. That has since climbed to more than 365,000.

Knight also knows he can leverage the Notre Dame brand.

“Obviously, Notre Dame is one of the most marketable places in the country,” he said. “That ND logo, that’s a big brand, so I can make a lot of money off my name at Notre Dame. I feel like they just offer a top-notch education than other schools that don’t. Football, everybody knows, you can’t play until you die. You’ve got to have a backup plan if something crazy happens. I just think they offer an elite education for that.”

Like any top-100 recruit in the current era of college football, Knight admitted he’s received some crazy NIL offers that are unrealistic. He’s been locked in with the Fighting Irish since September 2023, but he remains in contact with Alabama and Ole Miss. The Rebels appear to be the biggest threat to Notre Dame entering a crucial summer.

Knight said he’s leaned on quarterback friends to understand what his market value is. He’s held off on signing with an agent because the state of Mississippi does not allow NIL at the high school level.

He will be back at Notre Dame for an official visit next month. While buying a house may not be tangible during college, Deuce Knight wants to make sure his parents can attend all his games on his dime.

“I feel like I have a kind of marketable name – Deuce Knight, that’s just a cool name,” he said. “I don’t want to be too cocky, but I want to make sure I can get my parents to games and stuff like that because Mississippi to South Bend, that’s a long way.”