The Notre Dame football program has had a very interesting recruiting cycle in 2024. Among the exciting events was the Irish losing a quarterback commit they had in the fold for quite some time. However, it didn’t take long at all to replace him.

In fact, it was barely a week after Deuce McKnight officially decided he was headed to Auburn after being committed to the Irish for months, that Marcus Freeman landed himself a replacement. Blake Hebert flipped himself from Clemson to the Blue and Gold.

Now it turns out that according to offensive line commit Matty Augustine, the high school senior played a bit of a role in making sure that Hebert gave the Irish another look. Augustine has long made it known that he loved the culture he’s helped install at Brunswick academy. And he thinks that’s one of the reasons Hebert picked Notre Dame.

When Hebert transferred in at the start of the year, Augustine and the Brunswick crew welcomed the new quarterback and built up some strong relationships very quickly. 

“I think it was definitely good that he came in January because by the time we got out to spring and summer training, everyone trusted him and welcomed him in as a leader because they knew he was the right guy to lead this team along with us,” Augustine told Irish Sports Daily.

“I’ve been in his ear ever since he came here,” Augustine added. And that was especially the case when McNight decommitted.

“I looked at the text; Oct. 2nd,” Augustine recalls. “It was right after we heard that Deuce decommitted. I was right in his ear about it. I honestly got in his ear about the 40-year decision.”

That 40-year decision is something lots of Notre Dame football commits talk about. It’s about what happens when they’re playing days are done. It’s something many commits feel like only the Blue and Gold can offer. Now Augustine and Hebert can see that play out, at least part of it, together.