Tommy Tremble became the 20th commit in the 2018 Notre Dame recruiting class when he announced for the Irish at his school today. The 6’4″, 225-pound Georgian with the name of a Stan Lee character has had a bit of an up and down recruitment, seemingly trending to and away from various suitors along the way. Notre Dame made a big impression on him during Irish Invasion, though, which laid the foundation for the eventual commitment. Tremble was going to official for the Georgia game but broke his ankle just before it, so he rescheduled for the USC game. That visit went really well, and then he hitched a ride a few weeks later with a friend who was visiting as a regular student. The coaching staff never let up in their pursuit either, undeterred by hard pushes from UCLA and Michigan. Yes, the Irish staff went head-to-head with Chip Kelly and Jim Harbaugh and won. Go figure.

Tremble was at the Opening Regional in Atlanta last summer, but didn’t get an invitation to the finals in Eugene. Maybe they didn’t like his work in drills, because the measurables he put up were outstanding for someone his size – laser-timed 4.63 40, 4.2 shuttle, 36″ vertical, 35′ powerball throw. A 4.2 shuttle for a guy who’s 6’4″! Fellow Irish commit George Takacs is a traditional tight end, while as you might have guessed from those numbers Tremble is more in the flex mold. They compliment each other very well, just as Brock Wright and Cole Kmet did in the 2017 cycle.

 

Recruiting Service Rankings

247 Composite — 3 star (.8797), #473 overall, #20 TE, #51 in GA

247 Sports — 3 star (88 rating), #381 overall, #17 TE, #39 in GA

Rivals — 3 star (5.7 rating), NR overall, #18 TE, #52 in GA

ESPN — 3 star (79 rating), NR overall, #10 TE, #58 in GA

Note: You may notice that Tremble’s Scout ranking is conspicuously absent. 247 and Scout merged a few months ago; they kept some things separate for a while, but just in the last month they phased out the Scout rankings.

Cohort

In addition to Notre Dame, UCLA, and Michigan, Tommy Tremble holds Power 5 offers from Auburn, Cal, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vandy, and West Virginia, among others, and Ivy League offers from Columbia, Dartmouth, Penn, Princeton, and Yale.

Highlights

As noted above, Tremble broke his ankle early in the season, so unfortunately senior highlights are hard to come by. There’s just one game from this year available on his Hudl profile; I reviewed that video too, but most of this breakdown is from his junior video below. That senior video is a bit less than a minute long and shows him on offense and defense. For those of you who wonder about DCE’s him to OLB or WDE, judging by the tackling in that video I, uh, would recommend against it.

Tremble shows outstanding hands and a good catch radius – he catches the ball away from his body, softly and effortlessly, and reacts well when the throw is off the mark. He’s also fearless in traffic and looks like he has the mindset of “owning” the ball in the air. He also shows a decent amount of wiggle for a big guy; I was a little surprised at how many missed tackles there are on this reel. He’ll lower his shoulder when he gets the chance, too. He’s also a willing and able blocker; his junior film includes a lot of blocking in an H-back role, and in that one senior game I was pleasantly surprised by his physicality as a blocker. He needs to add some good bulk to his frame and polish his technique, but has a great skill set to work with.

Impact

Tremble will definitely be a big part of the tight end picture in South Bend, but it probably won’t be in 2018. Tremble needs to get to work with Matt Balis to be ready in 2019, when Nic Weishar and possibly Alize Mack will have moved on. With Wright and Kmet in the 2017 class and Takacs and Tremble in the 2018 class, Notre Dame has set up a great pipeline of athletic, versatile players for Chip Long’s tight-end heavy offense.

Welcome to the Irish family, Tommy!