Tag: Justin Walters

Notre Dame Lands Big Time Cornerback Commitment

Notre Dame got some much-needed good news Tuesday afternoon after landing a commitment from top-20 CB Philip Riley from Florida.

The sting of missing out on the Will Shipley sweepstakes didn’t sting as hard, or at least not for as long as Notre Dame fans may have expected.ย  Less than an hour after Shipley announced his commitment to Clemson, Notre Dame landed a big-time commitment from cornerback Philip Riley.

What do you need to know about Philip Riley?

The four-star prospect attends Bloomingdale High School in Valrico, Florida but is originally from the state of Washington.ย  Riley had received 40 scholarship offers from the likes of Clemson, Florida State, Penn State, Texas and USC as well as plenty of others to give you an idea of how sought after he was.

This is a win for Notre Dame and an even bigger win for new defensive backs coach Mike Mickens who offered Riley a scholarship not even six weeks ago.ย  Mickens tweeted his excitement about Riley’s commitment shortly after it was announced.

Riley is the ninth commitment in Notre Dame’s 2021 recruiting classย but the first corner back in the group. He joins safety Justin Walters of Bolingbrook, Illinois in the class of 2021’s secondary.

College Football Recruiting: Five Takeaways From ESPN 300

Notre Dame landed six players on the updated ESPN 300 list for 2021. What schools are impressing and who is disappointing in ’21 recruiting?

ESPN released their “ESPN 300”, their ranking of the 300 best prospects nationally in the 2021 college football recruiting class.ย  Here’s what we’ll do:

Here we’ll give you where the six Notre Dame commitments that checked in rank and then we’ll share a handful of observations about national recruiting beyond that.

Deal?

Cool.

Where Notre Dame players ranked:

QB Tyler Buchner – 39
TE Cane Berrong – 51
OT Blake Fisher – 103
DT Gabriel Rubio – 163
WR Lorenzo Styles, Jr. – 243
DE David Abiara – 280

Safety Justin Walters and offensive guard Pat Coogan, both of Illinois didn’t make the ESPN 300 but are also commitments to Notre Dame’s 2021 class.

Next:ย  Oh my, Ohio State…

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6

Notre Dame Football: 2021 Commitment List

Bookmark this page as we’ll keep it updated and linked to everything on all of Notre Dame’s 2021 football commitments!

Notre Dame sits in a bit of an interesting spot in terms of recruiting with Brian Kelly having already been on the record about wanting to take a step in the caliber of talent the Fighting Irish bring in annually.ย  Kelly and his staff would probably be best described as having done a good but not great job in terms of recruiting in his decade at Notre Dame.

In Kelly’s now 11 classes he’s signed to Notre Dame, only once has a class finished in the top five of recruiting rankings (per 247Sports), that being the 2013 class that featured five-star talents Jaylon Smith and Max Redfield.ย  Other than that only three of the ten remaining class finished in the top ten, those coming in 2011 (ninth), 2017 (10th) and 2018 (10th).ย  The last two seasons have seen Notre Dame rank 16th (2019) and 17th (2020) by 247’s rankings.

So where does Notre Dame currently sit in terms of their commitments?ย  We’ll keep a running list for you to be able to easily use in the future.ย  As of posting, 247Sports ranks Notre Dame the 10th best class in 2021.ย  Obviously that can change relatively quickly with just one commitment or de-commitment from the class.

Here is who has committed to Notre Dame for the class of 2021 with a link to every post we’ve done that’s mentioned them in some capacity.ย  Bookmark it, refer back to it, do whatever it is you do because we’ll keep it updated until the class of 2021 becomes official months from now.

2021 Notre Dame Commitments:

It’s far from a complete class but clearly a lot of work remains over the next seven months or so.ย  Right now all eyes are on Will Shipley as Notre Dame, Clemson and perhaps North Carolina remain the front runners to land the star all-purpose back.

 

Notre Dame Football: New Offer Out for ’21 Pennsylvania Safety

6-2, 185 pound safety Donovan McMillon announced his scholarship offer on Twitter, making Notre Dame the 24th different school to extend a scholarship offer his way.

Notre Dame has been getting after it for the 2021 class of late with a run of offers being made near and far.ย  That continued Friday afternoon as Canonsburg, Pennsylvania was the location of their latest scholarship offer to the 2021 recruiting class.

6-2, 185 pound safety Donovan McMillon announced his scholarship offer on Twitter, making Notre Dame the 24th different school to extend a scholarship offer his way.

McMillon of Peters Township High School is listed as a three-star recruit on 247 Sports composite ratings.

Of the 24 schools that have now offered McMillon, Michigan is the most-similar to Notre Dame in terms of their standing in college football.ย  The other bigger schools to have offered are the likes of Purdue, Pitt and West Virginia while a good amount of MAC teams are on the list, as is seemingly solid Cincinnati.

Notre Dame’s offer to McMillon comes less than a week after they received a commitment from 2021 safety Justin Walters of Bolingbrook, Illinois.