Category: Notre Dame Recruiting

Where Notre Dame Stands with ’21 WR Thornton According to Rivals

Rivals ranks the top contenders for Thornton’s commits and the Irish have some work to do to catch up.

Recently Rivals has done a series of articles where they take a look at a prospects top list and rank the contenders for their verbal commitment. After Maryland WR Don’t’e Thornton released his Top 12 schools this weekend, Rivals recruiting analyst Adam Friedman ranked the contenders for Thornton’s pledge.

The way Friedman see’s the star WR’s recruiting going at the moment has the Irish running third, behind Oregon and Penn State. Although Oregon is the first school that is mentioned, “If the Ducks are in the lead for Thornton, it isn’t by much.” This bodes well for Notre Dame’s recruitment of the 6’5” and 195-pound star.

Previously Thornton had been committed to Penn State, backing off his verbal in August of last year. Although rare, players have recommitted to their original school, and Thornton is continuing to have a relationship with the Nittany Lion’s staff. What the do have going for them at the moment is fresh faces, as James Franklin had to replace his WR coach with Taylor Stubblefield and his offensive coordinator with Kirk Ciarrocca, who just coached arguably the best pair of WR’s in the country last year at Minnesota.

Being in third place isn’t a bad spot to be for the Irish, as Thornton “was on campus last summer and really enjoyed the atmosphere.” It gave him a feel similar to his high school, which is always a plus in recruiting. Notre Dame has an opportunity to add another talented WR to their roster and it looks like the Irish will hope that they can edge out the other top contenders.

Notre Dame Makes Cut for Top 50 Target

Dont’e Thornton of Baltimore is one of the best receivers in the ’21 class. See who else made the cut along with Notre Dame here.

One of the quicker players with a 6-5 frame that you’ll see made an announcement over the weekend, dropping his potential future schools down to 12 and the good news for Notre Dame fans is that Brian Kelly and the Fighting Irish have made the cut.

Dont’e Thornton is viewed as one of the best receivers in the 2021 class, getting a four-star grade from 247Sports while they also rank him the seventh best receiver in the entire country.

Thornton has offers from all over the country, 27 in total.  He announced this weekend the 12 he is still considering.

An interesting top-12 with some real blue bloods joining Notre Dame like Michigan, Florida State, LSU, Oregon, Penn State and LSU and then a few close to home for the Baltimore, Maryland product with Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and South Carolina also making the list.

The real wild card seems to be Arizona State, but who would blame a young man for wanting to make a college visit for Tempe?  Didn’t think so.

Stay tuned as we’ll keep you posted on anything that happens with Thornton or anything else on the recruiting front for that matter.

See Which Notre Dame Football Targets Made Rivals Top 100 for 2022

Rivals took the week to release their Top 100 for 2022, Notre Dame targets littered their list.

Throughout this past week Rivals has been releasing their Top 100 prospects for the 2022 class, day by day but without exact rankings. It may seem like a quite a way from either 2022 signing day, but it’s never to early to take a look at who stands out as some of the best prospects around the nation.

The Irish currently do not have any prospects committed for the ’22 class, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t hard at work trying to secure commits from some of the best players in the nation. Monday’s set of highlighted players with Irish offers saw Florida OT Julian Armella (5-Star), Wisconsin Safety Braelon Allen, Illinois Athlete Kaleb Brown, and Ohio LB Gabe Powers. Even tough Massachusetts LB Tyler Martin doesn’t hold an offer, Rivals Mike Farrell sees the Irish as a player in his recruitment. Brown and Powers are players that their experts see the Irish standing out for at the current moment.

Tuesday saw Wisconsin OT Joe Brunner, California WR Tetairoa McMillan, and Nevada OLB Cyrus Moss all named, all holding Irish offers. Farrell sees Brunner as a tough pull from to get out of state as the Badgers are viewed as the team to beat. The Irish are seen as a few schools that stand out early to McMillan and Moss while Michigan’s Will Johnson doesn’t hold an offer, but like Martin, Notre Dame is squarely in his recruitment.

The midweek group of players included California WR CJ Williams, Maryland DE Dani Dennis-Sutton, Colorado RB Gavin Sawchuk, Kansas S Dasan McCullough and Illinois WR Tyler Morris. In-state QB Brady Allen doesn’t hold a Notre Dame offer, but Farrell believes if that were to happen, the Irish would be right in the mix for the talented signal caller. Of the players who hold Irish offers, Williams, Sawchuk and Morris, the Blue and Gold are in the mix for their commitments.

Thursday once again saw players that have already caught the Irish’s eyes in Maryland OLB Jaishawn Barham, California Athlete Kamari Ramsey, and Pennsylvania RB Nicholas Singleton. Farrell sees Notre Dame as a team Ramsey is highly considering. New Jersey OT Jacob Allen and Ohio OT Blake Miller don’t hold an offer currently, but Farrell sees the Irish as a contender for his commitment if they throw their hat in the ring.

The final set of players on Friday had Ohio S CJ Hicks, Wisconsin C Carson Hinzman, Texas RB Emeka Megwa, and Florida DE Shemar Stewart. Farrell likes Notre Dame’s chances with Hicks and Hinzman as their recruitments pick up. No offer for Virginia DE Bryce Carter, but Farrell thinks if that offers comes from Brian Kelly and staff, the Irish could potentially stand out for Carter.

