The recruiting battle between Notre Dame and Stanford isn't what it used to be. Back in the early to mid 2010s, these two rivals would battle it out on the gridiron and on the recruiting trail. Since 2019, that hasn't been the narrative with the Irish under head coach Marcus Freeman turning into a recruiting giant on the trail with Stanford trying to get back to what they were under Jim Harbaugh and David Shaw. 

First-year head coach Tavita Pritchard looks to turn that around, with the help of general manager Andrew Luck, and get Stanford back to it's recruiting prowess of 10-15 years ago. Having said that, there's still some interesting matchups to breakdown from a recruiting standpoint in Saturday's battle for the Legend's Trophy. 

Let's look at how these two teams stack up in recruiting rankings using the Rivals/On3 composite rankings to compare. 

On paper, this matchup obviously favors Notre Dame, and the same could be said for the defensive side of the ball. But what's intriguing about this matchup is the amount of lower ranked and unranked players for both squads that have performed above their initial high school recruiting rankings. 

For the Irish, wide receiver Jordan Faison is currently the team's leading receiver and looks to be, once again, in 2026. The 5-11, 185-pound pass catcher has 25 receptions, 371 yards, and four touchdowns through their first five games. Center Ashton Craig is the second lowest rated player on the Notre Dame offense but has been one of their best offensive lineman this season.

For Stanford, linebacker Matt Rose (No. 1302) was a three-star player coming out of high school but currently leads the team in tackles (38) and tackles for loss (4.0) and that's with missing their latest matchup against Wake Forest. One key matchup to watch will be EDGE player Tavarua Tafiti (No. 260) going against the Notre Dame tackles, Will Black (No. 17) and Guerby Lambert (No. 42), two of Notre Dame's highest ranked players on offense from a recruiting standpoint. 

Similar to Notre Dame's offense, Stanford's offense has some players who were unranked coming out of high school that have performed above their high school recruiting ranking, or lack thereof. Quarterback Davis Warren (unranked) has performed significantly better under the tutelage of Pritchard and Luck. Wide receiver Caden High (unranked) is currently Stanford's leading receiver from a yards and touchdown standpoint while left tackle Niki Prongos (unranked) is their best offensive lineman. 

Notre Dame's defense is home to an unranked starter as well coming out of high school. Safety Luke Talich has been on a roll to start the 2026 season and has been a more than serviceable replacement to Brauntae Johnson who is currently out with a lower body injury. From a numbers standpoint, this is a matchup that Notre Dame should dominate across the board, but this was also the case in 2022 and the Irish were upset 16-14. This is an experienced group of football players who won't be intimidated by the moment. 

Here are the class rankings of the two programs from the last five seasons (247 Composite Rankings) 

NOTRE DAME

2026 - 5
2025 - 12 
2024 - 9
2023 - 12
2022 - 7

STANFORD

2026 - 37
2025 - 56
2024 - 31
2023 - 44
2022 - 19

Advantage: Notre Dame

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