Tag: JOK

Notre Dame’s top 25 3-star recruits since 2010

Just because someone is a three-star doesn’t mean they can’t be great.

In the world of recruiting, rankings clearly matter. It’s no shock that when you look at the best teams nationally, they’re the ones who usually ranked the highest in team recruiting rankings during the previous three or four years.  Maybe the top team doesn’t always have the top class, but you can bet they’re in or right there with the top-five nationally.

Another key part of recruiting comes to finding those diamonds in the rough.  That isn’t to knock three-star talents, but the hype around them clearly isn’t the same when a five-star prospect visits campus or commits to a program.

We decided to go back and rank the top three-star players Notre Dame brought to campus dating to the start of Brian Kelly’s run at Notre Dame that began with the 2010 recruiting class. Here are the top 25 of those such players in the last roughly dozen years.

The 247Sports composite was used in each player’s star rating for this piece. 

Former Notre Dame star’s NFL career off to fantastic start

Least shocking development ever?

Anyone who watched Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah (JOK) in his last two seasons at Notre Dame saw a player that instantly stood out.  His impact was felt both literally and figuratively as it all accumulated in him winning the 2020 Butkus Award as the nation’s best college linebacker.

The projected first round pick in this past spring’s NFL draft didn’t get selected until the middle of the second round however, and through the first three weeks the Cleveland Browns have to be ecstatic, as Owusu-Koramoah is grading out better than any linebacker in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus.

JOK’s numbers don’t jump off the statsheet as he’s recorded 10 tackles, seven of the solo variety, and half of a sack to date.  He’s also credited with successfully defending three passes already this season, something that comes as no surprise to Notre Dame fans.

For all of your Cleveland Browns coverage please be sure to visit our friends at Browns Wire.

Related:

Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah Photo Gallery at Notre Dame

40 Notre Dame players make NFL rosters for 2021 season

Notre Dame Upsets Clemson: Game Ball Awards

Who were the best players from Saturday’s shocking win for Notre Dame over Clemson? The FIW staff has decided theirs for the win.

Notre Dame did something they hadn’t done in 27 years on Saturday night when they knocked off No. 1 Clemson.

It took a group effort to get the job done but that’s exactly what Notre Dame got in their thrilling 47-40, double-overtime win over the Tigers.

Who gets the game ball awards for this victory?

Here is what the Fighting Irish Wire staff came up with from the victory.

Michael Chen’s Game Ball Award for Notre Dame-Clemson:

Offensive:  Kyren Williams

He was the star of the offense for the Irish, starting the game with a 65 yard touchdown run and finishing it off with the eventual game winning score in the second overtime.  Williams rushed for 139 yards but what he did incredibly well doesn’t show up in the box score as he was phenomenal in pass protection, doing a fantastic job against Clemson’s blitzes and helping extend drives that way.

Defensive:  Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah

In the span of a little under three minutes, JOK wrecked the Clemson offense.  He took a fumbled quarterback-running back exchange to the house and three plays later forced a fumble the Irish recovered.

With the nation watching JOK was the best player on the defense and made himself a bunch of money tonight.

Next:  Jeff Feyerer’s Game Ball Awards…

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Notre Dame Football: Pair of Irish named to CFN’s Top 50 list

A pair of Notre Dame players showed up on the CFN Top 50 players list entering 2020. Who didn’t make the cut that’s the surprise, though.

We’re just 13 days until Notre Dame kicks off against Duke and the 2020 college football season gets underway for Fighting Irish fans.

As we’ve gone over the rankings of best teams each time we can find one, we haven’t done much on the actual best players outside of Notre Dame.

College Football News did that recently, naming the 50 best players in college football entering the 2020 season.  In order to make their list you have to be on a team that is scheduled to play this fall, not in the winter or spring.

With that in mind, know that two Notre Dame players made the list but they probably aren’t the two you’re guessing.

If you’re like me your first thought is probably “OK, its Kyle Hamilton easily and did they go with Koramoah or Eichenberg as the second?”

Well, about that.

They didn’t actually go with Hamilton in the top 50, instead ranking offensive tackle Liam Eichenberg as the 11th best player and linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah as the 34th best player.

Here’s what they said about both.  First up, 11th ranked Eichenberg:

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Monday’s have been kind to Notre Dame Linebacker Owusu-Koramoah

Another Monday, another watch list that Irish linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah appears in.

For the second Monday in a row, Irish linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, JOK, has been placed into elite company making another watch list. This time it is the Butkus Award, which is given to the nation’s best linebacker. This honor is on the heels of last Monday when JOK was put on the Chuck Bednarik Award watch list as well.

Owusu-Koramoah has a lot to play for in his senior year, as we previewed him here last week, which  includes a potential selection in the first round of the NFL Draft. There is a ton of hype surrounding JOK and if he wins the Butkus, he would become the 3rd Irish linebacker to achieve that status following Jaylon Smith in 2015 and Manti Te’o in 2012. Smith’s season had him finish with 114 tackles and a sack while Te’o has 111 tackles and 1.5 sacks.

The competition will be tough for JOK to take home this award in the 2020 season as Penn State’s Micah Parsons, Alabama’s Dylan Moses and others have gotten significant pre-season hype as well. If JOK can up his tackle numbers from 79 to over 100 and keep the 8.5 sacks or even improve on those number, we can very well see Owusu-Koramoah being named the best linebacker in college this coming season.