Tag: notre dame football recruiting

Notre Dame ’21 QB Commit Buchner to Transfer High Schools

California QB Tyler Buchner, a Notre Dame commit, will transfer to a new high school to finish career.

It was reported yesterday that Notre Dame commit Tyler Buchner, the top ranked recruit in the 2021 Irish class, will transfer from La Jolla High School to La Mesa Helix High School to finish out his career.

It was Tom Loy of Irish Illustrated who got a release about the transfer from the Buchner Family, as they explained why the move. It was due to Buchner’s “interest in enrolling early at Notre Dame” which makes plenty of sense, as Ian Book will graduate this after this year and the QB position will need a new starter for 2021.

Buchner has been a leader for his recruiting class, being active with other prospects around the nation in trying to lure them to South Bend to play with him. The changing of his high school will not effect this at all.

At the current moment it has been planned for the 2021 recruiting class to be making a visit to South Bend in a little under two weeks from now, but that remains to be seen how the Irish will handle visitors with the COVID-19 outbreak.

California ’21 DB McCutcheon Schedules Notre Dame Visit

California ’21 DB McCutcheon will unofficially visit Notre Dame in early April.

In a report from Rival’s Mike Singer, class of 2021 defensive back Dyson McCutcheon will visit South Bend on April 4th. According to Singer’s report McCutcheon is also looking to lock in an official visit at some point in the future.

It may be difficult for the Irish to get McCutcheon away from USC’s grips, as his father Daylon played there from ’95-’98 before playing for the Cleveland Browns from ’99-’06. The Trojans have offered the California star, along with Arizona, California, Wisconsin and others.

A two-way player in high school, McCutcheon projects to play on the defensive side of the ball, but clearly if he wanted to try and play offense, the Irish staff would try and find him snaps on that side of the ball. Singer says that new CB coach Mike Mickens hasn’t been in contact but that will surely change in the near future. The Irish have a real chance with McCutcheon, and getting him on campus multiple times prior to either signing period is a very encouraging sign.

Notre Dame Football Goes on Recruiting Run Through Georgia on Tuesday

The other thing it does is creates a stir around Notre Dame football in a place where it isn’t usually easy to do such a thing. 

Some days news seemingly comes out of nowhere and takes over the course of a morning or afternoon.

Notre Dame’s defensive line coach Mike Elston marching through the state of Georgia and leaving scholarships throughout his wake made that the story of the day for Notre Dame football.

Early Tuesday we found out that Notre Dame had offered Douglas County defensive linemen Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Jefferson scholarships.

Usually that would be an extremely newsworthy day for Notre Dame.  However, that was just the tip of the iceberg in what the Irish had up their sleeve in the Peach State Tuesday.

Noah Collins later announced on Twitter that he had also received a scholarship offer, making it three on the day the Irish had offered.

That still wasn’t it as about an hour later Victoine Brown announced that he had also received a scholarship offer from Notre Dame.

We think that is it but then again there are still seven or so hours left in the day.

It’s impressive and I think it accomplishes a couple of things for Notre Dame in this 2021 class.

It’s already an impressive class being formed in terms of offensive talent but with just one player on the defensive side of the ball, clearly there is work to do.  These four offers guarantee nothing but appear to be four players in high-demand nationwide.

The other thing it does is creates a stir around Notre Dame football in a place where it isn’t usually easy to do such a thing.  Right in the heart of SEC and University of Georgia territory, Notre Dame goes and makes four scholarship offers right in a row.

All four may one day wear blue and gold for the Fighting Irish (fat chance but sure, it’s possible!) but by all four announcing their offers today it creates a much different type of interest in Notre Dame’s 2021 recruiting class to other recruits, especially in a place that it’s hard to go into and snag talent from.

Links to Individual Write-ups:

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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 – Next Up is ’21 Georgia Defensive Tackle

Jonathan Jefferson, a 6-4, 278 pound defensive tackle was among the three prospects to get offered in the 2021 class by Notre Dame on Tuesday.

