Tag: Class of 2026

Notre Dame receives commitment from 3-star safety recruit Devin Moore

There’s another secondary commitment for the Irish.

At the start of the weekend, Notre Dame’s future secondary received a boost with the commitment of cornerback recruit Jayden Bellamy. Now, it can say it’s receiving a second boost. This time, it’s coming from the safety position. The latest player to say yes to Notre Dame is three-star recruit Devin Moore of Naples, Florida, who made his official visit less than a month ago and received an offer from the Irish in May 2020:

Like Bellmary, Moore was a target of Marcus Freeman and cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens. Both players also will join the Irish for the 2022 season. To have this coaching duo make this kind of progress this quickly is nothing short of amazing, and it only can help.

The Irish had to battle with a plethora of schools to land Moore. They included Alabama, Stanford, Florida State, Florida, Auburn, Tennessee, South Carolina, Cincinnati, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Michigan State, Michigan, Nebraska, Mississippi State, Iowa State and Vanderbilt.

Notre Dame lands 3-star cornerback recruit Jayden Bellamy

The Irish have a new future cornerback.

Notre Dame’s secondary will be getting a big boost after the coming season. Jayden Bellamy, a three-star cornerback and Oradell, New Jersey, native who plays at Bergen Catholic, has committed to the Irish:

Bellamy, who made an official visit to Notre Dame on June 18, chose the Irish after previously narrowing his selection down to them, Rutgers and Penn State. Before that, he had a slightly bigger finalist field of Ohio State, Clemson and Oklahoma.

When asked by Blue and Gold why he picked the Irish, Bellamy, the 17th commitment among players who will arrive in South Bend in 2022, said the following:

“Academics played a big part, and I bonded the best with Coach [Mike] Mickens, Coach [Marcus] Freeman and the whole staff. When I was with them during the visit, we were making a lot of jokes, and ever since they offered me, they went after me hard. That played a part, too.”

The Irish stand to lose only a few senior cornerbacks after the 2021 season. The majority of that unit is made up of freshmen and sophomores. By the time Bellamy comes, that group will have gotten to know each other a lot. There will be no shortage of players to show him the ropes. The best part for Bellamy is this is the group he will consider his brothers going forward.

Notre Dame presents offer to combo guard recruit Denver Anglin

The Irish have their latest target for their future backcourt.

Notre Dame has been eager to pursue the combo guard route in its recruiting lately. Last week, the Irish gave an offer to Lawrent Rice of Dayton, Ohio. However, he wouldn’t be able to come to South Bend for another couple of years. Whether it’s related or not, the Irish now have extended an offer to a combo guard who will have to wait one less year to begin his collegiate career: Denver Anglin of Gill St. Bernard’s in New Jersey;

Anglin is going into his senior season, so he already has plenty of offers lined up. They include Northwestern, Stanford, Georgetown, Providence, UConn, Georgia Tech, Penn State, Seton Hall, Ole Miss, TCU and SMU. Many of these schools have strong academic reputations, and Notre Dame is no exception in that regard. He has plenty of options for college, and he really can’t go wrong with any of them, though we’d obviously love to see him in the blue and gold.

Notre Dame gives offer to offensive tackle recruit Ashton Craig

The Irish are after a recruit who could end up with them or in the Big Ten.

With much of his 2020 unit not returning in 2021, Notre Dame offensive line coach Jeff Quinn has his work cut out for him. He will do everything in his power to keep the Irish’s reputation for churning out quality offensive linemen going for as long as possible. To that end, he has presented an offer to a tackle who would need to wait only a year before arriving in South Bend. This latest target is the 6-foot-5, 260-pound Ashton Craig from Lawrenceburg, Indiana:

Craig is very interested in Notre Dame, but he also is giving serious consideration to numerous Big Ten schools. Namely, he is looking at Michigan, Northwestern, Iowa and Nebraska. Other programs in the running include Duke, Wake Forest, Florida State, Boston College, Purdue, Indiana, Cincinnati and Toledo. Wherever he ends up, he has the body that belongs in college football, and any offense would benefit from having him.

Notre Dame one of four finalists for safety recruit Sherrod Covil

Will Notre Dame beat out three ACC schools for Covil’s services?

Notre Dame has made the final cut for safety recruit Sherrod Covil’s college choices. Also among his final choices are ACC schools Miami, North Carolina and Clemson. He will announce his decision Thursday on Rivals. Ahead of this big day, Covil spoke with Rivals national recruiting director Adam Gorney, who asked for Covil’s thoughts about each of the programs eagerly awaiting his announcement:

The fact that Covil considers Notre Dame one of his top-two choices gives the Irish reason for optimism. He particularly gives credit to senior defensive analyst Nick Lezynski for being aggressive in his pursuit of him. It shows how it truly takes an entire coaching staff to bring talent in.

