Notre Dame picked up its fourth commitment of the week today, and third from last weekend’s junior day visitor list, when jumbo wide receiver Micah Jones announced for the Irish. The 6’5″, 200-pound Illinois prospect earned an offer after attending Irish Invasion last year and was immediately rumored to be an Irish lean. His recruiting rankings are fairly diverse; Rivals, who is usually the harshest of the services on Midwest recruits, has him as a top 200 guy, while 247 and ESPN have him in the top 300 and Scout has him unranked at his position, let alone overall. We have no way to tell which service is right at this point, of course, but Mike Denbrock liked what he saw in person last summer and Chip Long and Del Alexander are obviously on board with him now. That’s a strong recommendation in itself.

Jones is the tenth commit in the 2018 class and the fourth offensive player, joining QB Phil Jurkovec, RB Markese Stepp, and OT Cole Mabry. With Mabry and CB Kalon Gervin, he also brings the inaugural 2018 junior day conversion rate up to 60%. LB Dallas Gant and WR Braden Lenzy are the two uncommitted prospects from that weekend who are still on the market.

Recruiting Service Rankings

247 Sports — 4 star (90 rating), #289 overall, #47 WR, #5 in IL

Rivals — 4 star (5.8 rating),  #158 overall, #27 WR, #1 in IL

Scout — 3 star, NR overall, NR position, #23 in IL

ESPN — 4 star (80 rating), #231 overall, #38 WR, #1 in IL

247 Composite — 4 star (.8945), #315 overall, #50 WR, #3 in IL

Cohort

Jones also holds offers from Iowa, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ole Miss, and Vanderbilt, among others. He also has drawn some interest from Miami, Michigan, and Wisconsin, but no offer as yet.

Highlights

Micah Jones could practically serve as the definition of a possession receiver, based on the junior year highlight film seen here. Jones ran a rather pedestrian 4.8 40 a regional recruiting event recently, but he also logged a very respectable 34″ vertical. He’s not going to take the top off a defense, but with that combination of size and leaping ability he could pose a matchup problem that can move the chains or be a red zone threat. In his highlights he shows nice soft hands and a good catch radius, aggressively snatching the ball out of the air whether the throw is on the money or not. He’s fearless over the middle, and very adept at finding a soft spot in coverage and using his body to shield defenders as well. He rounded off almost every cut I saw on here, as is very common with kids at his development stage, so he’ll need to work on that. I’d also like to see him bring the same physicality after the catch that he brings to his run blocking. Speaking of which, boy, does he relish contact as a blocker. He just buries guys over and over. Yes, it’s cliche, but man do I love seeing receivers block like this.

Something that jumped out to me here is that almost every single play is a short or middle pass. Almost nothing down the field, and almost nothing contested. That seems kind of odd; even if he doesn’t have top end speed, you would think that in high school it would be worth chucking up a jump ball to your 6’5″ target every so often. If anyone is familiar with the Warren (Gurnee) program, I’d be curious to know if that’s just not a feature of their offense. Or if for them, Jones is in fact a possession receiver.

Impact

Given the wideout depth chart, Jones will likely have some time to work on his strength and technique before he’s needed on the field. He’s not exactly skinny, but 200 pounds is a touch light at his height so some weight room time would do him some good. As alluded to above, I wouldn’t expect to see him suddenly gain explosiveness or elite speed, but he could definitely develop into a Corey Robinson type of player and fill a similar role in the offense. Given that these will most likely be popular questions: I don’t think he has the frame to grow into tight end, and I don’t think he profiles well as an outside linebacker or defensive end. So don’t ask. Also, please stop asking about switching Chase Claypool to defensive end. It’s not going to happen. And if you’ve ever thought about asking if Brock Wright would switch to defensive end (yes, this is a real message board phenomenon), go to the corner and give yourself 20 lashes. Anyone else want the soapbox before I put it away?

And, more importantly, welcome to the Irish family, Micah!