Category: Notre Dame

Irish commit Mayer becomes a 5-Star in final 247Sports recruit rankings update

With 247Sports final rankings being released this afternoon, the Irish faithful will be happy to see yet another 5-Star on the way to South Bend. Michael Mayer, the committed 6’4″ 232-pound tight end has been elevated into the upper-echelon of high …

With 247Sports final rankings being released this afternoon, the Irish faithful will be happy to see yet another 5-Star on the way to South Bend. Michael Mayer, the committed 6’4” 232-pound tight end has been elevated into the upper-echelon of high school prospects. Mayer jumped from his previous rankings of 69th overall in the country to inside the top 32, now sitting as the 23rd best prospect in the nation.

The 247Sports collective group of analysists had some very good things to say about the talented tight end. National Director of Scouting Barton Simmons said Mayer “is such a complete player” and his explanation for making Mayer a 5-Star was that “When you consider the season Mayer had as the Gatorade Player of the Year in Kentucky and add that to his obvious physical traits and his standout performances in every major event he’s attended, five-star seemed obvious” Steve Wiltfong, National Director of Recruiting sees Mayer as “an instant impact player” who could replace the productivity of NFL early-entry TE Cole Kmet.

With the updated rankings Brian Kelly’s 2020 recruiting class took a little hit, as they dropped from #14 nationally to #16. It isn’t much of a move, but what was a bit concerning was multiple Irish commits dropped in the rankings. Aside from Mayer, WR Jordan Johnson was the only other commit to move up, while everyone else dropped, with RB Chris Tyree dropping the most, down 76 spots.

 

TE Michael Mayer – 23, up 46

OT Tosh Baker – 56, down 12

WR Jordan Johnson – 61, up 2

ILB Jordan Botelho – 64, down 21

RB Chris Tyree – 137, down 76

OT Michael Carmondy – 148, down 39

Book’s odds among best with chance to take home the Heisman

Notre Dame’s QB Book’s odd among the best to take home college football most prestigious award.

Las Vegas is referred as the city that never sleeps and they were at it again, with Westgate’s Superbook updating their 2020 Heisman odds 7 months prior to the start of the season. It should not come as a surprise to see Irish QB Ian Book having the 4th best odds, 20/1, to win college footballs highest honor.

Last years winner, national champion QB Joe Burrow from LSU, has exhausted his eligibility, but two of the other four quarterback that were represented in the College Football Playoff return, Ohio State’s Justin Fields and Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, top the list with 4/1 odds. Newcomer Spencer Rattler having the second-best odds after backing up Oklahoma’s graduating senior Jalen Hurts is behind them at 12/1.

Obviously, the Irish have to battle Clemson and Lawrence on November 7th in South Bend, with RB Travis Etienne having the same odds as Book to win the trophy. Notre Dame will also face USC’s QB Kedon Slovis, who checks in right behind Book with 25/1 odds. The favorites don’t always win the trophy, but the Irish having to face 4 of the heavier favorites in the regular season will provide a tough test for Brian Kelly and crew this coming season.

One Notre Dame star projected among the top 32 players in 2020

One Irish star ranked among the nations elite.

As one season ends and another is on the verge of beginning, there is always a time to look ahead at which collegiate stars could dominate this level and make their move to the next. CBS Sports Barrett Sallee did just that a few days ago, ranking the top 32 NFL draft eligible NCAA stars. Sallee made it know that his list was not in any way a very early 2021 NFL mock draft or a “big board”, rather a collection of the best players who could move on to the next level next year.

There was only one Fighting Irish on Sallee’s list, offensive tackle Liam Eichenberg, who landed just outside the top 10 best projected players in the NCAA for next year at 11. Sallee had some very high praise for the Notre Dame lineman saying:

“The Fighting Irish have become known for churning out great offensive linemen, and Eichenberg is the next in line to make a splash in the NFL Draft. He’ll be an anchor of one of the best offensive lines in the country in 2020.”

It is very well known that the Irish will return all 5 starters on the offensive line, along with QB Ian Book, while having to replace the rest of the offensive talent. Games a won in the trenches and with Eichenberg and Tommy Kraemer leading the charge, the Irish have a leg up on the competition.

Speaking of their opponents for next year, Sallee also ranked numerous players on the upcoming schedule that Notre Dame will face. Clemson will bring star QB Trevor Lawrence, ranked 1st, RB Travis Etienne ranked 7th, LB James Skalski at 23, and WR Justyn Ross, 28th, clearly a loaded Tigers squad. The USC Trojans had three players on Sallee’s list, DL Jay Tufele checked in at 21, WR Amon-Ra St. Brown was 24th, and WR Tyler Vaughns barely made the list at 31st. One more opponent had a player ranked inside the top 32, Duke’s DL Chris Rumph II was right behind Eichenberg at 12.