As Notre Dame attempts to compile talent along their defensive front in the 2021 recruiting class, they made an offer to one of the nation’s most-desired defensive tackles in the class.

Jonathan Jefferson, a 6-4, 278 pound defensive tackle was among the three prospects to get offered in the 2021 class by Notre Dame on Tuesday.

Jefferson, a high school defensive line-mate of Joshua Robinson at Douglas County High School in Douglasville, Georiga who was also offered by Notre Dame on Tuesday.

Rivals ranks Jefferson as a top-200 player nationally and the 15th best defensive tackle in the 2021 class.

For a temperature guage on how sought-after Jefferson is look no further than his list of offers already, which come from over 40 programs including most of the elites like Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas A&M and plenty of others.

Notre Dame Offers Three Tuesday – First Up is ’21 Georgia Defensive End

Notre Dame becomes the 19th program to offer a scholarship with Florida, Florida State, Miami, Michigan, Michigan State and Nebraska being a few of the biggest programs in on the defensive end

Notre Dame’s 2021 recruiting class is off to a solid start offensively but has lacked bodies on the defensive side, having just one commit in the current seven body class.

Brian Kelly and the Irish appear to be trying to change that as a flurry of scholarship offers were made to 2021 defensive linemen on Tuesday.

Joshua Robinson, a 6-4, 225 pound weakside defensive end from Douglas County High School in Douglas, Georgia posted to Twitter about the latest scholarship he was offered on Tuesday morning.

Rivals ranks Robinson as the 18th best weakside defensive end in the 2021 recruiting class while Notre Dame becomes the 19th program to offer a scholarship with Florida, Florida State, Miami, Michigan, Michigan State and Nebraska being a few of the biggest programs in on the defensive end.

Robinson was the first of three defensive linemen to receive a scholarship offer from Notre Dame on Tuesday.

Notre Dame Football: Another Visit Planned for Top Running Back Target

Taylor was only a hired last January but already made an impact, perhaps the biggest way being in bringing in talent to the running back position that hasn’t been seen in the Brian Kelly era.

The less-discussed news of Tuesday’s coaching moves at Notre Dame was that running backs coach Lance Taylor had been promoted to run game coordinator.

Taylor was only a hired last January but already made an impact, perhaps the biggest way being in bringing in talent to the running back position that hasn’t been seen in the Brian Kelly era.

Chris Tyree signed his letter of intent in December and was immediately the highest ranked running back to choose Notre Dame in Kelly’s now decade on the job.  Fast-forward a month and the Irish and Taylor specifically, appear set on getting a commitment from another highly-couveted all purpose back.

According to a Mike Singer report at Blue Gold Illustrated, Taylor will be in North Carolina on Friday when the recruiting dead period is lifted and is expected to make a visit to see Will Shipley, the nation’s number-one all purpose back in 2021.

Taylor has already met face-to-face with Shipley five times according to the same report, most of those meetings coming in North Carolina.

Shipley is listed at 6-1, 220 pounds and was named the Gatorade Player of the Year in North Carolina after a junior season that saw him rush for more than 2000 yards and 30 touchdowns while hauling in 582 receiving yards and eight more scores by reception.  It all led to Weddington’s second-straight state championship.

Will Shipley may not choose Notre Dame ultimately but it won’t be because of a lack of an effort by Lance Taylor.

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: What “Next-Level Recruiting” May Involve

I may be crazy but if you’re trying to sell a huge target something, don’t you bring out the best you have to offer?

One day after Christmas and two days before last weekend’s Camping World Bowl against Iowa State, Brian Kelly made headlines by saying about as interesting thing as you’ll hear a head coach say about the future of their roster.

On Notre Dame’s recent recruiting and where it ends up in the future, Kelly stated:

“We want to break out of the 15th ranked or the 10th ranked, and we want to get into that next echelon …. I think we have some things that we’re going to implement that will allow us to do that.” – Brian Kelly on December 26, 2019

Notre Dame has recruited fine, some would even consider it pretty well, but nobody is confusing Brian Kelly and his recruiting classes for the amount of talent the likes of LSU, Georgia, Clemson and Alabama are bringing into their programs year after of late.

