Tag: NCAA Recruiting

Hand caught in the cookie jar, Texas A&M football faces NCAA penalties

The NCAA announced on Thursday that the Texas A&M coaching staff violated recruiting rules.

The Longhorns and Aggies may not be rivals on the field anymore, but they certainly battle with each other on the recruiting trail. Continue reading “Hand caught in the cookie jar, Texas A&M football faces NCAA penalties”

Notre Dame makes cut for prized 2022 athlete/wide receiver

Notre Dame hasn’t had the best luck recruiting the wide receiver position in recent months. Perhaps that’s headed for a change here shortly

Notre Dame hasn’t had the best of luck recruiting the wide receiver position in recent months as one of the nation’s best for 2021 de-committed and the only wide receiver commitment in the 2021 class appears to be very much on the fence.

Brian Kelly and the Fighting Irish did get a small dose of good news though for 2022’s class Tuesday as one of the nation’s top athletes in Kaden Saunders revealed Notre Dame as one of his seven finalists.

Saunders says in his statement that he wants to make a commitment around his birthday in September and tells how pretty much every video conferencing app has become his way of developing relationships at potential schools.

Saunders, a four-star recruit according to 247Sports, hails from Westerville South High School in Ohio.  The 5-10, 170 pound athlete is being recruited to Notre Dame as a wide receiver.

If the Irish are going to win his commitment in a few short months they’ll have to stand out compared to Michigan, Arizona State, TCU, Penn State, Indiana and West Virginia, all who Saunders also listed in his top seven.

 

Notre Dame Makes Cut for Former Star Commitment

Deion Colzie is one of the top wide receivers in the 2021 recruiting class. The one-time Notre Dame commitment hasn’t eliminated the Irish.

Notre Dame once had a commitment from wide receiver Deion Colzie of Athens, Georgia before the star high school senior-to-be stepped away from that and reopened his recruitment.

Colzie still hasn’t announced the school of his choice but did make a cut down to ten teams over the weekend and Notre Dame is still in the discussion.

Notre Dame joins Georgia, Tennessee, Auburn, Alabama, Ole Miss, Penn State, Oregon, Virginia and Florida for the talented receiver.

247Sports ranks Colzie as the third best receiver in the 2021 recruiting class while the 247Sports composite rankings find him to be the 45th best prospect in the entire class and fifth best receiver.

Tom Loy of 247Sports reported the following of Colzie:

“In talking to a source on this front, some on the staff believe that if Colzie agrees to get back on campus at some point before making a decision, the staff feels strongly that they can get him back on board. However, again, nobody feels great about a return trip taking place. They are just hopeful at this point.” – Tom Loy of 247Sports

That’s not the most-optimistic of looks for the Fighting Irish who currently have just one wide receiver in their 2021 recruiting class, Lorenzo Styles, Jr.

Jaylon Smith Helping Notre Dame on Recruiting Trail?

Is a former Notre Dame star trying to help the Irish keep a commitment committed to ND?

Jaylon Smith is as talented of player as we’ve seen at Notre Dame at any position in recent memory.

The former Butkus Award winner as the nation’s top linebacker is now a Dallas Cowboy but hasn’t forgotten about his college whatsoever as he seems to be trying to help Notre Dame’s case for a current commitment.

David Abiara is a senior to be from Texas and a current Notre Dame commit.  He did however have reports circulate that he was nearing flipping that commitment to Oklahoma recently.

Smith took to Twitter to try and at least work some magic in the pursuit of Abira it would appear.

So maybe it wasn’t the most earth-shattering of tweets but it was compelling nonetheless to see one of Notre Dame’s biggest stars in recent memory reach out to a potential future Irish defender.

Will it help?

Who the heck knows but I’m certain at this point it won’t hurt.

Notre Dame Offers Yet Another ’21 Running Back

Notre Dame is yet to land any running back commitments in their 2021 recruiting class and made another offer on Thursday.

Since Will Shipley made a commitment to Clemson a couple weeks back, Notre Dame has been desperately trying to find a running back to add to their 2021 recruiting class.

Their latest offer was made on Thursday as they offered three-star running back Tavierre Dunlap of Del Valle, Texas.

Dunlap is listed at 6-0, 196 pounds and ran for 1341 yards as a high school junior, finding the end zone 23 times total.

Dunlap now has 35 offers from most of the very good, but not great programs.  The likes of Arizona State, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi State, Missouri, Nebraska, Northwestern, TCU and USC have offered along with plenty of others.

Notre Dame currently sits with ten commitments for the 2021 class.  One of those however is very much up in the air it appears and zero of the ten are at the running back position.

2021 Notre Dame Recruiting – Commitment Tracker

NCAA Again Extends Recruiting Dead Period

It’s not surprising news but Wednesday night the NCAA again extended their dead period for recruiting. Find out why and for how long here

What started in March as a reaction to the COVID-19 outbreak has continued to today and will go through at least July 31 as the NCAA has again extended their recruiting dead period.

From Wednesday evenings release from the NCAA:

The Division I Council Coordination Committee extended the recruiting dead period in all sports through July 31.

“The extension maintains consistent recruiting rules for all sports and allows coaches to focus on the student-athletes who may be returning to campus,” said Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, athletics director at Pennsylvania. “The committee is committed to reviewing the dead period again in late June or early July.”

The committee will regularly evaluate the dead period, continuing to be guided by medical experts.

