Matt Jeffery didn’t need much to start imagining a different kind of Notre Dame future. One night in Louisville did the trick.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Jeffery was in the stands watching No.
10 Notre Dame take on No. 25 Louisville when his thinking about what might come next began to shift.
At the time, he was a senior at Cheshire H.S. in Cheshire, Conn., and the No. 1 prep lacrosse prospect in the class of 2024, according to Inside Lacrosse. He had already committed to Fighting Irish coach Kevin Corrigan, and lacrosse was supposed to be the path.
Football, though, had always been there in the background. Jeffery was a rugged 5-foot-11 playmaker who did a little of everything for Cheshire.
As a senior, he piled up 539 total yards while lining up at wide receiver, running back and wildcat quarterback. He also worked on defense, finishing with 30 tackles, including 1.0 for a loss, along with four interceptions, a fumble recovery and a pass deflection, according to MaxPreps.
Still, the football market never really opened up for him. Jeffery did not land a single star on his 247Sports recruiting profile, and he drew little interest as a prospect on the gridiron.
"I was already committed here for lacrosse," Jeffery said. "So, I felt like that was a big factor in why a lot of schools didn't even want to look at me as a football player. Because I was also in the media talking about how much I wanted to go here and play lacrosse.
"This was my dream, doing all this stuff, coming here, and I really wanted to come to Notre Dame for lacrosse."
Then he watched Jordan Faison and started to see a door crack open.
Faison, a fellow Notre Dame lacrosse commit and national prospect with football ambitions of his own, stepped into his first college football game inside L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium and scored right away on a 36-yard touchdown catch. That moment earned him a full-ride football scholarship after he had walked on to Marcus Freeman’s team that summer and quickly turned heads in fall camp.
For Jeffery, that was the kind of example that made the idea feel a little less far-fetched.
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Notre Dame still expects the reclassified 2027 prospect to be healed in time to enroll early and join spring practice, which keeps the long-term outlook intact. Even so, his rehab will be worth watching closely, because the shoulder is now the one issue hovering over a commitment the Irish beat out Florida State and Ohio State to land. [Read more 🡒]