It’s time to get the hype train going for true freshman wide receiver [autotag]Micah Gilbert[/autotag].
For the second time during Notre Dame football’s Blue and Gold game, the North Carolina native found the end zone. It was a simple go-route, but Gilbert showed his speed to get past the cornerback and race beyond the safety for the score.
The different between the first and second score was who threw him the ball. The first touchdown was from Kenny Minchey and the next one was from fellow freshman CJ Carr. We could be seeing a whole lot of the connections from either of these quarterbacks and Gilbert in the near future.
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You have to give some credit to Notre Dame quarterback [autotag]Kenny Minchey[/autotag] for not letting an early interception deter the day.
It would have been very easy for him to turtle up and just go through the motions following an ill-advised throw in the first half. Minchey started to find his groove following the bad pass, and he make one of those highlight reel passes you love to see.
The second-year player found early enrolling true freshman wide receiver [autotag]Micah Gilbert[/autotag] along the right side on a beautiful throw over his right shoulder for a score. The impressive throw tied the game at 14 points midway through the third.
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One of the biggest issues for the Notre Dame offense over the last few years has been the lack of a big-play threat at wide receiver.
The Irish have had some solid players at the position, but haven’t really had a game-breaker. That might be changing in the near future as the Notre Dame football official social media handle highlighted true freshman [autotag]Micah Gilbert[/autotag].
The 6-foot, 2-inch and 205-pound North Carolina native arrived on campus with plenty of fanfare, as he was ranked as the No. 244 overall prospect and 41st receiver in the country according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings.
Notre Dame did a great job working the transfer portal to upgrade the room, but those additions are mainly stop-gaps, whereas Gilbert is here for the long haul.
Expect big things from Gilbert over the course of his Notre Dame career.
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It has been a pretty big day for [autotag]Notre Dame[/autotag] and their social media team.
Not only was the Irish’s green jerseys unveiled on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, but multiple 2024 commitments shared videos and graphics with the hashtag of ThinkBig, the slogan of their class.
Was is unique about this campaign is that none of the videos shared were the same, each of the individually crafted for each commitment. It’s a job well done by the Notre Dame social media staff, as they have been extremely busy the past few weeks getting all of this prepared to roll out at the same time.
Take a look below at some of the videos and graphics shared by the Irish verbal commitments.
Notre Dame has about as solid of base that they could hope for in wide receiver recruiting for 2024 with borderline five-star prospect Cam Williams of Glenbard South (Illinois) already committed. The Irish are now also in the top-seven for another prized receiving target.
Micah Gilbert of Charlotte Christian (North Carolina) announced his top-seven schools over the weekend and among them was Notre Dame. Gilbert is a four-star prospect that holds over 20 offers. Joining Notre Dame in that list of seven schools were Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, Duke, Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh.
Gilbert is listed at 6-3, 203-pounds and is the cousin of former University of Pittsburgh and New York Jets star, Darrelle Revis.
The Irish aren’t in a terrible position, they still have commitments from [autotag]Cam Williams[/autotag] and [autotag]Micah Gilbert[/autotag] with athletes [autotag]Teddy Rezac[/autotag] and [autotag]Brauntae Johnson[/autotag] potentially getting reps at the position as well.
With Canion leaving the class, there are still 20 current commits so it would be a good idea to add another receiver to replace him.
The Irish didn’t have any uncommitted wide receivers make an official visits during the spring period, so that means they will bring in potential matches during a Saturday in South Bend. Here are my top three targets the Irish should turn to with an open scholarship.
Much has been made about the receivers in Notre Dame’s 2024 recruiting class. [autotag]Cam Williams[/autotag] and [autotag]Micah Gilbert[/autotag] both figure to be important pieces in the Irish’s offense starting next year. However, they will have to move forward without fellow 2024 receiver Isiah Canion. Two months after picking Notre Dame, Canion has announced his de-commitment from the program:
Canion was the second 2024 receiver to commit to the Irish after Williams, who did so several months earlier. He was a four-star recruit on 247Sports at the time of his commitment, but he has since been dropped to three-star status. In a similar vein, Williams briefly rose to five-star status before being reverted to four stars. Gilbert also has four stars to his name.
