Tag: Steve Wiltfong

Notre Dame trending away from 2022 California defensive lineman

Not great news

The Irish have put together one of the best 2022 recruiting classes in the nation, but head coach Brian Kelly and his staff are still hard at work trying to add on to the 23-commit class.

[listicle id=17189]

One of their remaining targets is California defensive lineman Hero Kanu. The six-foot-five-inch and 293-pound defensive tackle visited South Bend the weekend of October 23rd but that visit might not be enough to reel him in.

For the longest time, Kanu had no 247Sports crystal ball projects, but three of them came in today, and none of them for the Irish. Their director of recruiting Steve Wiltfong, Ohio State insider Bill Kurelic and Oklahoma insider Brandon Drumm each predicted Kanu would end up in Columbus, committing to the Buckeyes.

Currently the Irish have Donovan Hinish, Kurt’s younger brother, as the only true interior defensive line commit. It might be back to the recruiting board for the Irish if they wants find a prospect to pair with Hinish.

Is Notre Dame trending for star Wisconsin offensive tackle?

This is great news for the Irish

As the 2022 class is coming to a close, the Irish have a unique situation on their hands. With 21 current commitments and a ranking inside the Top-10 according to the major recruiting services, Brian Kelly can be picky about who should fill the remaining spots.

[listicle id=17189]

They will keep one open for Iowa safety Xavier Nwankpa, who will make his decision in early December. They’ll also keep a spot open for Wisconsin offensive lineman Billy Schrauth. The six-foot-five and 285-pound interior lineman is regarded as one of the best in the country, holding offers from Ohio State, Auburn, Wisconsin, Iowa and others.

[lawrence-related id=35996]

Today, 247Sports recruiting national lead Steve Wiltfong and Notre Dame insider Tom Loy both registered crystal ball selections for the Irish regarding Schrauth’s recruitment. Both of them have plenty of ears to the ground in recruiting and it seems like the Irish have a great opportunity to add yet another talented offensive lineman to the 2022 recruiting class.

Notre Dame trying to flip Penn State ‘22 commitment, will visit via Zoom today

The Notre Dame coaching staff is going hard after Big Ten teams commitments, this time going after a Penn State wide receiver commit.

The Notre Dame coaching staff is hard at work trying to secure another top-10 recruiting class for the 2022 cycle. This past weekend, the Best of the Midwest Combine was held and 247Sports Steve Wiltfong was on hand. His recruiting report had an interesting nugget regarding Penn State wide receiver commit Kaden Saunders.

Although Saunders has been committed to the Nittany Lions since July of last year, he’s still “keeping the lines of communication open with others including Florida State, Notre Dame and Oregon. He’ll have a Zoom meeting with the Irish staff on Monday,” said Wiltfong.

The five-foot-ten-inch and 172-pound receiver was offered a scholarship by the Irish when he unofficially visited South Bend in February last year.

At the current moment, the 2022 class does not have a committed player at wide receiver. The Irish are searching for their first commit, as they have recently offered Addison Copeland.

[lawrence-related id=25501]

It seems like the staff has no issues going to recruit other schools commits. They are trying to flip Ohio State commitment Jyaire Brown and although Copeland decommitted after the Irish offer, he can be viewed as a flip also.

[lawrence-related id=24863]

This is an interesting situation with Saunders that bears watching. The Irish could be on the verge of flipping another Big Ten committed player.

Top Notre Dame 2022 quarterback target set decision date

Recently offered Tennessee quarterback Ty Simpson has announced when he will make his collegiate decision.

Just over a week ago, Notre Dame offered Tennessee star quarterback Ty Simpson. What we didn’t know was how soon it would take Simpson to make his decision as to where he would spend the next 3-5 years of his life. Well, on Sunday, Simpson let everyone know he’s ready to make that decision.

In just under three weeks, Simpson will make his announcement as to what’s next in his football journey. According to a report by 247Sports Steve Wiltfong, he will be making his decision from this group of schools: Alabama, Clemson, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and the Irish.

Simpson gave Wiltfong a great review of what the Irish offer meant to him, it “was an awesome offer because of the prestige of the school and it’s big for someone to get a degree from Notre Dame and to be able to say they played there, I’d love to be able to tell my kids that.”

What’s interesting is that his father also made a comment about Simpson making his decision for the next forty years, a staple of Brian Kelly’s recruiting pitch.

It’s hard to tell where Simpson will eventually end up, there have been two 247Sports crystal ball picks, both that he will end up at Clemson. He did say he was about 65% of his decision right now, so there is still time for Kelly and Tommy Rees to make their impression. We will all find out what Simpson will do come February 19th at 2:00pm CST.

Michigan recruiting “not the same” as Ohio State says 247Sports’ Director of Recruiting

Director of Recruiting Steve Wiltfong of 247Sports, compared Michigan football recruiting efforts unfavorably against Ohio State.

There are guys that know college football recruiting, and then there are guys that live it. As the Director of Recruiting for 247Sports, Steve Wiltfong would be the latter. So, when he says something about the state of recruiting efforts, folks should perk up and take note.

It’s interesting then that he had some criticism of Michigan recruiting efforts under Jim Harbaugh. According to Allen Trieu’s Notorious B1G Podcast on 247Sports, the recruiting guru believes Michigan is behind Ohio State and Penn State in the way that it goes about identifying and selling players to the program.

He was first concerned with the loss of a key recruiter on staff, assistant coach Chris Partridge.

“They haven’t filled (Patridge’s) role, and we’ll see who they fill it with because Michigan is one of those schools where assistant coach recruiters are incredibly important because they don’t recruit in the same traditional way that almost every other program that we cover does,” Wiltfong said. “There’s not recruiting meetings. There’s just a lot on the assistant coaches’ plates to go out in their territories or in their position rooms and find guys they think are good enough to help Michigan win championships.”

“Chris Partridge was a guy that wasn’t afraid to go into SEC country with his winged helmet logo on his golf shirt and go toe-to-toe for big-time guys and try to get them to come to Michigan. He had some big wins. He also had some close losses. I mean, Willie Gay was a guy who had Michigan in his top two. Otis Reese is a guy who had Michigan in his top two. He really got after it and worked.”

Wiltfong then gave his opinion on where the Wolverine program is in terms of recruiting compared to a couple of other teams he believes are doing it the right way.

“I just don’t think, collectively, this staff is recruiting at a level to win a national championship across the board,” Wiltfong said. “It’s a blow losing a guy in Partridge, who I feel like is one of your best recruiters when the emphasis on recruiting at Michigan isn’t the same as it is at Ohio State and Penn State right now. We’re starting to see it on the field.”

To be fair, we’ve seen it on the field for quite a while now, but we get Wiltfong’s point. The gap may be widening after two blowout losses in The Game by Michigan and all.