Category: Notre Dame Recruiting

Watch: Highlight Tape of Newest Notre Dame Commit

Coogan is a three-star talent and you can learn a bit more about him from our write-up earlier tonight in case you missed it  Otherwise we have a couple of things to offer you in regards to Coogan. 

First up – his junior year highlight tape.  The young man looks every bit of 6-5, 225 and isn’t looking to just tap opponents out of his way.

Pat Coogan, an offensive lineman from Marist High School on Chicago’s south side committed to Notre Dame on Wednesday evening.  Coogan chose the Fighting Irish just a couple weeks after getting an offer, something Ohio State and LSU followed suit with.

Coogan is a three-star talent and you can learn a bit more about him from our write-up earlier tonight in case you missed it  Otherwise we have a couple of things to offer you in regards to Coogan.

First up – his junior year highlight tape.  The young man looks every bit of 6-5, 225 and isn’t looking to just tap opponents out of his way.

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And since his commitment it’s nice to see Coogan already following the footsteps of Blake Fisher and doing some recruiting for Notre Dame’s 2021 class on his own.

Notre Dame: O-Line U Lands an Offensive Line Commitment

Notre Dame landed a commitment Wednesday evening from offensive tackle Pat Coogan from Marist High School on Chicago’s South Side. Coogan is rated as a three-star talent on 247Sports and the 36th best tackle in the 2021 class.

Notre Dame landed a commitment Wednesday evening from offensive tackle Pat Coogan from Marist High School on Chicago’s South Side. Coogan is rated as a three-star talent on 247Sports and the 36th best tackle in the 2021 class.

Coogan is listed at 6-5, 275 pounds and chose Notre Dame relatively quickly after receiving a scholarship offer on March 26. Shortly after Notre Dame’s offer was made the likes of LSU, Ohio State and Oklahoma quickly followed suit.

Coogan announced his commitment on Twitter and shared an image of himself years ago cheering on the blue and gold of the Fighting Irish.

The best guess is that Coogan plays on the interior in college but that’s a bridge to cross down the road.  For now it’s pretty cool to see a young man get to live out what seems to have been a childhood dream. It’s also worth noting I’m fairly sure you’re not allowed to play college football anywhere but Notre Dame with a name like Pat Coogan.

Congrats to him and his family on this commitment.

Notre Dame Offers Top-Ten National Prospect

White hails from Imhotep Institute in Philadelphia and already has offers from some of the biggest powerhouses in college football including LSU, Penn State, Oklahoma, Georgia, Oregon, Texas A&M, Washington, Michigan and others.

Notre Dame became the 34th team to offer a scholarship to 2022 defensive end Enai White on Wednesday.  White is rated as the eighth best prospect nationally by 247Sports, not at defensive end but as an overall prospect at any position.

White hails from Imhotep Institute in Philadelphia and already has offers from some of the biggest powerhouses in college football including LSU, Penn State, Oklahoma, Georgia, Oregon, Texas A&M, Washington, Michigan and others.

White is listed at 6-5, 225 pounds and plays both football and basketball at Imhotep Institute.  He helped guide Imhotep to an 8-5 record and second round playoff appearance last year while also spending some time at tight end.  White will clearly be one of the most in-demand players in the entire 2022 recruiting cycle.

Which Notre Dame Commits Moved in Updated Recruiting Rankings?

247Sports updated their Top 247 rankings and many Irish commits were inside the rankings. Find out where they landed.

Since the last update by 247Sports in their top 247 at the end of February, life has made drastic changes. The nation has gone into a stay at home mode, meaning high school prospects would not be able to go to camps or events to get better. This hasn’t stopped the recruit rankers at 247Sports, they had seen enough of some prospects for movement to be made.

Of the current 7 Notre Dame commits in the 2021 class, California QB Tyler Buchner is still the highest rated in the group at 49th overall. A modest jump from 50th in the last rankings which bumped him up to a 5-star, the star signal caller headlines a very solid group. In-state offensive tackle commit Blake Fisher made a move up in the ranks also, going from 88th to 82nd.

