Tag: Tyler Buchner

Could Another Notre Dame Commit Get his 5th Star?

There is one Irish commit who could make a move into the elite 5-Star club, find out who could be on the upward movement in the rankings.

With Rivals updating their 2021 recruiting rankings this week, all three of the major recruiting services, 247Sports and ESPN also, have recently done the same. It is a good time to look at what their composite rankings are and if another future Irish star could get the elusive 5-Stars next to their name.

California quarterback commit Tyler Buchner still has his 5-Star status, just barely however as after the update his is the last player with that distinction. The player in question isn’t Buchner, its instate offensive tackle Blake Fisher. In Rivals recent update, Fisher is just outside their 5-Star range, 22nd overall in the country just 4 spots away from getting that extra star.

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Rivals recruiting expert Mike Farrell sees potential for Fisher to get that 5th star, not having camps hurt the fact they were not able to reassess Fisher. Farrell sees the Irish commit as “a massive tackle with light feet and he was so pumped and determined to show out this spring it’s a shame we didn’t get to see his hard work. I expect a huge season from the Notre Dame pledge.”

Fisher’s composite ranking now puts him as the 54th overall player in the country, and if he’s to join Buchner, Fisher will have to make another jump in the rankings. The strength of his Rivals ranking currently is keeping Fisher inside the top 60 composite rankings, while his ESPN ranking of 103rd and 247Sports 82nd are significantly lower. If Fisher is able to continue to get better like Farrell believes he can, Fisher could very well end up with his 5th star when its all said and done.

Rivals Updates their Top 250, See Where Irish Commits are Ranked

In the newest update of Rivals Top 250, a few of Notre Dame’s 2021 commits make the list.

Going into today’s update, the Notre Dame 2021 recruiting class consisted of 10 commits which is good for 9th best nationally according to their rankings. Of those ten, only four made it into the Top 250 prior to the update and that number stayed the same after as well.

In-state offensive tackle Blake Fisher, the Irish’s highest ranked commit, was 20th prior to today and was now ranked 22nd, a minute drop. Ohio wide receiver Lorenzo Styles Jr. also fell two spots to 39th overall in the country, earlier today Irish Wire looked at his potential to move to the defensive side of the ball. California QB Tyler Buchner fell one more spot than his classmates, dropping from 43rd to 46th overall. The final Irish commit was Missouri’s Gabe Rubio, who’s ranking stayed the same at 99th.

There were plenty of Irish targets inside Rivals Top 250 also, which included Maryland’s Dont’e Thornton is ranked 53rd, Michigan’s guard Rocco Spindler is 56th, staying in the same state with running back Donovan Edwards at 61st, Iowa tight end Thomas Fidone at 62nd, Texas back LJ Johnson ranked 69th, and former commit Deion Colzie at 73rd that made it inside the top 100.

It’s a bit surprising to see Irish TE commit Cane Berrong not ranked inside the Top 250, that is a clear omission by the Rivals recruiting staff. At the current moment Rivals does not rank anyone lower than 250 so it is difficult to tell where the rest of the class stands. Either way, the base for Brian Kelly’s 2021 recruiting class is solid and with plenty of very good prospects still uncommitted, the class could go from solid to spectacular by signing day.

College Football Recruiting: Five Takeaways From ESPN 300

Notre Dame landed six players on the updated ESPN 300 list for 2021. What schools are impressing and who is disappointing in ’21 recruiting?

ESPN released their “ESPN 300”, their ranking of the 300 best prospects nationally in the 2021 college football recruiting class.  Here’s what we’ll do:

Here we’ll give you where the six Notre Dame commitments that checked in rank and then we’ll share a handful of observations about national recruiting beyond that.

Deal?

Cool.

Where Notre Dame players ranked:

QB Tyler Buchner – 39
TE Cane Berrong – 51
OT Blake Fisher – 103
DT Gabriel Rubio – 163
WR Lorenzo Styles, Jr. – 243
DE David Abiara – 280

Safety Justin Walters and offensive guard Pat Coogan, both of Illinois didn’t make the ESPN 300 but are also commitments to Notre Dame’s 2021 class.

Next:  Oh my, Ohio State…

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6

Notre Dame: April’s Top Ten Stories on FIW

April has come and gone. Which Notre Dame stories were the biggest the last month? Count down the top ten right here.

And just like that April has come and come.  Amazing how fast (or slow) a month goes by when you’re stuck inside the confides of your home unless you’ve got an essential job you have to punch into still.

