The Michigan-Notre Dame rivalry is coming back in 2018, and you can imagine how renewing a big-time series like that could be big on the recruiting trail for both sides. But the Irish have found an innovative way to incorporate the series into their recruiting pitch and totally bash the Wolverines at the same time.

On Monday, four-star cornerback Houston Griffith shared a piece of recruiting mail he received from the Notre Dame coaching staff. It’s a mock sports card with Griffith’s background information and some imaginary details about what his freshman season in South Bend would look like.

That image isn’t the clearest, so here’s what the first two paragraphs say:

Coming out of high school, Houston Griffith ranked nationally on the Rivals 250 list and the 247Sports top 247 list.

As an immediate impact player, Griffith played in all 12 regular season games. He made his Irish debut in the 48-10 victory over Michigan, recording 12 tackles, 1 TFL, 2 FF, and 1 INT.

48-10!

And this isn’t a specialized tactic for recruiting Griffith, who is being recruited by Notre Dame and Michigan among others. A few hours later, Notre Dame commit Derrik Allen also posted his card to Twitter.

We’ll see what actually happens when the two programs meet. As much as I love the brashness, this also feels a bit petty coming from Notre Dame considering they just had a four-win season while Michigan has had back-to-back 10-win seasons under Jim Harbaugh.

[Saturday Tradition]

About Jesse Kramer

Jesse is a writer and editor for The Comeback. He has also worked for SI.com and runs The Catch and Shoot, a college basketball website based in Chicago. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow Jesse on Twitter @Jesse_Kramer.