Where the current Irish commits rank inside the top 247 prior to their update

Where Notre Dame’s recruits rank inside 247Sports prior to their final updated rankings.

Tomorrow 247Sports will release their final update to the 2020 recruiting class rankings, re-ranking the top 247 players in the country. At the current moment, the Fighting Irish have the #14 ranked class nationally according to the 247Sports composite, which complies the rankings of major recruiting services such as Rivals, ESPN, and their own. You can see their team rankings right here.

With just 17 commits in the 2020 class after the release of Landen Bartleson, all of them having signed in the early period, there might not be much room for Brian Kelly to add any prospects. There are currently 88 players on scholarship, the max being 85, so with the NFL declaration deadline having passed and without players entering the transfer portal, Kelly does not have much wiggle room to add any new prospects.

So, prior to 247Sport’s release of their updated top 247, which can be seen here, this is where the currently signed Irish class is ranked who are ranked inside the top 247 players in the country:

ILB Jordan Botelho – 43

OT Tosh Baker – 44

RB Chris Tyree – 61

WR Jordan Johnson – 63

TE Michael Mayer – 69

OT Michael Carmondy – 109

ESPN predicts how Notre Dame wins the National Title in the 2020 season

Earlier this morning ESPN released an article on how each of the Top 25 teams could individually win the National Title in the 2021 campaign ( read here). As a projected top 10 team, the Irish have a very realistic chance at competing for a title …

Earlier this morning ESPN released an article on how each of the Top 25 teams could individually win the National Title in the 2021 campaign (read here). As a projected top 10 team, the Irish have a very realistic chance at competing for a title this coming season. With the return of Ian Book at quarterback and a schedule that features enough quality games to get the into the College Football Playoff’s top 4 and have a shot at winning the Coaches Trophy.

Tom VanHaaren made it out to be very simple on how Notre Dame will be able to win the championship next year:

“Without a conference championship game, Notre Dame can’t afford any mistakes in 2020. Without a win against Clemson that late in the season, the chances at a national championship are slim.”

I believe that VanHaaren is spot on with his projection of how the Irish can be atop the college football world at the end of the year. The season very much hinges on how the Clemson game plays out in South Bend. He also mentions the Wisconsin game, the Badgers will be losing a lot of talent, most notably RB Jonathan Taylor and LB Zack Baun. VanHaaren also brings up the Stanford game, but they have been gutted with players transferring out of the program, a whopping 14 Cardinals have entered the transfer portal. One game that VanHaaren fails to mention is the finale against USC, which is always a dog fight, especially in the Coliseum.

This coming season should be a prosperous one for Brian Kelly and crew and if things go right, we could be seeing the Irish playing in the College Football Playoff once again.

Taylor at it again, offering ’22 RB Megwa from Texas

A verbal offer out to a star Texas sophomore running back Emeka Megwa announced today.

Running back’s coach Lance Taylor has been all over the country this weekend, starting Friday along with Tommy Rees visiting ’21 5-Star Will Shipley, made a call out to Texas and offered yet another star running back in Emeka Megwa. The class of 2022 star stands six-feet tall and weighs 200 pounds, gigantic for a player so young, preps at the same high school as current freshman DE NaNa Osafo-Mensah and tagged him when Megwa announced his offer via Twitter.

Megwa absolutely dominated competition this past year, earning District MVP, 1st team All-Star and All-District, rushing for over 1,600 yards and scoring 25 touchdowns against Texas high school competition. For a sophomore those are extremely impressive numbers, ones that have clearly caught the eyes of many schools, holding offers from Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Ohio State, Oklahoma and more at this early stage of his recruitment.

You can never get enough talent at running back, having multiple backs that can do different things is an excellent way to diversify your offense and luring safeties into the box which enables more deep shots to wide receivers. With a reported forty time of 4.4, Megwa is a burner and would look great in Blue and Gold.

Okwara projected into NFL Draft’s First Round

Notre Dame’s DE Julian Okwara has been projected as a first round pick in the NFL Draft.

Now that the college football season is officially over with the conclusion of the Senior Bowl, multiple outlets will be posting their mock drafts and that’s exactly what SB Nations Dan Kadar did yesterday. Kader had only one former Golden Domer in his mock, DE Julian Okwara being selected 27th overall by the Seattle Seahawks.

Kader, however, wasn’t sure if Seattle would even be in that spot to select Okwara: “Chances are the Seahawks won’t be picking here on draft weekend considering general manager John Schneider’s usual transactional gymnastics. If the Seahawks happen to stay at No. 27, they could target a pass rusher. Okwara should test off the charts with the analytics community, and good coaching will take advantage of his traits.”

