Notre Dame’s 2019 recruiting class picked up its fourth commit and second blue-chip defensive lineman yesterday when Hunter Spears announced for the Irish. The 6’4″, 280-pound Texas monster visited for the USC game last season and again for the cycle’s first junior day a few weeks ago. Notably, he’s the fourth commit from that USC visitor list, joining Tariq Bracy, Tommy Tremble, and Paul Moala. The Irish could well pick up a fifth off that list too in elite OT Quinn Carroll, who seems to be leaning hard to Notre Dame. Good times!
Spears had originally planned to announce a commitment on his birthday in the fall, but decided not to hold off. Stanford could bear watching here, as he reportedly wanted an offer from them when he visited last summer. However, they wouldn’t offer without him camping, and he didn’t want to camp anywhere after tearing his ACL at an event last spring. The Tree’s reluctance didn’t sit well with him, but we’ve heard that story before, right? Mike Elston has done a great job here so far and no doubt will continue to do so. But it bears watching.
Recruiting Service Rankings
247 Sports Composite — 4 star (.9145), #242 overall, #14 DT, #30 in TX
247 Sports — 4 star (90 rating), #298 overall, #17 DT, #36 in TX
Rivals — 4 star (5.8 rating), NR overall, #17 DT, #31 in TX
ESPN — 4 star (82 rating), #170 overall, #17 DE, #27 in TX
Cohort
In addition to Notre Dame, Hunter Spears holds offers from Alabama, Cal, Michigan State, Oklahoma State, and TCU, among others. He has drawn interest from other schools but some are hesitant until he puts more on film after his injury.
Highlights
It’s hard to draw too many firm conclusions off this film, given that it’s his first action since the ACL injury. There’s some stiffness there but it could well just be the layoff, as he looks a bit more fluid in his sophomore film. What jumps out in a positive way is that he’s plenty powerful and he covers ground pretty well at his size. I don’t see natural pass-rushing ability, but he looks like he can be very effective at setting the edge and occasionally wreck a play through pure strength. Current Irish SDE Jay Hayes is probably a pretty good comparison.
Impact
I think Spears’s future is pretty clearly on the inside as a 3-tech DT. However, given his size and strength, he may be able to help plug hole on the 2019 SDE depth chart, which right now consists of just Khalid Kareem. The Elko/Lea defense has shown a heavy propensity for rotating DTs, and I definitely think Spears could be one of those rotation regulars down the road. I would guess he’ll play early in spots, and then by his junior year be a substantial contributor. That Notre Dame is suddenly operating from a position of strength on the interior will only help his development.
Welcome to the Irish family, Hunter!
I don’t like the bears watching part but so it goes in recruiting. Elston’s gonna have to stay on this and I’m sure he will.
Also, per Sampson “Notre Dame signed a total of three D-tackles rated in the Top 250 of the 247 Sports Composite during Kelly’s first seven recruiting cycles. Irish signed/landed four in the past three: Darnell Ewell, Jayson Ademilola, Jacob Lacey and Hunter Spears.”
Definitely encouraging. I believe MTA was up there as well. Hopefully this trend continues and starts paying off, front-7 issues have persisted as we all know. I wonder what the defense would have looked like in early Kelly days without Te’o and Jaylon there to basically clean up and cover so much…On second thought, that’s not a good thought.
Just saw that Spears is going to enroll early, which will help in staving off Stanford if needed. EDIT: Fleshing this thought out a bit… Stanford likes to delay offers until January to try to steal guys. I think that’s mostly hooey, honestly; if a kid has the grades and test score now, it’s unlikely they’re going to change much, but it lets that late offer seem super special. They also offer guys after they work out at camps, like with Paulson Adebo at the Under Armour game. If Spears is enrolling early, they don’t get to do the late offer thing and they don’t get to see him in an all-star game (if he would even go, which I doubt).
Mazi Smith is a top 150 guy, could well be in the fold by summer time if we can fight off Michigan.
MTA was #472 in the 247 Composite, by the way, absurdly underrated. He’s top-250 quality (at least) for sure.
