Tag: NCAA Recruiting

Hot Route! – Make That Four Offers to Georgia DL from Notre Dame on Tuesday

Victoine Brown is listed at 6-4, 225 pounds on his Rivals profile page.  The strong-side defensive end grades out as a three-star recruit by both Rivals and 247Sports. — @BrownVictoine

At this point it appears Notre Dame’s defensive line coach Mike Elston is considering purchasing real estate in the state of Georgia.

News came out in the late morning Tuesday that Elston and Notre Dame had offered scholarships to three different defensive line prospects in the 2021 recruiting class.

As it turns out there were actually four.

While you’re busy firing up Ray Charles’s “Georgia on my Mind” or perhaps Alan Jackson’s “Chatahoochee”, here’s a bit of information on the fourth, and we believe final, Georgia high schooler to be offered by Notre Dame on Tuesday.

Victoine Brown is listed at 6-4, 225 pounds on his Rivals profile page.  The strong-side defensive end grades out as a three-star recruit by both Rivals and 247Sports.

Brown hails from Loganville, Georgia and already holds scholarship offers from the likes of Florida, LSU, Minnesota, Nebraska, Tennessee, Louisville and Georgia Tech among plenty of others.

Rivals currently ranks Brown as the 29th top strong-side defensive end in the 2021 recruiting class.

Brown was one of four Georgia high school defensive linemen to receive scholarship offers from Notre Dame on Tuesday.  The list of who joins him includes:

Others include:
Noah Collins – Weakside Defensive End
Jonathan Jefferson – Defensive Tackle
Joshua Robinson – Weakside Defensive End

Notre Dame Offers Three Tuesday – Third and Final Writeup is of (Other) ’21 Georgia Defensive End

Collins was one of four defensive linemen from the state of Georgia to receive an offer from Mike Elston and Notre Dame on Tuesday. 

If you’ve been paying attention to Notre Dame recruiting at all this Tuesday you’ve seen a very busy day for Brian Kelly’s Fighting Irish.

High school teammates and defensive linemates Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Jefferson were offered Tuesday as defensive line coach Mike Elston attempts to stack his defensive line prospects in the 2021 class.

Joining both Robinson and Jefferson was Noah Collins, a taller but thinner defensive end prospect also from Snellville, Georgia.

Collins has an impressive list of programs pursuing his services as Florida, LSU, Texas A&M, Tennessee, Nebraska, Michigan State and plenty of others have already offered him scholarships.

Collins was one of four defensive linemen from the state of Georgia to receive an offer from Mike Elston and Notre Dame on Tuesday.

Others include:
Victoine Brown – Strong-Side Defensive End
Jonathan Jefferson – Defensive Tackle
Joshua Robinson – Weakside Defensive End

Notre Dame Football: Offers Scholarship to 2022 Ohio OLB

Powers is listed at 6-4, 220 pounds, not bad size for a young man who won’t graduate high school for over two more years.

Notre Dame has continued with a busy stretch of their recruiting run as they try to get ahead of the game for 2022.

Most recently Brian Kelly and the Fighting Irish offered Outside Linebacker Gabe Powers of Maryville, Ohio to be part of their 2022 class.

Powers is listed at 6-4, 220 pounds, not bad size for a young man who won’t graduate high school for over two more years.

Notre Dame became the twelfth scholarship offer Powers has received, joining Boston College, Kentucky, Colorado, Florida State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Notre Dame Football Offers Top 200(ish) 2021 Wide Receiver

Brian Kelly and his staff remain busy on the recruiting trail as they officially entered their names in the sweepstakes for a highly-coveted wide receiver from Fort Lauderdale.

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly and his staff remain busy on the recruiting trail as they officially entered their names in the sweepstakes for a highly-coveted wide receiver from Fort Lauderdale.

Wednesday saw Troy Stellato of Cardinal Gibbons in Fort Lauderdale, Florida picked up his 31st scholarship offer, this one coming from Notre Dame.

Rivals lists Stellato as a four-star prospect and the 36th best wide receiver in the 2021 class.  They also rate him as the 201st overall prospect in the class.

