Another odd-numbered year, another huge USC recruiting weekend. Unlike past years, though, every current-cycle visitor is already committed and any movement will happen with next-cycle visitors. Accordingly, the list of 2021 visitors is sizable and packed with elite prospects. The wonders of the early signing period…
Among the ranks of the uncommitted visitors for the 2017 USC game were 2018 signees Tariq Bracy, Tommy Tremble, and Paul Moala, and 2019 signees Quinn Carroll and Hunter Spears. That’s pretty good! Also among the ranks of uncommitted visitors were Amon-Ra St. Brown, Nicholas Petit-Frere, and Solo Tuliaupupu, though. The Irish staff hopes to land a few more of those types of guys who will be in this weekend.
Players who have already committed to ND are in italics; rankings are 247 Composite overall/position.
2020 Visitors
APB Chris Tyree, #28/#1
WR Jordan Johnson, #30/#4
TE Michael Mayer, #52/#2
OT Tosh Baker, #70/#8
SDE Rylie Mills, #126/#7
OT Michael Carmody, #134/#16
PRO Drew Pyne, #173/#6
TE Kevin Bauman, #248/#6
WR Xavier Watts, #483/#81
SDE Alex Ehrensberger, NR/#71
S Isaiah Pryor, Ohio State grad transfer, #63/#8 in 2017
2021 Visitors
APB Will Shipley, #21/#1
OT Rocco Spindler, #40/#7
ILB Branden Jennings, #42/#1
WR Deion Colzie, #51/#7
OT Blake Fisher, #53/#10
PRO Tyler Buchner, #56/#6
CB Jakailin Johnson, #69/#6
TE Cane Berrong, #86/#1
DT Gabriel Rubio, #96/#8
WR Lorenzo Styles, #102/#21
OT Garrett Dellinger, #121/#18
ATH Justice Sullivan, #229/#18 (recruited as LB)
ATH Daylan Carnell, #342/#34 (recruited as DB)
Note: Jordan and Jakailin Johnson, teammates but not relatives, are both scratches – they tried to make a visit work around their school’s homecoming but couldn’t do it. Both intend to get back up later in the season.
2020 Notes
With every true 2020 visitor already committed, there isn’t much to update in the way of the current cycle of high schoolers. There is one very significant visitor on that list, though, and it’s Ohio State grad transfer Isaiah Pryor. Notre Dame recruited Pryor heavily out of Archer (GA) and then IMG Academy and had some traction early, but he fell in love with Ohio State pretty quickly and that was that. He entered the transfer portal recently, reportedly due to frustration over playing time; he will graduate this spring with two years of eligibility remaining. The Irish staff would take him in a heartbeat and might be able to make a big move this weekend.
2021 Notes
There are nine top-100 level prospects visiting from the 2021 cycle (fudging a bit, but it’s our site, so nyahh). That’s excellent in itself, but what’s even cooler is that four of those nine prospects are already Notre Dame commits. Blake Fisher, Tyler Buchner, Cane Berrong, and Gabriel Rubio are all making return visits on their own dime for this game. Fisher and Buchner in particular have embraced a role as class ambassadors and will recruit the uncommitted prospects heavily.
None of those prospects shines as brightly right now as Will Shipley. Shipley idolizes Christian McCaffrey and, not surprisingly, Lance Taylor has made quite an impression on him already. He’s also good friends with Buchner despite hailing from opposite sides of the country, thanks to their prominence and competitive history as lacrosse prospects. Clemson (and others) loom large, but there’s a real chance the Irish could land five-star RBs in consecutive classes. This week will go a long way toward determining Notre Dame’s place on Shipley’s board.
Michiganders and current teammates Rocco Spindler and Garrett Dellinger are key visitors as well. Spindler is an elite prospect at OT and DT, while Dellinger is a blue-chip OT prospect. Spindler looks like Braiden McGregor 2.0 – his father is a huge Michigan fan and Rocco himself is all but signed with Michigan already, if you believe message board chatter, so we would recommend you not get your hopes up there. Dellinger, on the other hand, is much more open and might well have Notre Dame in the lead. They’re not set on playing together at the next level.
Linebacker Branden Jennings is a relatively new name on the radar. We’ll see if the Irish can gain traction here – the Jacksonville native has visited Miami multiple times, where his older brother Bradley happens to play. I’m skeptical that it will lead anywhere for now, but if it there’s any kind of shot we should get some good vibes after this weekend.
