Notre Dame, tradition-steeped, Catholic-institution Notre Dame, continues to become one of college football's most diverse, evolved programs under third-year coach Marcus Freeman.
FootballScoop has learned that Freeman, Notre Dame athletics leadership and program general manager Chad Bowden have just promoted Zaire Turner to the top-level role of director of player personnel.
Turner, hired a few years ago from Virginia Tech, has proved a linchpin in Notre Dame's advanced recruiting efforts under Freeman, Bowden & Co.
The Fighting Irish currently have the nation's No. 5 recruiting class, according to 247Sports, and is seen as a finalist alongside LSU for heralded five-star wideout Derek Meadows, set to announce his commitment Saturday.
Turner joins newly hired Baylor personnel executive Callie Cameron as among the first-ever female directors of player personnel in collegiate football.
Additionally, continuing to showcase a "female-forward" approach, Notre Dame has elevated Olivia Mitchell to the role of assistant athletics director for football operations while communications ace Katy Lonergan, already an associate athletics director for strategic and football communications, has also been officially promoted to the role of advisor to the head football coach.
“I think it’s important for men but also women to see women in football,” Freeman previously told John Brice. “I want my daughters to see women working in football and to say, ‘That could be me’ if they want it to be.
“They can see all around them and it’s not just minorities or white and black males or females. It’s all those different scenarios. It’s life, and life isn’t one type of person. Life is all-encompassing and all people that can all come together. I want our players and everyone who touches our program to see that.”
Mitchell spent the previous four seasons as Notre Dame's director of football operations before she was elevated to her current post.
In filling the role most recently vacated by Dre Brown after he departed Notre Dame to return to his alma mater, Illinois, as its director of player personnel, the Irish have pried Caleb Davis away from Gerad Parker's Troy program to serve as Notre Dame's director of recruiting, FootballScoop has learned. Davis had been among Parker's first hires and had filled the role of co-general manager for the Trojans since Parker was hired atop the Troy program.
Davis had been Freeman's second hire when Freeman arrived in South Bend, Indiana, as Notre Dame defensive coordinator in early 2021; Davis previously worked with Freeman and Bowden in the recruiting office at Cincinnati.
Carter Auman, which FootballScoop first reported last month, has been elevated to the role of assistant general manager after being offered an upper-level personnel position in Luke Fickell's Wisconsin program.
Becca Sites has been promoted to coordinator of on-campus recruiting, and Claire Cunningham has been named Notre Dame's director of football communications, in addition to her role overseeing communications for Fighting Irish baseball.
Notre Dame, which is seeking a return to the College Football Playoffs for the first time since 2020 and the program's first-ever berth under Freeman, opens its 2024 season on the road at Texas A&M Aug. 31.
The Aggies are led by first-year coach Mike Elko, the former Notre Dame defensive coordinator who quickly turned around Duke's program before being tabbed last December as the Aggies's choice to replace the fired Jimbo Fisher.
The Fighting Irish have opened each of their three seasons under Freeman away from Notre Dame Stadium, a streak that spans the final year of the Brian Kelly era when the program began the 2021 season at Florida State.
Notre Dame's first home game of the 2024 season is Sept. 7 against Northern Illinois.