Stellato has offers from 30 other schools including Alabama, Clemson, Florida, LSU, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Texas, USC and Wisconsin.  He’s already made visits to Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio State (twice) and Tennessee.

The 2021 Notre Dame recruiting class already has verbal commitments from a pair of four-star wide receivers in Lorenzo Styles of Ohio and Deion Colzie of Georgia.

Notre Dame Football: 2020 Recruiting Class Not Complete After All?

As a result, Martinez, who was recruited by Ohio State as a defensive back, is yet to put his commitment in paper.

A week before Christmas, Notre Dame signed 18 high school seniors on the early National Signing Day and Ohio State transfer, safety Isaiah Pryor.

Shortly after they added Northwestern transfer, wide receiver Bennett Skowronek to help fill the enormous hole left with Chase Claypool’s departure.

The 20 new additions to the Fighting Irish appeared to be it for the 2020 recruiting class but the deeper we get into January, the more we see that possibly not being the case.

Cameron Martinez, a 5-11, 183 pound athlete from Muskegon, Michigan had committed to Ohio State on the Fourth of July.

Funny this is however, the early signing period came and went without Martinez signing with Ryan Day’s Ohio State Buckeyes.

So enter Notre Dame.

What appears to have happened is Ohio State’s defensive backs coach Jeff Hafley took the head coaching job at Boston College. As a result, Martinez, who was recruited by Ohio State as a defensive back, is yet to put his commitment in paper.

So Notre Dame has jumped back in and we assume they’re not the only ones again interested.

Martinez, who starred at quarterback in high school and was an incredible playmaker. So much in fact he was named Michigan’s Gatorade Player of the Year this past fall and he may want to play offense in college instead of defense where it sounds like most coaches have guided him towards.

Like Ohio State, Notre Dame is currently operating without a certain secondary coach as Todd Lyght has stepped down since the season’s conclusion.

Because of that I’m not letting myself get too excited about a potential extra member in this class, but it’s certainly something to keep an eye on.

It may be easy to request Brian Kelly and his staff to offer Martinez to come play offense, but that’d be also ignoring the holes that remain at the corner position.

For what it’s worth I’m still not at a place where I expect Martinez to flip from Ohio State but it’s refreshing to hear Notre Dame still being linked to him and the 2020 class possibly still being able to grow by one.

Jurkovec Indeed Transferring to Boston College

So Jurkovec leaves and there are conversations be had about why he didn’t develop at Notre Dame like so many had hoped and forced the hand of the coaching staff to get him on the field.

Friday night we shared the news with you that Phil Jurkovec, who recently entered the transfer-portal, was taking advantage of a rule that allowed him to make an official visit to Boston College because students resumed classes this coming Monday.

Well, where this is smoke there is fire.

And in this case Phil Jurkovec is the newest member of the Boston College football team.

As you’re probably already aware, college football coaches get weird on social media, especially when recruits are committing to their respective schools.

Saturday afternoon this is what Boston College’s new head coach, Jeff Hafley had to say:

Irish fans may be aware of how Brian Kelly tweets out #WeAreND whenever he lands a commitment, consider this Hafley’s version of that because sure enough, a short time later the Sports Illustrated Boston College Maven site reported the news.

So Jurkovec leaves and there are conversations be had about why he didn’t develop at Notre Dame like so many had hoped and forced the hand of the coaching staff to get him on the field.

At the same time, Ian Book has played well enough for long enough to not really make a quarterback controversy a thing.  Sure, you can zoom in on his poor performances against Clemson or Michigan and be rightfully upset, but this is clearly a long way from Book forcing a change to him from Brandon Wimbush like we saw in 2018.

Like most things in life there is probably blame that deserves to head to multiple people in this, as Jurkovec never sounded like he earned a real chance to play more and yet again, we speak of a quarterback failing to develop to the liking of most Notre Dame fans under this regime.

If Jurkovec does receive his waiver to play this season for Boston College, he’ll have three years remaining which means Notre Dame could face their former big-time quarterback recruit as the Irish and Eagles are scheduled to play at Notre Dame Stadium in 2022.