What all happened during the month of April at Fighting Irish Wire?  Well it was an interesting month that saw the retirement of a legendary coach at Notre Dame, six players get drafted in the NFL Draft and a 2021 football recruit give a verbal to Notre Dame.

If you missed anything this month or are just curious to look back, here are your ten most popular stories from Fighting Irish Wire during the month of April.

10.  Niele Ivey wasn’t even on the job a week when she saw two prime-time recruits commit to the Notre Dame Women’s basketball program.

9.  Deion Colzie, prized wide reciever in the 2021 recruiting class de-commited from Notre Dame in March.  Could he still re-commit though?

8.  Brian Kelly gave an early-April update on the latest on Notre Dame/Navy in Ireland, something we’re still left wondering about as we say goodbye to the month.

7.  Christian McCaffrey never played for Notre Dame but the Fighting Irish coaching staff continues to promote the highest paid running back in the NFL as one of their own.

6.  We found out more information on Will Shipley’s recruitment in the early parts of the month.  We’re still without any absolutes but Notre Dame clearly has a spot at the table with Clemson and North Carolina.

5.  We don’t have an answer yet on if Notre Dame and Navy will play in Ireland but a recent mandate by Ireland’s government has me scratching my head trying to figure out how this game gets played overseas.

4.  Notre Dame quarterback commit Tyler Buchner, the prized jewel so far of the 2021 cycle, received a fifth star by 247Sports. 

3.  Brian Kelly had strong words he offered up for Kirk Herbstreit’s prediction that college football wouldn’t be played in 2020. That was this month?  Seriously it feels like eight weeks ago at least.

2.  The latest news of Notre Dame being a finalist to land former Stanford running back Trevor Speights got a lot of attention the last few days.  Stay tuned as we could get an announcement there before much longer.

April’s Most Viewed Story:  Notre Dame made a scholarship offer to one of the nation’s top defensive recruits in the 2022 class, Denver Harris as they’re trying to hit one out of the park with the prized defensive back.

Thank you everyone for making April great and can’t wait for an even better May.  Hopefully we’ll all be able to get back to a little more normalcy this month compared to in the last but I hope you’re saying safe, sane and healthy.

 

Notre Dame Football: 2021 Commitment List

Bookmark this page as we’ll keep it updated and linked to everything on all of Notre Dame’s 2021 football commitments!

Notre Dame sits in a bit of an interesting spot in terms of recruiting with Brian Kelly having already been on the record about wanting to take a step in the caliber of talent the Fighting Irish bring in annually.  Kelly and his staff would probably be best described as having done a good but not great job in terms of recruiting in his decade at Notre Dame.

In Kelly’s now 11 classes he’s signed to Notre Dame, only once has a class finished in the top five of recruiting rankings (per 247Sports), that being the 2013 class that featured five-star talents Jaylon Smith and Max Redfield.  Other than that only three of the ten remaining class finished in the top ten, those coming in 2011 (ninth), 2017 (10th) and 2018 (10th).  The last two seasons have seen Notre Dame rank 16th (2019) and 17th (2020) by 247’s rankings.

So where does Notre Dame currently sit in terms of their commitments?  We’ll keep a running list for you to be able to easily use in the future.  As of posting, 247Sports ranks Notre Dame the 10th best class in 2021.  Obviously that can change relatively quickly with just one commitment or de-commitment from the class.

Here is who has committed to Notre Dame for the class of 2021 with a link to every post we’ve done that’s mentioned them in some capacity.  Bookmark it, refer back to it, do whatever it is you do because we’ll keep it updated until the class of 2021 becomes official months from now.

2021 Notre Dame Commitments:

It’s far from a complete class but clearly a lot of work remains over the next seven months or so.  Right now all eyes are on Will Shipley as Notre Dame, Clemson and perhaps North Carolina remain the front runners to land the star all-purpose back.

 

Notre Dame QB Commit Buchner Invited to Under Armor All-American Bowl

Irish quarterback commit Tyler Buchner has gotten an invitation to a prestigious high school all-star game.

There are two major high school All-Star games that are played during Bowl season, the Under Armor All-American Bowl and the All-American Bowl (formerly the Army All-American Bowl) and today Notre Dame QB commit Tyler Buchner officially received his invitation to play in the UAAA Bowl.

Buchner still has a decision on which game he will play in, as he is not listed on the Under Armor roster at the current moment. What we do know is that Buchner is an elite player who we all are excited to see don the Blue and Gold in the fall of 2021.

There is potential for Buchner to be a true freshman starter, but that remains to be seen until he arrives on campus. If Buchner puts up video game numbers like he did last year, it is entirely possible he could bring that momentum to be the starter. Either way, Brian Kelly and Tommy Rees will have an elite talent at quarterback waiting in the wings.

