The 2018 Notre Dame recruiting class had a much-needed addition today when cornerback DJ Brown signed with the Fighting Irish. The 6-1/185 pound athlete out of Washington DC’s St. John’s College was an Under Armour All American this year and is the former teammate of current Notre Dame defensive end Kofi Wardlow.
Recruiting Service Rankings
247 Sports — 3 star (86 rating), #712 overall, #70 CB, #5 in DC
Rivals — 3 star (5.6 rating), NR overall, #67 CB, #8 in DC
ESPN — 4 star (82 rating), #225 overall, #28 CB, #1 in DC
247 Sports Composite — 3 star (.8802), #487 overall, #49 CB, #4 in DC
Cohort
DJ chose the Irish over other offers from Virginia, Cal, Northwestern, Ohio State, Clemson, Stanford, Nebraska, and many others.
Highlights
I really like this late pickup by the Irish staff. He’s not an elite athlete, but he’s more than athletic enough. He’s got some elite instincts, though. He makes really good breaks on the ball and reads the quarterback and the receiver really well. He shows good technique for a player of this stage and can use that to make up for some of his athletic deficiencies. Seems like a very smart player, the type of guy that would make a good addition to any secondary.
Impact
This was a pretty important pickup for the Irish. After not landing a single cornerback in the Class of 2017, it was critical that the Irish land a solid group in 2018. The Irish did just that. This is now the 3rd or 4th cornerback to sign with the Irish in 2018, depending on how you want to look at it (some consider Houston Griffith to be more of a free safety long-term, though he could absolutely play corner as well).
With DJ being more polished than Tariq Bracy and Joe Wilkins, I’d expect him and Griffith to see the field sooner. This probably makes it inevitable for Bracy and Wilkins to redshirt in 2018, which is probably the best thing for both athletes anyway as they are very raw prospects. The opportunity for Brown to see the field in 2018 is definitely there, though. I expect we’ll see him on the field in some capacity this fall.
Welcome to the Irish family, DJ!
Nice writeup. Also a high school teammate of Kofi Wardlow a 2017 ND commit/redshirt this year. Not trying to read too much into it, but much like when the little brothers of Okwara and Jones sign, always seems to be good sign for the health of the program that the players are believing enough to be happy when friends/family also join and don’t steer them away.
But see: St. Browns, Mustipher
My point wasn’t a hard and fast rule that all brothers have to establish a pipeline, that’s not really realistic and some are just looking for other things in a school or to make their own path. Which is fine, that’s life, but it’s unrelated to what I was talking about.
Also, see: Jaylon and Rod Smith
Every thing I read reported that we moved on from PJ Mustipher for Franklin, who we liked more. This always seemed ridiculous to me, since PJ was a top 100 kid, and the brother of a current starter.
Why would we ever turn away a top 100 player? Was there ever more to it than that? Did PJ actually move on from ND, but we tried playing it off like it was ND moving on? The actions and timing do seem to support us moving on, but I just can’t totally buy it.
Wasn’t there an issue with his position?
As mentioned on TOS:
Kid looks like he can run and is physical, but boy, he couldn’t catch the flu right now.
Proving once again that DBs are WRs who can’t catch.