As the Notre Dame football team prepares for a match against the Miami Redhawks, which is bigger than any Fighting Irish fan would have expected before the season, Marcus Freeman is also fighting one heck of a war on the recruiting front.

At this point, Notre Dame fans have got to be pretty tired of the Deuce Knight saga. There was a time when it felt great to laugh at other programs that thought they could pull the 4-star commit away from South Bend.

However, as the summer went on and the Notre Dame football season started, it began looking far more laughable that Freeman and company would find a way to keep the talented gunslinger in the fold.

Now, one analyst is pointing to Knight once again visiting the Auburn Tigers and pointing to that as one big reason why the Irish will eventually lose the recruiting battle. In fact, he believes it would be rather shocking if Knight went anywhere else but the SEC squad.

247Sports’ Tom Loy repeated his belief this weekend that he thinks Auburn will eventually land Knight.

“I feel like it’s Groundhog Day,” Loy started.  “I mean, we’re talking about Deuce Knight yet again, but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. This is a guy that both Notre Dame and Auburn look at as committed in their class.”

“Obviously with Notre Dame, it’s public; with Auburn, it’s private, but he’s given strong indications to both programs that he’s coming … so a long way to go until this one’s done, at least officially.”

That might actually sound like good news for the Irish. After all, analysts like Loy have been predicting Knight would officially decommit from the Blue and Gold for weeks now and yet he hasn’t. 

There was also this bit from Loy. “But the longer this goes, the better for Notre Dame.”

Despite all of that. Despite the fact that the analyst has gone on record several weeks in a row predicting the quarterback commit will change sides, Loy still believes the flip is coming and Notre Dame football will lose.

“At this point, I would be absolutely shocked if Auburn loses, misses out, and doesn’t have Deuce in the class.”