The recruitment for the 2022 class is just starting the heat up and there are many encouraging signs early on for an elite group of prospects to ultimately end up in South Bend. Brian Kelly and his staff have done a great job early of identifying top talent and offering them early. Hopefully this early work on the class has big time results later on.

Notre Dame Safety Target Chooses Biggest Rival

USC is also the top ranked Pac-12 team on in those rankings which hasn’t been the case the last couple of seasons under Clay Helton.

With no football being actually played or practiced right now it has left us looking more into recruiting, both good and bad.  As Notre Dame and every other football program continue full steam ahead to piece together their 2021 classes, the Irish did miss out on one safety target after he announced his decision Friday.

Xamarion Gordon, a four-star safety from Warren High School in Downey, California will stay in his home state and meet up with the Fighting Irish annually.

It remains early in recruiting based off of the amount of big-time players that are yet to announce their decisions but USC is off to a very good start now with six commitments in their class and are currently ranked 11th nationally on 247Sports.  They also are the top ranked Pac-12 team on in those rankings which hasn’t been the case the last couple of seasons under Clay Helton.

Notre Dame Makes Florida DB Riley’s Top 7

The Irish coaching staff has made a very good impression on the DB after making a verbal offer just last week.

Although the dead period has been extended through the end of April, recruiting is still in full go and last night class of 2021 defensive back Philip Riley released his Top 7 schools going forwards. It was a pleasant surprise to see Notre Dame on the list after just offering Riley a little over one week ago.

The rest of the Florida’s stars Top 7 schools are all out of state, but Riley is not a native of the state, having moved there last year from Washington. The move payed off big time for Riley, as a huge junior season has seen his recruitment blow up, adding offers from USC, WVU, Miami, FSU and others in addition to his Top 7. His academic profile fits well with the Irish as well, with offers from Duke and Vanderbilt backing that up.

The defender has fantastic size for a corner, standing 6’0” and weighing 187-pounds, which on paper looks like a college-ready body. When watching his highlights, which you can see right here, his Bloomingdale High School teams plays a majority of man principles which plays anywhere.

Although Riley is unable to visit South Bend until the NCAA’s dead period is over, what Brian Kelly and his staff have done to impress the defensive back has been remarkable. If the coaching staff is able to continue to expand their relationship with Riley, there a potential the Irish won’t just make his Top 7 list.

Rivals has Notre Dame WR Commit Styles Jr on Flip Watch

The Irish staff need to continue to recruit the Ohio WR as Lorenzo Styles Jr. is still speaking with other schools.

This is not the news Irish fans want to see when it comes to Ohio wide receiver commit Lorenzo Styles Jr. After Deion Colzie decommitted from the program about two weeks ago, the 2021 recruiting class had just one player remaining at the position, Styles Jr.

This morning Rivals put Styles Jr. on flip watch, as we have already documented that the Michigan staff has reached out and face-timed with him. This clearly is concerning to the coaching staff; however, they are currently recruiting Styles Jr. as if he was an uncommitted prospect. That is exactly what they need to be doing as it seems like Michigan State along with Florida, Kentucky and potentially others school vying for his signature during one of the signing periods.

Although Styles Jr. is speaking with Rivals Michigan insider EJ Holland isn’t sure the staff will get him to flip, but “Styles is keeping the door open as evidenced by his conversations with not only Michigan but several schools like Florida, Kentucky and Michigan State.”

Mike Singer, Notre Dame’s Rivals insider, believes “there should be a level of concern here, but at the end of the day, I think Styles will stick with his Notre Dame pledge.” Everyone in Blue and Gold nation is hoping Singer is correct, as losing another wide receiver, especially to either of the mitten state schools, would surely sting.

Expectations for Notre Dame QB Commit Buchner High

California signal call and Irish commit Tyler Buchner has high expectations for his career in South Bend.

When you look at current recruiting rankings of quarterbacks, there is no doubt that you will see Notre Dame’s class of 2021 commit Tyler Buchner with the nations best. Just in the last two days, he has been highlighted by two different recruiting services as being someone to watch out for.

Starting out at Rivals, Notre Dame was grouped with the ACC as they looked at recruiting superlatives so far  for the 2021 class. Buchner was viewed as the best out-of-state commit, as Mike Farrell, Rival’s National Recruiting Director, has some nice things to say about the future Irish signal caller as they “once again going to California for a quarterback and landing a very good one.” Rivals has ranked Buchner as the 43rd overall player and the 2nd rated dual-threat quarterback in the nation.

With that high ranking, Buchner will have a lot of eyes on him and over at 247Sports named him as one of 10 recruits from the 2021 and 2022 class who will become household names. Four of those ten players are quarterback, as they are easily the most familiar faces in the sport. Director of Recruiting Steve Wiltfong thinks the eyes of the nation will be back on Buchner when he arrives on campus as “there will be an opportunity for Buchner to win the job upon his arrival.”

It wasn’t just Buchner highlighted in their article, as Notre Dame targets RB Will Shipley and RB Gavin Sawchuk were also featured. If the Irish are able to land either one of these talented running backs, pairing up with Buchner would be a killer backfield.

Buchner is the 50th best prospect and 3rd dual-threat quarterback according to 247Sports, making him a consensus top 50 recruit for the 2021 class. The California native will have plenty of expectation immediately when he arrives on campus, with starting as a true freshman not out of the question. I for one, am extremely excited to see how Buchner’s career in South Bend plays out.

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.