Many of these are just best guesses as the current moment, as the NFL’s version of a job hunt, the underwear Olympics, AKA the NFL combine won’t start until February 23rd and concludes on March 2nd. Pro day’s will be after that, then the big day, the NFL Draft on April 23-25, held on water. Yes, you read that right, it’s going to be on water this year, with the possibility that Okwara could be ferried out to the stage in the Fountain of Bellagio.

Saturday Evening Recruiting Update

It was a busy day recruiting for the Irish, here is a quick update on a few players of note.

Terry Joseph was down in Texas today and verbally offered Deuce Harmon a scholarship. Harman is a corner back from Denton standing five-foot-ten and weighing 190 pounds. A reported 4.4 forty-yard dash for the Guyer High star is impressive and when you put his 40-inch vertical along with his forty time, Harmon is an elite athlete.

Harmon typically lines up on the outside and the young man is a ball hawk, consistently getting into passing lanes and either making the interception or breaking the pass up. He is more than willing to come up and be physical with a wideout and seems very comfortable playing on an island. Recruiting is just picking up for Harmon, adding offers from Mississippi State and Memphis this week, so Joseph and Brian Kelly getting in on Harmon early bodes well for the Irish.

There was also news of 5-Star OT Landon Tengwall making a visit to South Bend in March and scheduling an official visit as well. Tengwall visited Penn State today, and also announced in September that his top three were PSU, Michigan and Notre Dame. The massive six-foot-six tackle said he would visit each school multiple times before making a decision prior to his senior campaign.

Tengwall clearly loves the tradition the Fighting Irish have on the offensive line and hopefully Jeff Quinn can show him enough of our storied programs offensive line history to sway him to join the program. Just looking at his offer list, which obviously includes UM, PSU along with Alabama, LSU, Georgia and Ohio State, securing a commitment from one of the top tackles in the nation would be a colossal win for the program.

Reporting like a Champion

As you may have noticed Fighting Irish fans, there has been a new writer bringing you content on Irish Wire. It’s me, Michael Chen, and I am very excited for the opportunity that Patrick and Nick have given me to contribute to the site. A little …

As you may have noticed Fighting Irish fans, there has been a new writer bringing you content on Irish Wire. It’s me, Michael Chen, and I am very excited for the opportunity that Patrick and Nick have given me to contribute to the site.

A little background on me, I graduated from Ohio State University in 2004, I know, I know, but I have had a love for college football since I can remember and clearly a shared hatred of Michigan. I’ve always loved the traditions and pageantry that the NFL doesn’t offer to fans, which was a big draw for me. Another part of college football that drew my attention was recruiting, which as you have seen, will be a big part of what I will bring to Irish Wire in the future.

I entered the media industry about 4 years ago, this past year I covered the Big Ten conference for 670 The Score, writing weekly columns and attending games. I played baseball at OSU and will bring coverage of the Irish’s baseball team which is set to being in the middle of next month. I look forward to interacting with you on the site and on Twitter as well where you can find me at @MikeFChen.

The Irish to have multiple national implication games in 2020

There are always big games on Notre Dame’s schedule and this upcoming season is no different.

Notre Dame’s schedule next year has multiple marque games and recently Dean Straka of 247Sports ranked the most important regular season contests for the upcoming season (read here). Upon first view of the schedule for this year’s football season, there are multiple games on the Irish’s schedule that will have a big impact on the race for a top 4 of the College Football Playoffs rankings.

Straka first names the Golden Domer’s visit to historic Lambeau Field on October 3rd to face the Wisconsin Badgers as their first important game in the college football world. It should be noted that the Badgers will be breaking in a new running back and center, after star Jonathan Taylor and Tyler Biadasz left early to the NFL, and two WR’s after Quintez Cephus also left early to play for pay and Aron Cruickshank transfers inside the Big Ten to Rutgers. Linebacker Zach Baun exhausted his eligibility and will move on as well, meaning this is a great year for the Irish to face the Badgers as they have lost plenty of elite talent and Wisconsin Head Coach Paul Chryst will still be trying to replace the productivity of his former stars.

The next game Straka has highlighted is when the CFP runner-up Clemson Tigers come to South Bend on November 7th. The surprise return of RB Travis Etienne makes this contest much more challenging, as Heisman front-runner Trevor Lawrence has lost just one game in his college career up to date. The Tigers have recruited among the best schools in the nation, and while they will lose some talent as well, Dabo Swinney has their program running on all cylinders. As this game is currently the only game on Clemson’s schedule against a top 25 opponent, it will mean a great deal for them, but don’t forget the impact of a win for Brian Kelly would mean. Any team that beats Clemson has to be considered among the best in the nation, and if the Irish would be able to pull this one out at home, it would give them a gigantic boost towards returning to the College Football Playoff.

Which game in Notre Dame’s upcoming schedule are you most excited about?