A Flurry of Notre Dame Football Offers Out This Week

The Irish staff offered five more players this week, find out who got a coveted Notre Dame offer.

This normally would be a time where many schools around the country would be having prospects on their campus’ for visits during spring practices, but due to the COVID-19 outbreak, recruiting has been quite a bit different. No visit to campus’ allowed currently, but contact is allowed via calls and mailers, and Brian Kelly and his staff have been quite busy this week offering 2021 prospects.

Fighting Irish Wire took a look at the wide receiver recruiting earlier today with the offer out to J. Michael Sturdivant of Texas this week. He wasn’t the only offensive player offered as Illinois ATH Sam Jackson got a coveted Irish offer as well. The former Minnesota commit plays quarterback currently, but at the next level his size might be an issue for the position at 5’11” and 170-pounds. Jackson could potentially be a slot receiver but there is potential on the defensive backfield as well.

Florida defensive back Philip Riley also got an offer from the Irish staff as his recruitment blew up this week. Just in the past few days, Riley added Miami, FL and Colorado to an already impressive offer list that included Clemson, Texas, Penn State among others. Riley posses’ great size for a corner at 6’1” and 190-pounds, so look for Notre Dame to keep recruiting the talented defender going forward.

Staying in the Sunshine state, the Notre Dame staff offered safety Terrion Arnold as well. Similar to Riley, the size is impressive, as Arnold is just a bit taller than Riley at 6’2” and weights almost the same at 187-pounds. The two-sport standout, Arnold is also a star on the hardwood, could play anywhere in the secondary when he arrives in college. Arnold will have his choice of elite schools as he holds offers from Alabama, LSU, Georgia and others.

One more defender got an offer, staying in the defensive backfield with Maryland’s Ryan Barnes. Barnes, like Arnold and Riley, has the elite body type at 6’2” and 175-pounds, for a player in the secondary. What the Irish have going for them with Barnes is that he is also elite in the classroom, with Duke and Virginia among his schools he’s considering. When you think about the academic and athletics mix, Notre Dame is a perfect fit for prospects like Barnes who are looking for that.

The focus of the most recent offers are in the secondary, with just one of the Irish’s 7 commits in the defensive backfield, safety Justin Walters, the staff is hard at work to change that with some elite prospects. After DE David Abiara’s commitment yesterday, the class is back up to 6th nationally according to the 247 composite team rankings. Look for Notre Dame’s class to continue to rise if they add any of the talented prospects that were offered this week.