{"id":281630,"date":"2026-05-23T02:08:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T02:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/281630\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T02:08:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T02:08:19","slug":"how-notre-dame-is-building-a-florida-dame-recruiting-pipeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/281630\/","title":{"rendered":"How Notre Dame is building a ‘Florida Dame’ recruiting pipeline"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Feb. 19, new Notre Dame assistant wide receivers coach Shaun Shivers<\/a> posted \u201c#FloridaDame\u201d on Twitter after he and the Irish staff offered a few underclassmen recruits in the Sunshine State. Shivers probably had no idea at the time that he\u2019d be starting a Notre Dame recruiting initiative with that phrase.<\/p>\n

Notre Dame had to overhaul its defensive staff in the offseason, and whether it was a coincidence or not, Marcus Freeman<\/a> hired staffers who all hail from the Sunshine State \u2014 defensive line coach Charlie Partridge<\/a> (Plantation), defensive backs coach Aaron Henry<\/a> (Immokalee), linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary<\/a> (Apopka) and safeties coach Jevaughn Codlin<\/a> (Delray Beach).<\/p>\n

Codlin re-joined the staff after a two-month stint at North Texas, and in mid-February, Notre Dame stole Shivers away from Florida State. And that\u2019s to go along with other Irish staffers from Florida, such as running backs coach Ja\u2019Juan Seider<\/a> (Belle Glade), general manager Mike Martin<\/a> (Tampa) and defensive analyst Tre Reader<\/a> (Tampa).<\/p>\n

With all these ties in Florida, Notre Dame made an effort to recruit hard in the state, and it starts with the head man. Freeman spent several days in the Sunshine State during the January contact period.<\/p>\n

At the end of April, Notre Dame landed a pair of safety commitments from South Florida, coming from Hollywood (Fla.) Chaminade-Madonna\u2019s John Gay III<\/a> and Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas\u2019 Zayden Gamble<\/a>. That\u2019s when the Florida Dame trend picked up more momentum on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, it was just a saying, but it\u2019s real,\u201d Gamble told Blue & Gold. \u201cIt\u2019s the start of a pipeline. They\u2019ve got Florida guys there now, but nothing like our class now. We have four commits from South Florida alone and countless coaches from here. It\u2019s just the start of what\u2019s to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to Gamble and Gay, the Irish have Florida commitments from Vero Beach (Fla.) High quarterback Champ Monds<\/a> and Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy linebacker Amarri Irvin<\/a>, a Miami native.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I went up there, that\u2019s all Coach Shivers was saying \u2014 Florida Dame, Florida Dame,\u201d Gay added. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to bring more Florida guys up there, and they\u2019ve definitely done that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gamble\u2019s best friend is four-star wide receiver Julius Jones Jr.<\/a>, who is also his teammate at St. Thomas Aquinas. Jones is high on Notre Dame, and if he ends up committing to the Irish, the Florida Dame initiative would reach new heights.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Shivers \u2014 that\u2019s my dog,\u201d Jones said. \u201cHe\u2019s from down here, and Florida Dame \u2014 Coach Shivers started that! They\u2019re trying to build a pipeline down here because they know the talent South Florida has. It\u2019s the best state for football, and they\u2019re trying to get it going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blue & Gold spent three days in the greater Fort Lauderdale area and asked recruits and even a high school coach for their interpretation of the Florida Dame trend. This included elite 2028 quarterback Neimann Lawrence<\/a> from Plantation (Fla.) American Heritage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s coming to get the Florida dogs \u2014 trying to get them up in Indiana,\u201d Lawrence answered. \u201cThere\u2019s a South Florida swagger with intensity and high-level football. They want to stack up the best guys down here \u2014 not only on the field, but off the field from some of the best schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gay\u2019s head coach, Dameon Jones, has a longstanding relationship with Seider, who is well-known as an ace recruiter in the area, and Jones was Shivers\u2019 high school head coach. Chaminade is perennially one of the top schools in Florida.<\/p>\n

The Irish building a pipeline at this school could pay dividends, and Notre Dame already has several underclassmen offers out at the school.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever job Coach Seider has, he always will recruit down here,\u201d Jones added. \u201cWe have a great relationship, and Shivers played for me here. He\u2019s been hitting the ground running. He\u2019s known all over Dade, Broward and West Palm from when he was a player but also coaching here. He trained guys and is well known.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Coach Freeman was down here in January, he was talking about creating a pipeline from down this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

West Palm Beach (Fla.) Palm Beach Central four-star defensive tackle Tyler Alexander<\/a> is well aware of Notre Dame\u2019s push in Florida as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what they call Notre Dame, right? They call it Florida Dame,\u201d Alexander stated. \u201cLike half the coaching staff is from Florida. They\u2019re big on recruiting people from Florida, especially Coach Partridge. He loves getting D-linemen from Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Feb. 19, new Notre Dame assistant wide receivers coach Shaun Shivers posted \u201c#FloridaDame\u201d on Twitter after he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-281630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}