So how do you actually raise the bar for recruiting?

If a couple of recent misses by the Fighting Irish are to ask, the answer would be in the head coach.

Carter Karels of the South Bend Tribune did a fantastic piece Friday that explored the reasons big-time Notre Dame targets Lathan Ransom and Jalen McMillan signed with schools other than N-D in mid-December.

Although Notre Dame had pegged both as primary targets last recruiting cycle, the man who cashes the largest check was nowhere to be found in pursuing them.

“Washington, literally everyone on that staff, I have a relationship with,” McMillan said. “I have everyone’s phone number on that staff. I text them all the time, and it’s not even just about football. It’s about girls, food — anything other than football.

“With coach Kelly, he never texted me. He didn’t text my mom, my dad. So I didn’t feel like we had a relationship for me to actually want to go there.”  – Jalen McMillan on why he chose Washington over Notre Dame

I may be crazy but if you’re trying to sell a huge target something, don’t you bring out the best you have to offer?

Maybe Notre Dame made it appear they were more interested than they really were in McMillan.  Otherwise it’s an incredibly tough look for Kelly assuming McMillan is being truthful and we have no reason not to think he is.

You can hate it all you want but people like being appreciated or courted.  That’s not to say Brian Kelly has to be creeping out the world and camping out at a recruits house like that weirdo Jim Harbaugh, but if certain players are such huge targets then establishing a relationship is key.

It feels like it should all go without needing to be written but the piece by Karels opens an eye to what Notre Dame has not done in recruiting that others have which is only further-proved when it’s mentioned how Ryan Day was texting with Ransom multiple times a week even after Ransom had committed to Ohio State.

I don’t have the information but I’d assume it can’t be that widespread of an issue because then I’d have trouble believing almost any big-time recruit would commit without establishing a good relationship with the head coach.

For instance, do I think for a second that Kelly wasn’t in touch with the likes of Chris Tyree or Michael Mayer this past cycle?  I absolutely think he was because talents like that have to really, really like the school if they’re going to commit without really knowing their head coach.

My guess is that it’s the depths that Kelly is willing to go that is going to change.  Maybe in years past he was willing to get engaged with a certain amount of targets but let his staff handle the rest.

Maybe that number grows for the next few years in order to try and close more of these deals.

I don’t know the perfect fix or solution for the problem that appears evident for Kelly here, again because I don’t know how wide-spread it is seeing as Notre Dame has again done fine, but not great in recruiting of late.

If it means Kelly having to be typing away on his phone more than so be it.  We all have parts of our respective jobs we may dislike, that can just be added to his stack because it’s a necessary evil in today’s college football landscape.

Notre Dame Football: Four-Star ILB Jordan Botelho Signs with Irish

Te’o, Gilman, Tagovailoa-Amosa and Toma are only a few of the several names that have appeared and starred on Notre Dame’s roster in recent years.

Now it’s time to add another.

Jordan Botelho.

Notre Dame has created quite a recruiting pipeline to Hawaii over the last decade having several star players from the Aloha State.

Te’o, Gilman, Tagovailoa-Amosa and Toma are only a few of the several names that have appeared and starred on Notre Dame’s roster in recent years.

Now it’s time to add another.

Jordan Botelho.

Remember the name as the top-rated player in Hawaii, a product of St. Louis High School in Honolulu officially signed his letter of intent to join the Fighting Irish on Wednesday.

Botelho is listed at 6-2 and 229 pounds and committed to Notre Dame back in April of this year.

He’s been an absolute star the last two seasons picking up 25 sacks and forcing six fumbles in that time and has been rated as high as the sixth best interior linebacker in this year’s class.

Botelho signed with Notre Dame while being pursued by the likes of Washington, UCLA, Oregon, Cal, Oklahoma and others.