Ryan Roberts discusses potential Notre Dame wide receiver recruit Kaydon Finley and his recent visits with Texas and A&M and reveals why he believes the Fighting Irish will ultimately land this top-100 player
00:00Official visits are officially wrapped up for Notre Dame football in the month of June,
00:03which means the 2026 recruiting class is now coming to a quick and decisive close.
00:09Let's talk about my biggest recruiting question mark and why I think there's an answer on the horizon.
00:18Ryan Roberts from A to Z Sports, breaking down everything Notre Dame football.
00:22Folks, we know on this channel and just for me specifically,
00:25if you follow me on Twitter or you follow me anywhere, I have been a little bit
00:29pessimistic about wide receiver recruiting for obvious reasons.
00:33We saw what happened in the 2025 recruiting class with the inability to close on some of the top targets on the board early in the 2026 class.
00:41A lot of the same, you know, some good pieces, obviously, in the recruiting class now with Bubba Frazier and Dylan Faison.
00:46But like you need to close on a couple of key targets and you've missed on a bunch already.
00:50But there's no questioning going into his decision day on July 4th that the biggest wide receiver target on the board for the Fighting Irish
00:58is Aledo, Texas star wide receiver Caden Finley.
01:03Of course, the son of former Texas Longhorn and Green Bay Packer tight end Jermichael Finley rated borderline top 100 by a couple of different platforms,
01:12had over 80 receptions, over 1,400 yards and 21 touchdowns as a junior.
01:17Six foot one, about 200, 205 pounds.
01:20Really impressive overall player.
01:22But here's been kind of the short-term outlook for him for a long-term recruitment.
01:27Over the last few weeks, Notre Dame has been in a really good spot.
01:30He visited a couple weekends ago for his official visit to Notre Dame and the vibes were great coming out.
01:35Notre Dame felt good about where they are and there was one major remaining hurdle that existed.
01:42And that was this past weekend he visited for his official visit to Texas.
01:47And Texas, along with Texas A&M, are the finalists for Caden Finley.
01:51But we know that Texas, Notre Dame are the schools that are truly battling it here.
01:55And on one side, you have Notre Dame, which I think Caden Finley loves.
01:58On the other side, you have the Texas Longhorns.
02:00That is a school that obviously he has deep ties into and he knows and he's been there a million times at this point,
02:06both as a recruit and just as a former alumni's son, right?
02:10So like all those things together do give you a little bit of pause that the final official visit was to Austin, Texas.
02:17But coming out of that visit, I was getting some feedback from the Texas side of things.
02:23Going into the visit, Texas felt like they had a good chance to kind of kill that momentum Notre Dame had gained
02:28and to ultimately close with the talented pass catcher that is committed here in a couple of weeks.
02:34But what had happened is during that visit, I was getting some feedback that this is Notre Dame,
02:40they think, and they think that this is trending away from Texas.
02:43And quickly, there was a belief that Notre Dame had a slight lead, but that might have been a little bit underselling it.
02:48This might have been a huge gap of a lead at this point.
02:52And I am leaving this visit now because I've been pessimistic about the ability for wide receiver coach Mike Brown
02:58and this staff to close on this talented pass catcher out of the Lone Star State.
03:02Coming out of this visit, not only do I feel good about it, I would drop a prediction.
03:06If there was future casts or crystal balls or whatever the heck else, things that you guys listen to,
03:12if there was any of that that I did on this channel, I would have one in for Caden Finley to pick the Irish in a couple of weeks.
03:18Love where they are.
03:20And this would be a monumental victory for Mike Brown.
03:22He's had, again, gotten some good players his first year and a half as a recruiter here,
03:27but you needed to get some guys that are more top 100 level players,
03:31guys that could potentially come in and be difference makers early on in their career.
03:35And that's what I think Caden Finley would be if he pits the Irish.
03:38Folks, put in the chat right now your thoughts on Caden Finley as a football player.
03:42How excited you would be if they were able to land him on July 4th.
03:45Hit that like button and subscribe to the channel on your way out.
