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Notre Dame football making Illinois a priority for its 2026 recruiting class

Singer headshotby:Mike Singer•about 18 hours•

MikeTSinger

McHale Blade
2026 DL McHale Blade. (Kyle Kelly/Blue & Gold)

When various cities and states are discussed regarding Notre Dame football recruiting, the city of Chicago — as well as the entire state of Illinois — is usually the first mentioned.

Although it’s not the state Notre Dame located in, Illinois is often considered to be the Irish’s biggest recruiting “backyard,” and Chicago is a city that the Irish staff wants to be heavily involved in.

Notre Dame spends a lot of time recruiting Chicago and tries to uncover hidden gems. The last thing they want to have happen is a prospect fall through the cracks, go to like Iowa or Northwestern and become a high draft pick.

Take defensive linemen Joseph Reiff and Dominik Hulak, for example. The Chicagoland prospects weren’t necessarily household names when the Irish offered them. But the staff evaluated both early and landed Reiff Sept. 2023 and Hulak a couple months later.

Notre Dame’s third class of 2025 signee from the Prairie State was another defensive line recruit in Christopher Burgess Jr., who finished the cycle as a top-100 prospect. Whether it’s a highly rated, coveted recruit like Burgess or less heralded but talented prospects like Reiff and Hulak, Notre Dame wants to land top players from Illinois. Burgess, Hulak and Reiff ranked as the state’s Nos. 4, 9 and 14 overall players per the On3 Industry Ranking.

And for the 2026 class, the Irish are in pursuit of five of the top six players from Illinois. The top player from the state is Oregon quarterback commit Jonas Williams, who the Irish haven’t offered. Notre Dame already has a signal-caller pledge from Noah Grubbs in Florida. The Irish are in pursuit of the following five players in the state rankings, though. And they’re all four-star prospects ranked as top-205 overall players in America.

Chicago Simeon EDGE McHale Blade, the state’s No. 2 player per the On3 Industry Ranking, has long been on the wishlist for the Fighting Irish staff.

The Nos. 3 and 4 players in Illinois are a pair of tight ends in Dunlap (Ill.) High’s Mack Sutter and Mt. Zion (Ill.) High’s JC Anderson, respectively. Anderson is scheduled to officially visit Notre Dame in June, and we expect Sutter to take one as well.

Chicago Mount Carmel is home to the On3 Industry Ranking’s Nos. 5 and 6 players in the 2026 cycle. Those recruits are offensive tackle Claude Mpouma and defensive lineman Braeden Jones, a USC commit.

At the 32:55 mark of this week’s Notre Dame recruiting update YouTube show at Blue & Gold, recruiting insider Mike Singer discussed the Irish’s efforts in Illinois.

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