Virtual Physical Activities

Additionally, the committee decided to allow strength and conditioning coaches to virtually observe voluntary physical workouts for health and safety purposes but only if requested by the student-athlete. The measure goes into effect June 1. The strength and conditioning coach will be allowed to observe the workouts and discuss items related to voluntary workouts but not direct or conduct the workout.

The decision was supported by the Committee on Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports Prevention and Performance Subcommittee. The subcommittee encouraged schools that decide to allow their strength and conditioning coaches to observe voluntary workouts to proactively consider the school’s overarching responsibility to protect the health of and provide a safe environment for each student-athlete. More specifically, the subcommittee stressed that schools should plan for how the strength and conditioning coach should respond if they observe an unsafe workout environment or in the event that a medical emergency occurs during a voluntary session.

The committee will continue to explore the opportunity for strength and conditioning coaches to conduct voluntary workouts virtually, as they do during in-person, on-campus voluntary workouts.

So with that announcement comes the end of any wishes of recruiting visits this summer.  The question now turns to the fall where we’re not certain games will even be played yet, let alone whether or not perspective student-athletes will be able to make their visits then.

Is Notre Dame About to Lose a Commitment to Oklahoma?

David Abiara announced his commitment to Notre Dame at the end of March but it’s not looking good that he will actually end up at Notre Dame

In what is a truly a unique off-season and time to be recruiting, Notre Dame may be again feeling the effects.

In the last couple of months Notre Dame has seen wide receiver Deion Colzie de-commit from the 2021 class and just a couple weeks back the Irish lost out on big-time running back Will Shipley, likely largely because his was unable to get back to campus to make an official visit.

Now it appears another de-commitment in the 2021 class may be coming.

Four-star defensive end David Abiara committed to Notre Dame on March 27.  The Mansfield, Texas product has still been pursued by Oklahoma since then the 247Sports staff is all over him flipping his commitment to the Sooners.

Three lead experts at 247Sports: Brandon Drumm, Steve Wiltfong and Tom Loy have all switched their predictions for Abiara from Notre Dame to Oklahoma.

Friends, Abiara might not have made it official yet but I’m having trouble believing all three of those recruiting experts are changing their predictions unless they’ve got some inside information, very possibly from the source himself.

So long story short – I’d get ready to hear news of that de-commitment sooner rather than later.

As it stands now Notre Dame currently has 10 commitments in the 2021 class, counting Abiara.  He’s one of two defensive ends in the class as Jason Onye of Rhode Island is the other.

College Football Morning Announcements for May 20

Good morning and happy Wednesday. Miss recent college football headlines? Get caught up right here, right now!

Happy Wednesday and welcome to the midweek.  I know it’s been a few days since I’ve gotten one of these episodes of the podcast out – sometimes a leaky roof and flooded garage will cause things like that, though.

Subscribe to Nick Shepkowski’s CFB Morning Announcements on Apple Podcasts

In this edition of the College Football Morning Announcements:

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Notre Dame set to re-open for students but school president non-committal to football in the fall

A top linebacker makes his college choice as the rich get richer

An SEC dynasty just fired all of their coaches

And which teams are under the most pressure to win in 2020?

Recruiting: Notre Dame Defensive Back Target Chooses Rival

Notre Dame star Kyle Hamilton was Josh Moore’s teammate at Marist School (HS). Now the two will get the chance to play against each other.

Notre Dame recently offered a scholarship to 2021 safety target Josh Moore of Marist School in Atlanta.  If Marist School sounds familiar that’s because it’s the same school that produced current Notre Dame star safety Kyle Hamilton.

Moore was offered by Notre Dame on May 6 and trimmed his list of potential colleges down to six just last week, the same day that he received an offer from Stanford.

Moore has made up his mind already and announced his decision late Tuesday morning, choosing the Stanford Cardinal.

Moore is graded as a three-star prospect on 247Sports and becomes the third player to commit to Stanford’s 2021 class joining quarterback Ari Patu and corner Jimmy Wyrick.

Notre Dame currently has ten commitments in the 2021 recruiting class with a pair of defensive backs in corner Philip Riley and safety Justin Walters.

NCAA extends recruiting dead period through June 30

On Wednesday, the NCAA decided to extend the recruiting dead period through June 30 and will decide on any further extension on May 27.

On and on it keeps going as the nation continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite some things beginning to re-open in phases across this country, on Wednesday, the NCAA has decided to extend the recruiting dead period through June 30.

So what does that mean? Basically, it means coaches cannot have in-person contact with recruits. They cannot physically visit them, and the prospects cannot come for official or unofficial visits to campus. Coaches may still talk and text players on the phone, but no face-to-face meetings.

The Division I Council Coordination Committee last extended its recruiting dead period through May 31 on April 1 and said it will now reevaluate whether to extend things further on May 27.

For FBS football programs, this extension means even if it is lifted on June 30, there is already a recruiting dead period baked in from July 1 through 24 in a normal year. Some of the other sports would potentially be able to get back to in-person recruiting should the period be allowed to expire.

For Ohio State, the dead period hasn’t been much of a problem. The coaches have been able to work within the confines of the rules and still land a slew of commitments that have in the No. 1 overall class for 2021 at the moment according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings.

Oh, who are we kidding, OSU’s class ranks No. 1 from every single reputable recruiting service and is in the running to break some records.

For now, things must remain status quo until the end of June. We’ll see what decisions are made at the end of May to this model.

 

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