Among Marcus Freeman's various memorable mantras for Notre Dame football is "Adapt or die."
It's an approach as straightforward as it reads.
And it's arguably never been more important for Notre Dame, which currently is in the longest season in program history and faces Ohio State, equally still grinding, Monday night in Atlanta for the College Football Playoff Championship.
To that end, the Fighting Irish are deploying a rare approach to maintain a highly visible presence on the recruiting trail during this open period on the NCAA calendar.
Notre Dame is sending several members of its personnel and recruiting staff who work under general manager Chad Bowden out onto the road, in addition to a couple of assistant coaches.
Teams that make extended CFP runs in recent years all must deploy this method; still, there's a key difference with Notre Dame.
The Fighting Irish might be the only program in major college football to routinely send women out on the recruiting trail to represent the storied Notre Dame program.
Case in point: Notre Dame Director of Player Personnel, Zaire Turner, and Becca Sites, the on-campus recruiting coordinator, both are on the road recruiting this week for the Irish, several sources told FootballScoop. They received waivers from the NCAA, as did other recruiting and personnel members, sources shared.
Those two are on the trail in addition to Bowden and various other members of his staff, as well as at least one assistant coach.
Notre Dame also deployed a similar approach earlier this month before it had all staff convene in Miami for last week's Orange Bowl. Recruiting staffers out on the road flew from their respective locations to join the Irish in South Beach.
Just last month, Freeman noted that adaptability and flexibility always are important but perhaps never more so in the current climate of college football.
“Well, I think every year, shoot, every month, every day can change your approach to recruiting, your approach to your football program," Freeman said. "As you said, it's changed yearly in the last four years. But you have to be able to adapt. You have to be able to enhance because if you don't, I think you're going to get passed by.
“We've got some innovative people on our staff. We try to continuously be forward thinking. Is roster limits going to happen and all these different things. You've got to have a plan for both, roster limits and no roster limits. Hey, 85 scholarships, you have to have a plan for both. It's a challenge to all of us to continuously be forward thinking. What's next year going to look like, what's two years from now going to look like, what's our positional needs, what do we need to address in the transfer portal. I think constantly staying one step ahead or being quickly able to adapt your approach is really what's going to make people successful.”
Under the current NCAA calendar, Jan. 6 through Feb. 1 is a contact period for schools to be in casual meetings with prospective student-athletes, except for a three-day period that ends today.
The contact period allows coaches -- including head coaches -- to have direct, in-person contact with high school juniors and seniors; those are limited to two "touch points" at the school per each prospect.
Assistant coaches and personnel can visit in-home.
A quiet periods goes into effect Feb. 2 and then a dead period runs from Feb. 3-March 2.