Notre Dame and Rice have only played each other five times with the Irish owning the series 5-0. Their last meeting was during the 2014 season opener and the Owls fell 48-17. These two programs rarely meet on the gridiron and have even less encounters on the recruiting trail. This recruiting comparison isn't about which team has the better recruits of the higher blue-chip ratio, it's to show the level of dominance that should be on display from the Fighting Irish this Saturday. 

Head coach Marcus Freeman has done a tremendous job turning around the narrative around the Fighting Irish on the recruiting trail. He's struggled, however, beating FBS teams in season openers. Since he took over the program in 2022, Freeman has yet to beat an FBS opponent in the home opener which include losses to Marshall and Northern Illinois who this program also had recruiting advantages over.

Having said that, this program looks to have taken a massive step forward and will likely dominate this matchup Saturday afternoon. Let's look at how these two teams stack up in the recruiting ranks using Rivals/On3 composite rankings to compare.

On paper, there's nothing about this matchup that should be close. Notre Dame has nine Top 300 recruits on offense in their starting lineup and have four more in their 'top reserve' players. Rice's highest ranked recruit, three-star cornerback Jamir Benjamin (No. 500) carries the load on defense for the Owls. Over the course of the week, we're going to talk about why Notre Dame should dominate this matchup and this is a major reason as to why. 

Notre Dame is a team that wants to start fast and dominate in the trenches. Doing that in this matchup against a Rice program that doesn't have a single defensive lineman that has a recruiting ranking higher than No. 1697 in the country should be the telling matchup in this one. As we know, being an unranked recruit doesn't tell the entire story. Notre Dame's most productive receiver last season, and in their season opener, was unranked coming out of high school. Rice has six players on defense that were unranked coming out of high school, but they'll have their work cut out for them Saturday afternoon. 

From a pure rankings standpoint, this matchup is significantly closer than the defensive side of the ball for the Owls. They only have one unranked player in their starting lineup, right tackle Justin Michaelis, matchup Notre Dame who will likely be starting Luke Talich with the injury to Brauntae Johnson. Having said that, this is still a matchup the Fighting Irish defense should dominate. 

This is an Owls offense that will run the ball all day long and that's reflective in the players they recruited. They utilize their wide receivers more like wing backs in a triple option offense which is why their high school recruiting rankings won't blow people away. Where the biggest separation is between these units is in the trenches. Notre Dame's lowest ranked defensive tackle, Jason Onye, will most likely not play in this game after suffering an ankle injury, but until we hear official word, his status remains uncertain. 

Regardless, a three-star defensive tackle will likely be starting for the Fighting Irish in some capacity whether that's Francis Brewu (No. 470), Tionne Gray (No. 457) or Elijah Hughes (No. 1029). On paper, this is the closest matchup between the Irish and the Owls from a recruiting standpoint, but still a matchup Notre Dame is projected to win nonetheless. 

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

Rice

2026 - 106
2025 - 78
2024 - 133
2023 - 82
2022 - 114

Advantage: Notre Dame

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