Deion Colzie has a Georgia offer and hails from Athens. (He also has offers from Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, and many others, but I digress.) This notwithstanding, Notre Dame stands in excellent shape with him and will look to move into better shape this weekend. Similarly, Lorenzo Styles has a very legitimate Ohio State offer and hails from Columbus, and is an Ohio State legacy to boot. And the Irish are likely in better shape with him than with Colzie. Skeptical? I understand, but consider that he visited Ohio State last weekend and a decently-connected Ohio State blogger, Andrew Ellis of ElevenWarriors.com, put in a 247 “crystal ball” for Notre Dame. Stay tuned…
Jakailin Johnson is an elite prospect at a position of dire need, so you can imagine how much the staff would like to land him. He’s a current teammate of Jordan Johnson (no relation), which, you know, doesn’t hurt. Notre Dame is in good shape here but it feels very early in his recruitment. Justice Sullivan will visit Notre Dame for the first time; this weekend will likely determine how serious a player the Irish will be going forward. Daylan Carnell, who hails from Asmar Bilal’s high school, turned heads back in March when he ran a 4.41 40 at the Ohio Opening regional. He has already visited Ohio State, Purdue, and Indiana this fall; this will be his third visit to Notre Dame, as he came in for the Florida State game last year and the January junior day this year.
I was hoping for one of these updates, thanks! Pryor becoming available seems like a blessing, would be a great add just since safety is going to be so thin next year (besides Hamilton, of course). I kinda worry though as a very highly rated prospect who didn’t see the field much if he’s more going to be a Max Redfield-type rather than a great player, but perhaps Ohio State is just too tough for DBs to get playing time. Either way, he’s absolutely worth a scholarship from Notre Dame given how thin their DB and S positions are tracking next year to find out what he could be.
He’s still a great athlete and by all accounts is a smart kid, good locker room guy, hard worker. OSU isn’t overly pleased that he’s leaving, despite the playing time situation. I’m not sure when he’s going to graduate – if it’s December and he can go through spring ball, I think he’d have a real shot at the starting job next year. Maybe even if he would only arrive in the summer.
A three-man rotation of Hamilton/Griffith/Pryor, or a nickel package of Griffith and Pryor deep and Hamilton at nickel… Could be excellent. If nothing else he should push Griffith to get better. And I’d feel much better about a depth chart of Hamilton, Griffith, Brown, and Pryor than a depth chart of Hamilton, Griffith, Brown, and ???.
Their DBs are very very good. I would be surprised if any of their starting DBs don’t end up drafted. Jordan Fuller, their best safety, would easily start on our roster (and our current safeties might be our 2 best players on defense). I’d say there’s still a good chance that Pryor ends up being a very good player for 2 years wherever he ends up.
I second the earlier replies. OSU has been a DB factory recently for the NFL; they’ve been supplying more talent from that position group than any other outside of maybe DE in recent years. So it’s hardly an indictment that Pryor hasn’t played more Given our recent misses in the defensive backfield, we could do a lot worse than to take a Buckeye castoff.
And to back up Brendan, Ryan Day’s official statement about Pryor’s departure came off a little more bitchy than the standard ‘good luck’ boilerplate, so I don’t get the impression that OSU was pushing him out the door.
Yeah, I don’t disagree with much of that, I tried to point out that OSU is talent rich at that position, but I guess it didn’t emphasize it enough. My point wasn’t to say he can’t help Notre Dame, I’m sure he can, just more that he hasn’t lived up to his recruiting rankings as darn near a 5* to not see much playing time by the time he was a junior. That raises a bit of a flag for me, but I’m not dismissing the possibility he just needs a new program and could be a solid player.
He’s definitely a take if you can get him, no doubt about that. Just wouldn’t be my ideal for safety next year which would be to re-recruit Gilman to come back (which admittedly is a very long shot).
Only visitor we truly need to lock down this weekend is Hunter Dickinson.
Any relation to….Bruce Dickinson?
He’s the most important get out of all the guys coming in this weekend that aren’t already committed
But seriously, if we pull in 2 of Shipley, Colzie, and Styles in that 2021 class, we’re looking at the best offensive skill position class of Kelly’s tenure…1 year after pulling in the best offensive skill position class of Kelly’s tenure. I’ve long felt that this is the biggest thing keeping us from truly competing with the big boys; this could go a long long way toward closing that gap.
So is 2020 recruiting basically done (other than keeping whom we have)? I expected that once fall got going a few more significant targets might pop up on our radar, but it seems if you’re trying to get in with a player late this would have to be the best date for a visit. So does this mean we are more or less stopping at 17 commits and planning on a bigger class next year?
I don’t think the staff wants to be done, at least. I think they’d like to land two more DBs, preferably safeties. It’s also entirely possible that they’ll continue to kick the tires on previous targets committed elsewhere.
Deion Colzie is Irish!
So I hope it’s true we are in a better position with Styles than Colzie!
Narrator voice: they were in great position for both!