Notre Dame football makes key hire to recruiting department, several others add significant promotions
On Tuesday, Blue & Gold discovered that the University of Notre Dame athletics website reflected several changes to the football program’s recruiting staff, spearheaded by Chad Bowden, the assistant athletics director, player personnel and de facto general manager.
Bowden and head coach Marcus Freeman made three key promotions and rehired former Troy director of player personnel Caleb Davis to a new position. FootballScoop’s John Brice was the first to report the news on Tuesday afternoon.
The Irish elevated Zaire Turner to director of player personnel, Becca Sites to coordinator of on-campus recruiting and Carter Auman to assistant to the general manager. Davis returns as the program’s new director of recruiting.
As Brice noted, Turner’s promotion is especially historic as she becomes one of the first females to hold a college football director of player personnel position. Turner was previously Notre Dame’s director of recruiting operations.
Notre Dame no longer lists a director of football recruiting operations position on its athletics website.
Breakdown of the roles within the Notre Dame football program’s recruiting department
Sites, Auman and Davis all previously held recruiting associate roles for the program. Sites succeeded Davis in February after he followed former Irish offensive coordinator Gerad Parker, who became Troy’s head coach in December. Auman and Sites were former Notre Dame student assistants. Davis is a 2021 class graduate of Cincinnati.
Mackenzie Zanow, the team’s previous director of on-campus recruiting, is not currently referenced on the athletics website. A team spokesperson confirmed Zanow is no longer with the program.
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Davis replaces Dre Brown, who returned to his alma mater, Illinois, in April to become the program’s director of player personnel. Brown initially took over Bowden’s position as the director of recruiting after both earned offseason promotions in March. This came after Michigan attempted to hire Bowden for a key personnel role in February. Brown left Notre Dame in April to become Illinois’ director of player personnel.
Auman received a new role after Wisconsin targeted him to become the program’s director of player personnel in June.
Deland McCullough II, son of Irish running backs coach Deland McCullough, joined the program in April as a recruiting associate. The younger McCullough has assumed the role of analyst, high school relations.
Currently, the Irish hold the No. 6 recruiting class in the 2025 Industry Ranking Football Team Recruiting Rankings. Bowden, Turner, Davis and Auman played key roles in Notre Dame finishing 11th in 2024 and 10th in 2023.
