Elite Notre Dame QB pledge Deuce Knight breaks down commitment, other schools pursuing him
Marcus Freeman his staff at Notre Dame made one of the biggest early splashes in the 2025 cycle by landing Lucedale (Miss.) George County quarterback Deuce Knight back in September.
The No. 40 overall prospect and No. 4 quarterback in the class, Knight was also courted by Tennessee, Alabama, Ole Miss and a host of others. Nearly six months later, he remains pledged to the Fighting Irish, even as other schools continue their efforts to flip him.
Notre Dame’s pitch to him started straight from the top with head coach Marcus Freeman, and he makes Knight feel like a top priority.
“Really, head coach Marcus Freeman,” Knight told On3’s Phillip Dukes on Monday of why he committed to the Irish. “He really stressed when he was recruiting me like, ‘You’re the guy. Not No. 1 quarterback. You are our No. 1 guy.’ And he said, ‘We need to have this thing start with you.’
… I’m talking to Coach Freeman almost every day, like he’s emphasized recruiting me. I’m on the phone with this man when he’s on vacation with his family in Hawaii and he’s on FaceTime with me. And those kind of things mean a lot. They were recruiting me harder than anybody.”
On top of that, Knight feels like the combination of academics and football in South Bend measures up to anywhere in the country.
“The global brand Notre Dame has, I feel like you can’t beat it — in school or in football,” he said. “I can go up there and play really competitive football, compete for nattys and and then I’m not setting there shorting the school.”
Alabama and Ole Miss making major pushes with Knight
Despite his commitment to the Fighting Irish, it’s not going to stop other schools from trying to poach him between now and next December. At the top of that list is his home state school, Ole Miss. The Rebels were a contender the first time around and have not let up on him.
“I talk to somebody from the Ole Miss staff at least every day,” he said. “Me being a Mississippi guy, that’s the thing that they harp on. Like, ‘You could really stay home, put on big for your state, and play under one of the best offensive-minded head coaches in Coach Kiffin.’ You know, he’s a quarterback guru-type and more people are going to come out [to watch me]. With me being a Mississippi homegrown guy playing for a school like Ole Miss, more people are going to come — that’s what they’re trying to let me know.”
Alabama’s new coaching staff is also looking to make a big splash, pursuing him as a centerpiece to Kalen DeBoer’s first recruiting class in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide are the closest Power Five school to him and are looking to make up ground with that and a pre-existing relationship with DeBoer.
“My brother, he played for Indiana back in 2019 under the head coach, Coach DeBoer,” Knight added. “So I know him really well and he knows me really well. He’s been seeing my face since I was in seventh or eighth grade. And you know they [Washington] just had a lefty quarterback, Michael Penix, just like me. We’re around the same size, and they always tell me they think I can come in and do the same things because they see so much similarity between me and Michael.”
South Carolina, Colorado trying to make up ground
Of the other schools who have been in contact with him, Knight noted South Carolina and Colorado. Neither has a commitment at the quarterback position in 2025, and both see parts of his game that resemble Spencer Rattler and Shedeur Sanders.
“South Carolina, that’s another school who has been on me a lot,” he said. “Their offensive coordinator, Dowell Loggains, he spent 17 years in the NFL so that’s a thing I hear a lot from them. … Spencer Rattler, he was at the Senior Bowl the other day and won Senior Bowl MVP. And I’ve seen on Twitter that they believe Spencer’s mind is the most NFL-ready and the way he goes about things. As a coach, that looks good on you too. So Coach Loggains is sending me those things and saying, ‘He better be ready for that because I spent 17 years in the NFL.'”
Of the Buffaloes, he added:
“Colorado, that’s a new offer for me. I’ve been getting to know the staff for the past two weeks and they’ve been coming at me hard. They’re trying to make up lost ground because I’m committed to Notre Dame already and they just offered two weeks ago. But their message to me is that they think me and Shedeur have a lot of similarities and you want to go somewhere you can see yourself playing. I can see myself in Shedeur.”