I don’t like the bears watching part but so it goes in recruiting.
Agreed: lets leave the bear watching to the professionals, such as our very own Lars…
Larz*
Weird cycle so far with DT recruits. The #14 DT from last cycle was #141 nationally and Spears is 101 spots lower!
Doesn’t look like a real deep class which is odd because we already have 2 of the 19 total 4-stars and are in decent shape elsewhere.
That picture isn’t real flattering for hunter but looks like he has some reshaping to do In The weight room, makes sense coming off an major injury but still. Nana (far left) on the other hand looks like he could be on the 2 deep this fall
Yeah, he looks like an upperclassman guard. He’s got those Alex Bars really wide lower legs.
Really interested to see him as a senior because he doesn’t look like he should move very fast but he does.
What level Texas football is he in? In his highlights he looks about 6’8. I’m assuming this is a somewhat lower level since the opposition seems so small.
Sachse is 6A, which is the largest classification – school enrollment is 2,100+. Sachse’s enrollment is 2,800. He’s a big kid.
Also, I don’t think he’s really 6’4″ – that measurement is probably about a year old, before the highlight reel above. There are the usual caveats about perspective and distortion and all that in the picture above, but NaNa Osafo-Mensah (#31) and Joseph Anderson (#9) are both listed at 6’4″ and Mazi Smith (#58) is listed at 6’3″, and Spears looks clearly taller than all of them.
Jacob Lacey (#55) is listed at 6’2″, by the way. Less helpful for the current point but I didn’t want him to feel left out.
Wow, that’s crazy. This kid is a giant. Hopefully we are looking at the next Calais Campbell
The video included here are all sub-varsity games so that explains some of it.
That’s why we pay you to be our Texas Insider.
This kid is in my backyard too. Probably have done his games
I think this is really the first time that we’ve had DT as a clear position of strength and depth since the beginning of my ND fandom (starting in 2005). And I think it kind of counts to start right now, given that we have 3 legit starter-level guys (Tillery, Bonner, MTA) and Hinish is pretty good for a fourth DT, at least by ND standards. If Ewell has shaped up by next year and the ‘croots pan out somewhat, we’re probably good for a while. Weird.
Ewell, MTA, and Hinish in 2017. Ademilola and Franklin in 2018. Lacey, Spears, and (possibly) Smith in 2019. That’s a solid 6+ years of DT quality. Like you said, weird. I’ve been following the program closely since 1994 and I’m not sure I can remember a deeper stretch at DT, honestly. Of course we’ve had some very good front line players in there, and I’m not saying any of these guys today are better than the best of that stretch, but I can’t remember going 5-6 deep on the interior.
The ’94 line was pretty good – Oliver Gibson hung around the NFL for a long time, Paul Grasmanis and Brian Hamilton got a cup of coffee, and Alton Maiden was a capable backup. The 2007 line featured Trevor Laws, Pat Kuntz, and a young Ian Williams. The 2013 interior had Day (might’ve been a 3-4 DE that year, my recollection is fuzzy), Nix, Schwenke, and a young Jarron Jones. Those are the three best groups I’d pick over the last 24 years.
If you go back one more year, to 1993, you get Bryant Young, Jim Flanagan, Gibson, and Grasmanis. Go back to 1992 and you can add Junior Bryant to that group. That’s at another level, but it’s a level this current group has a chance to get to. Be still, my beating heart.
If Hunter Spears isn’t able to stalk his prey and track down opposing QBs, I’d be gutted.
Heh. Some great names on the board lately. The recently signed C’Bo Flemister is an all-timer. Now Hunter Spears is in the fold, we’re in good shape with S Litchfield Ajavon, and we’re also chasing RB Steele Chambers.
I keep on wanting to say C’Bo McFlemster. Would he mind changing his name?
Came here to say these designer baby football names (/s) are getting out of control, but you beat me to it. Good thing he didn’t develop into a DB, he’d get so flagged.
Eric, Shaun Crawford knows you’re dragging him on Twitter – https://twitter.com/ShaunCrawf20/status/966340350330785793
I’m crying.