Exports for both Rivals and 247Sports believe it’s a certainty that Covil will choose Clemson. If that’s the case, he put on a nice poker face for his interview. Then again, no recruit really is going to say where they want to go until they make their official announcement. And so, we wait.

Notre Dame gives offer to power forward recruit Jalen Washington

The Irish could use some size in the future.

When Anthony Solomon returned to Mike Brey’s staff, it was fair to wonder how soon he would pay dividends. While we don’t know yet as far as landing recruits, we now know as far as presenting offers to them. Jalen Washington, a power forward going into his senior season at West Side in Gary, Indiana, can add Notre Dame to the list of offers he’s already gotten. He credited both Brey and Solomon for their interest in him:

Washington has received over a dozen offers so far. The schools he’s mostly trending towards are North Carolina, Indiana, Purdue, Michigan State, Stanford and Alabama. He visited the Tar Heels on June 2 and is scheduled to meet with the Cardinal on Saturday. The other schools in the mix are Louisville, Illinois, Iowa, Penn State, Nebraska, Maryland, DePaul and Oklahoma.

The Irish really need some depth with their size, and Washington would fit the bill perfectly.

Notre Dame QB commit Angeli gives thoughts on 2021 starting job debate

Who do you think will win the starting job?

Notre Dame is betting big on quarterback commit Steve Angeli, who will join the Irish for the 2022 season. Their high hopes for him have to be ascended after the performance he’s put on at Rivals camp this week. It’s interesting to watch given that the Irish still aren’t sure who will start at quarterback for them in 2021. Angeli was asked about it at the camp, and here’s what he had to say:

Yeah, it’s not a very exciting answer, but given that he’s mostly on the outside looking in aside from conversations with Tommy Rees, it shouldn’t be a surprise. The truth is the Irish have very viable candidates in Jack Coan, Drew Pyne and Tyler Buchner, and none of them emerged as a lead candidate during the spring practices. It’s possible we won’t get an answer until shortly before the Irish open their season in prime time at Florida State. While you might not want to hear that, it is what it is.

Notre Dame extends offer to guard recruit Rodney Rice

Think a kid from Mike Brey’s alma mater will be swayed by that connection?

With several guards entering their senior seasons, Notre Dame will need to replenish its backcourt soon. It goes without saying, but Mike Brey and his staff intend to pull out every stop to make sure new players come to South Bend and thrive in the guard position. How about going after a player from DeMatha Catholic in Maryland, Brey’s alma mater? We know that’s happened after recruit Rodney Rice announced an offer had been made Monday night:

Rice checks in at 6-foot-4, 185 pounds, which is perfect for a guard. Notre Dame is the 22nd school to make him an offer, and 247Sports has Indiana, Louisville and Alabama as the most likely landing spots for Rice. He’s also drawn interest from Maryland, Rutgers, Michigan, Kentucky, South Carolina, Marquette, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Miami, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Illinois.

While Brey surely has been around long enough to know that sharing a high school with Rice won’t make a difference in the final decision, he has to be holding onto that hope somewhere in the back of his mind, right?

Notre Dame target Jaylen Sneed named linebacker MVP at Rivals Camp

A Notre Dame target had a great weekend.

Any college program eyeing a recruit always has to be thrilled whenever that recruit achieves an impressive feat on the playing surface. To that end, Notre Dame surely had to be excited to see outside linebacker target Jaylen Sneed do well at the Rivals Camp he participated in. In fact, he was named the best linebacker at the camp and now is set to take part in the Rivals Five-Star Challenge:

Sneed, who hails from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, announced he had received an offer from Marcus Freeman on Jan. 18. Since then, both Rivals and 247Sports have picked Notre Dame as the clear-cut favorite to land Sneed’s services. Of course, it’s by no means a done deal because the Irish have to hope their offer beats out those from South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia Tech and Florida among others. However, it’s fun to anticipate Sneed putting pen to paper to indicate that he’s indeed coming to South Bend.

Notre Dame presents offer to two-way recruit Kye Stokes

Notre Dame wants this two-way athlete to play safety.

The two-way college football player pretty much has become nonexistent. By the time a player gets to that level, they’re expected to focus on one position. Kye Stokes from Armwood in Seffner, Florida, is listed as an athlete in just about every recruiting profile online. He’s a receiver on offense, but Notre Dame appears to want him as a safety based on him tagging Chris O’Leary and not Del Alexander in his tweet announcing that the Irish have made him an offer:

With one year to go before making the jump to college, Stokes now has received offers from 28 schools. These include Nebraska, Miami, Indiana, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, USF, UCF, Syracuse, Virginia, Wake Forest, Duke, Northwestern and Illinois. Whoever lands Stokes will get someone who is ready to play football and do so by running downfield whenever a ball is in the air. Anyone would be lucky to have someone capable of doing that on both offense and defense.