A few of the current commits did move down in the rankings as wide receiver commit Lorenzo Styles Jr. dropped one spot to 136th, while Missouri defensive tackle Gabriel Rubio dropped 3 to 150th overall in the country. Georgia tight end Cane Berrong dropped 9 places to 218th as he was the final commit inside their top 247.

Plenty of Irish targets were ranked inside the updated rankings including TE Thomas Fidone at 41st, RB Will Shipley at 45th, WR Dont’e Thornton at 55th, OG Rocco Spindler at 63rd and WR J. Michael Strudivant at 93rd. Getting a few of these highly ranked players to commit would see the class ranking jump from 7th overall in their composite team rankings.

Although there have been some decommitments, WR Deion Colzie (46th) and OG Greg Crippen (not ranked), the 2021 class is off to a fantastic start. If Brian Kelly can keep up the early momentum, the 2021 recruiting class will finish inside the top 10 nationally.

Notre Dame Commit Given a Fifth Star

In them, long-time Notre Dame commitment Tyler Buchner was awarded a fifth-star, making him one of their top-32 prospects in the 2021 recruiting class.

Star ratings in college football recruiting aren’t everything.  You hear the stories of JJ Watt not being a star recruit and he seems to have done alright in his football career.  There are plenty of others as well and each year walk-on players at almost every school make a difference.

That said, they’re certainly not a nothing, either.

247Sports determines their stars for players based off of essentially doing their own first round of a draft but instead for high school players in each class.  They give out 32 five-star statuses each season, one for each NFL team.

Now think of the NFL and if the New England Patriots or Kansas City Chiefs were getting more first round picks than anyone else every year.  It’s been hard enough to beat those two in recent years anyway, now just think how hard it’d be if they were bringing in more young talent than everyone else year in and year out.  That’s essentially what competing with the likes of Alabama, Clemson, Georgia and LSU has become.

Notre Dame did get good news in that department Wednesday though as 247Sports updated their rankings.  In them, long-time Notre Dame commitment Tyler Buchner was awarded a fifth-star, making him one of their top-32 prospects in the 2021 recruiting class.

Does it really matter for Notre Dame?  Not really, Buchner has been committed for over a year and doesn’t appear interested in re-opening that at all.  It will matter in terms of final team rankings but he’s still the same prospect he was two days ago, when he didn’t have the fifth star.

However, it’s still something worth celebrating for the future Notre Dame signal caller.  He’s had an incredible high school career already and now only more eyes will be on him during his senior year of high school.

Four-Star ’21 Safety Lists Notre Dame in Final 12

Kendal Daniels is a top defensive back in the ’21 recruiting class – announced his top-12 schools Tuesday. See who Notre Dame is up against

The hunt remains on for Notre Dame and their 2021 recruiting class as it currently sits seventh nationally in the 247Sports rankings but the Irish remain in play for several key targets.  Although still probably a bit of a long-shot to land his commitment, Notre Dame made the top 12 for safety Kendal Daniels today.

Daniels, a four-star recruit from Beggs, Oklahoma, announced his 12 finalists on Twitter late Tuesday afternoon.

Notre Dame joins five SEC schools including Alabama, Georgia and LSU while home-state Oklahoma and Oklahoma State both also made his cut.  Clemson and Florida State both made it from the ACC while the only Pac-12 school listed is Oregon.

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Daniels’s athleticism sticks out on tape but so does his instincts.  I’m not saying he’s Ed Reed when I say this because pretty much nobody ever has been but his ability to read a play compared to everyone else on the field is noticeable – just watch the tape and notice him headed to where the ball will soon be headed, it’s impressive.   Daniels also has the speed to make plays which is clearly obvious above.

Whoever ends up getting him is going to be getting a player that certainly seems to have the football IQ to make an early impact.

Have you Eaten your Wheaties? Notre Dame Recruits Have

The Irish’s photo edits impress many recruits according to a poll recently taken by high school prospects.

Catching the eye of high school recruits is not an easy thing to do, it used to be mailers sent to them before social media came into play. The emergence of the social platforms and recruiting has made teams change the way they attack their recruiting marketing and being at the forefront of this effort goes a long way in connecting with recruits.

In a poll taken by collegiate prospects conducted by 247Sports, the Irish were mentioned as one of the best for their Wheaties box edit they sent to multiple prospects and commitments.