Notre Dame Commit Given a Fifth Star

In them, long-time Notre Dame commitment Tyler Buchner was awarded a fifth-star, making him one of their top-32 prospects in the 2021 recruiting class.

Star ratings in college football recruiting aren’t everything.  You hear the stories of JJ Watt not being a star recruit and he seems to have done alright in his football career.  There are plenty of others as well and each year walk-on players at almost every school make a difference.

That said, they’re certainly not a nothing, either.

247Sports determines their stars for players based off of essentially doing their own first round of a draft but instead for high school players in each class.  They give out 32 five-star statuses each season, one for each NFL team.

Now think of the NFL and if the New England Patriots or Kansas City Chiefs were getting more first round picks than anyone else every year.  It’s been hard enough to beat those two in recent years anyway, now just think how hard it’d be if they were bringing in more young talent than everyone else year in and year out.  That’s essentially what competing with the likes of Alabama, Clemson, Georgia and LSU has become.

Notre Dame did get good news in that department Wednesday though as 247Sports updated their rankings.  In them, long-time Notre Dame commitment Tyler Buchner was awarded a fifth-star, making him one of their top-32 prospects in the 2021 recruiting class.

Does it really matter for Notre Dame?  Not really, Buchner has been committed for over a year and doesn’t appear interested in re-opening that at all.  It will matter in terms of final team rankings but he’s still the same prospect he was two days ago, when he didn’t have the fifth star.

However, it’s still something worth celebrating for the future Notre Dame signal caller.  He’s had an incredible high school career already and now only more eyes will be on him during his senior year of high school.

Expectations for Notre Dame QB Commit Buchner High

California signal call and Irish commit Tyler Buchner has high expectations for his career in South Bend.

When you look at current recruiting rankings of quarterbacks, there is no doubt that you will see Notre Dame’s class of 2021 commit Tyler Buchner with the nations best. Just in the last two days, he has been highlighted by two different recruiting services as being someone to watch out for.

Starting out at Rivals, Notre Dame was grouped with the ACC as they looked at recruiting superlatives so far  for the 2021 class. Buchner was viewed as the best out-of-state commit, as Mike Farrell, Rival’s National Recruiting Director, has some nice things to say about the future Irish signal caller as they “once again going to California for a quarterback and landing a very good one.” Rivals has ranked Buchner as the 43rd overall player and the 2nd rated dual-threat quarterback in the nation.

With that high ranking, Buchner will have a lot of eyes on him and over at 247Sports named him as one of 10 recruits from the 2021 and 2022 class who will become household names. Four of those ten players are quarterback, as they are easily the most familiar faces in the sport. Director of Recruiting Steve Wiltfong thinks the eyes of the nation will be back on Buchner when he arrives on campus as “there will be an opportunity for Buchner to win the job upon his arrival.”

It wasn’t just Buchner highlighted in their article, as Notre Dame targets RB Will Shipley and RB Gavin Sawchuk were also featured. If the Irish are able to land either one of these talented running backs, pairing up with Buchner would be a killer backfield.

Buchner is the 50th best prospect and 3rd dual-threat quarterback according to 247Sports, making him a consensus top 50 recruit for the 2021 class. The California native will have plenty of expectation immediately when he arrives on campus, with starting as a true freshman not out of the question. I for one, am extremely excited to see how Buchner’s career in South Bend plays out.

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.

Notre Dame ’21 QB Commit Buchner Earns Invite to Prestigious Elite 11 Finals

Notre Dame ’21 QB commit Buchner earns invite to Elite 11 Finals.

The early spring season for high school football players is made mostly up of camps, qualifying to make the next round, ultimately ending in the 7-on-7 The Opening Finals at Nike Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. This weekend Notre Dame QB commit Tyler Buchner competed and impressed enough to earn an invite to their final competition.

Current Irish QB Brendon Clark made the finals in ’18 and potential number one pick and 2020 Notre Dame opponent Trevor Lawrence of Clemson are some former participants at the prestigious event.

Buchner was more than impressive throwing as he was the winner of the Golden Gun Accuracy Challenge, putting up the best score at the camp along with two other competitors.

At the current moment, Buchner, the 6’2” and 200-pound signal caller, is the highest rated commit in the 2021 Irish class. 247Sports composite rankings have him as the 33rd best overall player in the country while being the 3rd best dual-threat QB in the nation. The California star will most likely arrive in South Bend with an opportunity to compete to start as a true freshman as senior Ian Book graduates after this year.