Notre Dame Offers Top 100 Class of 2022 Safety

Friday night Brian Kelly and his staff offered Braelon Allen, who Rivals ranks as the 76th best player overall and sixth best Safety in the 2022 class.

It’s still extremely early in the process but Notre Dame is getting work in on the recurring trail for 2022.

Friday night Brian Kelly and his staff offered Braelon Allen, who Rivals ranks as the 76th best player overall and sixth best Safety in the 2022 class.

Allen recently competed in the All-American Bowl National Combine and left San Antonio impressing many scouts.

Allen is a 6-1, 200 pound safety/athlete from Fon Du Lac, Wisconsin who plays everywhere for his high school team. A quick viewing of his sophomore highlight tape shows a young man that certainly “looks the part“.

Notre Dame joins Wisconsin and Iowa who have also already offered him.

Notre Dame Offers 2021 3-Star Georgia Safety

Slocum is currently rated as the 17th best safety in the 2021 recruiting class by 247Sports and the 35th best player in Georgia.

The season may be over but the building for the future of Notre Dame football continues on the recruiting trail.

Currently ranked second by Rivals in the 2021 team recruiting rankings, Brian Kelly and his Fighting Irish coaching staff made an offer Monday to a safety who could potentially help that number.

Jaden Slocum, a 6-2, 181 pound safety from Alpharetta, Georgia tweeted Monday night that he had received a scholarship offer from Kelly and Notre Dame.

Slocum is currently rated as the 17th best safety in the 2021 recruiting class by 247Sports and the 35th best player in Georgia.

He already holds scholarship offers from Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Minnesota, Mississippi State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest.

Watch: Michael Mayer Scores in All-American Game, Draws Huge Praise

Just days later Notre Dame fans were given a taste of the future as Michael Mayer, the four-star Tight End and 2019 Kentucky High School Football Player of the Year scored in the annual Adidas All-American Game in San Antonio.

When you’re known as Tight End U, you don’t let the departure of one star at the position get you down for very long.

Cole Kmet announced this week that he would be entering the NFL Draft instead of returning to Notre Dame for one final season. As the already No. 1 tight end in the 2020 draft it’s a move that makes complete sense.

Just days later Notre Dame fans were given a taste of the future as Michael Mayer, the four-star Tight End and 2019 Kentucky High School Football Player of the Year scored in the annual Adidas All-American Game in San Antonio.

A couple of his 2020 classmates at Notre Dame were impressed on social media:

2020 quarterback Drew Pyne:

Fellow 2020 Tight End Kevin Bauman:

Mayer will enroll at Notre Dame in the summer and figures to challenge for playing time right away.

Watch: Tyree and Pyne Shine in Under Armour All-American Game as Notre Dame Future Looks Bright

At the end of the day it’s just an All-Star game but if you’re a Notre Dame fan that has been waiting for some next-level type talents, especially in terms of speed, you can’t help but get excited about what you saw in Orlando tonight.

Much of the talk this week in Orlando in regards to Notre Dame has been about running Chris Tyree and understandably so.

Tyree is the highest rated running back to choose Notre Dame in what seems like ages and he kept making headlines as he was a captain, the second fastest man and the winner of the shuttle competition between players.

Tyree wasn’t the only future Fighting Irish offensive player to turn heads during the week however as quarterback Drew Pyne of New Canaan, Connecticut did well for himself, too.

Pyne and Tyree teamed up with future Irish long-snapper Alex Pietsch on the Savage team in Thursday’s Under Armour All-American game and gave Irish fans everywhere reasons to get excited.

Pyne finished the night 9 for 11 passing for 124 yards, highlighted by a 42 yard touchdown pass to Ohio State-bound Julian Fleming.

Pyne’s Notre Dame teammate Chris Tyree didn’t let his big week go without one last flash either, scoring on a one yard run in the game on a hand-off from none other than Tyree.

At the end of the day it’s just an All-Star game but if you’re a Notre Dame fan that has been waiting for some next-level type talents, especially in terms of speed, you can’t help but get excited about what you saw in Orlando tonight.

240 days until Notre Dame vs. Navy in Ireland in case you were wondering.