The example 247Sports used was one that was sent to star North Carolina running back Will Shipley, in hopes to catch his eye and see what Notre Dame can offer him. With student-athletes being able to soon make money off their likeness’, it is very important for schools to show marketing value to their prospective players.

The Irish are on top of their game when it comes to these edits, with much of the credit going out to Aaryn Kearney, the Director of Recruiting and his staff. As long as Notre Dame continues to pump out these kinds of impressive edits to recruits, they’ll be on the mind of many of the top prospects in the country.

Elite WR Has Notre Dame in Top Six

Louisiana WR Chris Hilton has Notre Dame in this Top 6 along with 5 other SEC schools.

Brian Kelly thought that the Irish were done with wide receiver recruiting for the 2021 class after Lorenzo Styles Jr. and Deion Colzie committed on back to back days last October. Fast forward to today, Colzie has decommitted and recently Rivals put Styles Jr. on flip watch, meaning that Kelly and his staff need to continue to hit the phones and be in recruits’ ears.

That urgency has paid off as Louisiana WR Chris Hilton has the Irish in his Top 6 along with Florida, Georgia, Alabama, LSU and Texas A&M. When looking at the schools for the 5’11” and 170-pound wide out, the Irish are the only non-SEC school he is considering. In a recent interview with 247Sports Steve Wiltfong, Hilton high on LSU due to proximity, only about 20 minutes away from his home, but is intrigued by Notre Dame. He has yet to get on campus, that won’t be for a little while due to the NCAA mandated dead period, but without a visit to campus to make his Top 6 is significant.

It will be tough for the Irish to pry him away from last years national champion, being just minutes away from his home. When Hilton is able to visit South Bend, Kelly will need to roll out the red carpet for the young man. Hilton would be a huge recruiting win if the Irish are able to get him away from LSU and being in his Top 6 is a good sign going forward.

Illinois Mauling OT Schedules Official Visit to Notre Dame

Offensive lineman Pat Coogan schedules official visit to South Bend.

In the midst of the recruiting dead period, one where coaches are able to contact players, just unable to physically see them, 2021 Illinois offensive tackle Pat Coogan has scheduled his first official visit.

Coogan will visit South Bend in June from the 12th to the 14th assuming the stay-at-home orders will be lifted by then. The massive tackle, standing 6’5” and weighing 287-pounds, has recently seen his recruitment blow up. Coogan has added offers from LSU, Oklahoma, Ohio State and Texas A&M since the Irish offered on March 26th.

Although the recruiting services don’t rank Coogan extremely high, 445th overall by the 247Sports composite, his offers clearly show he’s much better than his current ranking. Watching his highlight reel, the first play shows Coogan on special teams making a tackle, showing impressive athleticism from the big lineman. Coogan is an absolute mauler, he eats defensive lineman for breakfast, getting pancake after pancake.

Coogan’s twitter feed is very pro-Irish, as he grew up a fan of Notre Dame. Although these kinds of marriages don’t always work out, see Deion Colzie, Coogan would be a welcome addition to instate OT Blake Fisher in the Irish’s 2021 offensive line recruiting class.

One of Nation’s Top Corners Has Notre Dame in Top Ten

Harmon received offers from 22 different schools before getting things down to ten on Monday.  He is ranked the 24th best corner in the country per Rivals rankings.

A lot of thinning of the herd in recent days and the good news for Notre Dame is that they’ve found their names making a lot of cuts.  More good news came Monday when four-star cornerback Deuce Harmon of Denton (Guyer HS), Texas announced his top ten which included Notre Dame.

Harmon took to Twitter to announce his top-ten, something it seems like every high school prospect does anymore.

Notre Dame is joined in the top ten list by Baylor, Mississippi State, Oklahoma State, Oregon, SMU, Texas A&M, TCU, Texas Tech and USC.

Harmon received offers from 22 different schools before getting things down to ten on Monday.  He is ranked the 24th best corner in the country per Rivals rankings.

Notre Dame currently has just one defensive back committed in the 2021 recruiting class, three-star safety Justin Walters of Bolingbrook, Illinois.