According to Canion’s 247Sports profile, Georgia Tech appears to be the leading candidate to land him. That’s not a surprise considering Canion is from Warner Robins, Georgia. The Irish and Yellow Jackets are scheduled to face each other twice during Canion’s college career, so that definitely would add some intrigue if he does decide to head to Atlanta.
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Reviewing Notre Dame’s hot surge on the recruiting trail, where Dylan Raiola is now trending and how Texas is trying to catch up in the 2024 cycle.
USA TODAY High School Sports‘ Friday Night Notes is a weekly high school recruiting recap that looks at the latest news from around the country—from the Class of 2023 to ’24 and beyond.
Last week we opened Friday Night Notes with a list of five college programs that stood out in the recruiting game. Michigan was on top, with honorable mentions for LSU, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Notre Dame. One of them stood head and shoulders above the competition this week, though.
Specifically, the Fighting Irish have dominated the 2024 recruiting cycle over the last eight days by picking up the following four recruits.
First, Notre Dame won out over 15 other schools for Canion’s commitment. According to the composite rankings, he’s currently No. 29 at his position and No. 28 overall in the ultra-competitive state of Georgia.
Charlotte Christian (NC) 4-star EDGE Bryce Young (April 29)
Chandler (Ariz.): 3-star S Kennedy Urlacher (May 1)
On Monday, Notre Dame added even more namepower, picking up a commitment from Hall of Fame linebacker Brian Urlacher’s son Kennedy. He turned down offers from 19 other schools.
Charlotte Christian (NC): 4-star WR Micah Gilbert (May 2)
Last but not least, they added another four-star receiver on Tuesday with Young’s teammate Gilbert, who’s the fifth-ranked player in North Carolina. He says his choice was about the pedigree:
“Notre Dame has that pedigree… I love what they have done in the past. They have a great reputation on and off the field, and the visit pushed them over the top. Everywhere I went, I had my list of requirements. And Notre Dame had everything I was looking for…”
Thanks to this influx of talent, the Fighting Irish class of 2024 has risen to No. 4 in the national rankings.
That makes three wide receivers and 14 hard commits total for Notre Dame’s class of 2024, which ranks fourth in the nation.
It’s turning out to be a luck of the Irish kind of a week, as Notre Dame football has gotten two significant commitments over the last few days.
On Monday, Hall of Fame linebacker Brian Urlacher’s son, Chandler (Ariz.) three-star safey Kennedy Urlacher announced his commitment to Notre Dame. Yesterday, the Fighting Irish added another notable member to their class of 2024.
Here’s how Charlotte Christian (NC) four-star wide receiver Micah Gilbert announced that he was joining the club.
Gilbert (6-foot-3, 203 pounds) had offers from 20 other schools, including Charlotte, Duke, ECU, Wake Forest, North Carolina and South Carolina. He told Chad Simmons at On3 Notre Dame had everything he was looking for.
“Notre Dame has that pedigree… I love what they have done in the past. They have a great reputation on and off the field, and the visit pushed them over the top. Everywhere I went, I had my list of requirements. And Notre Dame had everything I was looking for.”
Going by the 247Sports rankings, Gilbert is No. 30 among wide receivers in his class, No. 5 overall in the state of North Carolina and No. 199 nationally.
That makes three wide receivers and 14 hard commits total for Notre Dame’s recruiting class of 2024, which ranks fourth in the nation.
Quite the recruiting run in recent days has the Irish climbing
We’ve been tracking the college football team recruiting rankings periodically this off-season as the 2024 recruiting classes are really taking shape following spring football. Notre Dame had been as high as second in the rankings before a dry spell had them outside the top-five in recent weeks.
Now with the recent additions of [autotag]Bryce Young[/autotag], [autotag]Kennedy Urlacher[/autotag], and [autotag]Micah Gilbert[/autotag] in the last few days, the Irish are back near the top.
Gilbert became Notre Dame’s 14th commitment in the 2024 class on Tuesday when he announced his decision. Not a bad run seeing as just 11 days ago the Irish had nine official commitments.
Where do the Irish now rank compared to the rest of college football?
Here is an updated look at the national top 35 following Notre Dame’s recent run.
