We knew yesterday that Notre Dame commit Blake Fisher had earned the coveted 5th star, but what we didn’t know what where the rest of the Irish class would land in Rivals updated Top 250.
We know now where they landed and here is their movement, the ranking on the left was prior to the update.
Offensive tackle Blake Fisher 22 -> 18
Wide receiver Lorenzo style Jr. 39 -> 41
Quarterback Tyler Buchner 46 -> 80
Offensive guard Rocco Spindler 56 -> 59
Defensive tackle Gabriel Rubio 99 -> 100
Cornerback Philip Riley unranked-> 240
The majority of Notre Dame commits stayed in about the same range except Buchner, who fell 34 spots. Mike Farrell, Rivals national director of recruiting, explained Buchner’s fall as he “clearly changed his throwing style and gave us pause but we didn’t want to free fall him.” It wasn’t a free fall, but dropping that far in the rankings is still concerning.
Fisher made just a three spot move up, but enough to get him the 5th star. Farrell said this about the offensive tackles upward movement on their rankings: “Fisher was my call for the most part as I love his size and aggressive nature. He’s thinned down some and if he add some flexibility he could be the next great offensive lineman at Notre Dame.” Pretty high praise for Indiana’s best prospect.
It was also nice to see cornerback Philip Riley get some love. He looks like a prospect that is still rated way too low at this moment.
Even with this update, the Irish did not move much inside the team rankings, as they checked in at 11th nationally. With 18 commits, there might be room for a few more prospects that will be added to the 2021 class. Either way, Brian Kelly should be fairly happy with the recruiting effort in ‘21.