Notre Dame football’s recruiting class of 2019 continued to grow on Tuesday, as in-state linebacker Jack Kiser decided to verbally commit to the Fighting Irish. The 6-2/210-pounder from 1A Pioneer High School (Royal Center, IN) brings Notre Dame up to twelve total commits in this class, which is rated #8 overall in the 247Composite Team Recruiting Rankings.
After earning his offer on May 7th, it didn’t take long for things to escalate with Jack and Notre Dame. This was an offer that he desired for a long time. After seeing him work out in person, Clark Lea liked what he saw enough to offer and push for his eventual commitment. Despite Jack having family ties to Purdue, this was a battle that Lea just couldn’t lose.
Recruiting Service Rankings
Rivals — 3 star (5.5 rating)
ESPN — 3 star (76 rating), #66 OLB, #13 in IN
247Sports — 3 star (87 rating), #578 overall, #38 OLB, #10 in IN
247Sports Composite — 3 star (.863), #704 overall, #51 OLB, #11 in IN
Cohort
In addition to Notre Dame, Jack holds offers from Purdue, Duke, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota, and Nebraska, among a few others.
Highlights
Jack’s highlights mostly show him patrolling the field as a rangy strong safety. It’s clear by watching the tape that he’s a natural athlete — but he also plays with control. He doesn’t appear to be the punishing type. He seems more focused on proper technique and wrapping up than cleaning the ball carrier’s clock — which is perfectly okay. I think we saw enough missed tackles during the VanGorder years to last a lifetime. When he has a safe opportunity to make a big hit, he takes it though.
Playing 1A ball in Indiana means his level of competition is… not great, to say the least. It will likely be a huge adjustment for him to go from that to the highest level of college football. The athleticism is there, though, and he seems like a smart player.
Impact
Jack is a strong candidate for a redshirt in 2019. Between having to bulk up and add strength in the weight room, and adjusting to the difference in competition, it may take a while for him to see the field much outside of special teams. This is the kind of kid we may forget about for a couple of years before coming on strong as an upperclassman. He could also just be another depth guy his entire ND career. I think a lot of that is up to him and how he adjusts.
The good news is that Jack seems to understand the position that he’s in. He’s going to be one of the lowest-ranked linebackers on the team (by the recruiting services) coming from a teeny-tiny town in Indiana. He’s going to come into it with a chip on his shoulder. And he’ll need to keep it and use it to be successful at Notre Dame. I think best-case scenario the Irish have picked up another Drue Tranquill, and I think we’d all be pretty happy with that.
Welcome to the Irish family, Jack!
Woot! Could finally login again. WordPress really seems to hate legacy operating systems. Sometimes it kicks me and i have no login button available for days lol. Anyway, this kid was literally the lowest rated OLB ND offered. Do we not have any traction with the others? Or does Lea really think he found another Tranquill?
It’s still pretty early to be taking commitments from someone they’re not high on, don’t you think? Lea must think he brings something, though I have read others that don’t see it.
If the “others” are Tim Prister, I wouldn’t sweat it too much. His evaluation skills have been… uh… sub-par over the last few cycles. He praised Darnell Ewell’s strength, determination, and work ethic effusively, and this year he said he thinks Aeneas DiCosmo is a better prospect than NaNa, an opinion which is shared by exactly zero other people.
Does that mean he’s wrong on Kiser? Of course not, maybe he nailed it. But this is a kid who ND was slightly interested in, and then Clark Lea went to see him and pushed for him ahead of other higher-rated kids who had legitimate interest in ND. If you were to ask me whether I put more faith in Lea’s or Prister’s evaluation skills, well…
It’s worth noting, by the way, that Kiser also runs track and has a PR of 10.9 in the 100M. The kid can move. Whether that translates to effectiveness on the field is a gamble, of course, but he definitely has above-average athleticism at his size.
No one should read our Ewell reviews after 2017 Signing Day.
It’s clearly not just Prister. Kiser is the #704 composite prospect, while Tranquill, also a S/LB hybrid from IN, was top 300. So the comparisons to Tranquill are on the very hopeful side.
That said, every class for every school, even Bama, takes kids like this, especially local ones. Bama took a TE from Huntsville who was #690 last year (and some lower ones). It’s never too early to take these commitments. You take them, then weed them out later (during cycle or while at school) if they really can’t play. Or they become useful practice players and STers if they are OK, but not great.
I had a similar issue of not seeing a log in button. My workaround was if you click on the top banner on the “Site Rules” section (a bit brash, but this place is OK I guess)…Anyways go there and then in the text there’s a link that says “Click here to sign up”…Which yeah, I know, you’re already signed up but clicking there brought me to a log in screen. Hopefully that’s useful for others as well.
Sometimes I only see it when you click on the comment section. It’s sitting there at the top of the comments.
WordPress be weird sometimes.
@hooks With Vista that doesn’t work…it’s just blank.
@Murtaugh Yeah, it doesn’t always show up so sometimes i just have to wait. Not sure why WordPress likes logging me out so much though…it’s much better now than it used to be though.
@dannan…You’re still using Vista? But….how?
Laziness mostly…finally getting around to building a new rig in a few months.
Are you also going to get rid of those Z-pants that you cropped into short shorts in 2001?
I feel like sticking with Vista is the exact opposite of laziness
Nah, that was only true until 7 came out, but after that point i just gave up.
We’ll have to keep an eye on this kid. Hopefully, he’s more of a Drew Tranquill type.
Hopefully this kid gets to some UA or AA games so he can get a feel for the kind of competition he’s going to see at the top level. I’d hate for his football career to be like a lot of people’s college experience coming from tiny high schools and into a college classroom. They’re used to 1-on-1 teaching and get culture shock when they end up in a class with 40-50 other students. Happened to a few of my cousins when they went to A&M.
Man, is there a minimum weight requirement for officials in Indiana? What’s with the 300 lb back judge in these clips? Dear lord.
Yeah, the site mysteriously lost my password, and won’t resend a new one. As such, I created a 3rd screen name just to login and leave this comment: “Is this guy any relation to Maurice?” Totally worth it.