Notre Dame’s solid Class of 2019 received a nice boost this Saturday night, as blue chip cornerback Isaiah Rutherford has decided to verbally commit to the Fighting Irish. The 6-0/175 pounder out of Sacramento, California is the 19th commit in this Irish Class of 2019 — a class which now includes nine players on the defensive side ranked 4-stars or higher in the 247Sports Composite Rankings. Notre Dame now sits at #11 in the 247 Composite Class Rankings.

Recruiting Service Rankings

Rivals — 4 star (5.9 rating), #83 overall, #9 CB, #14 in CA

ESPN — 4 star (80 rating), NR overall, #27 CB, #37 in CA

247Sports — 4 star (91 rating), #216 overall, #23 CB, # 27 in CA

247Sports Composite — 4 star (.9227), #191 overall, #22 CB, #26 in CA

Cohort

Isaiah chose the Irish over a top group that included Cal, Colorado, and Oregon. He also held offers from Alabama, Arizona, LSU, Oklahoma, USC, Tennessee, and others.

Highlights


Notre Dame is landing a really good athlete in Rutherford. He’s got great length for the position as well as a nice blend of speed, fluidity, and physicality. He sticks to receivers like glue in man coverage and tracks the ball pretty well in the air. He performed well at The Opening against some of the best athletes in the country, earning his blue chip status.

Impact

The addition of Isaiah Rutherford gives the Irish a really solid duo of blue chip cornerbacks in this 2019 Class — which might end up being more important than we would have known 8 months ago. With true freshman Joe Wilkins starting his career at receiver and both Houston Griffith and DJ Brown splitting time at safety, that five-man CB haul from 2018 is down to two true corners. Rutherford and KJ Wallace really have the potential to be important pieces of the Irish defense in a few years. Isaiah will need to add some weight and strength, but he’s got a solid 10 months to do that before his first game in a Notre Dame uniform. There’s no reason to believe that he can’t see the field in some capacity as a true freshman.

I’d expect Notre Dame to try to land maybe another two or three guys to close out this class, putting them at about 21-22. It seems like that would be a lot, but with the usual attrition it will probably end up putting Notre Dame just under the 85-man limit as it usually is. Pretty sure Eric will have a scholarship update within the next week or two that will go over all of this, though.

 

Anyway… Welcome to the Irish family, Isaiah!