Notre Dame landed its second corner in the 2020 cycle when Landen Bartleson announced for the Irish today. The 6’1″, 190-pound Kentuckian is fresh off an official visit to South Bend; the official was Bartleson’s fourth visit, going back to November 2018. Bartleson is more of an athlete at this point who will need to develop as a corner; look no further than his recruiting service rankings below for evidence of his versatility. One service lists him as an athlete, another as a running back, another as a corner.
There are three key traits (drink!) Bartleson has that caught the staff’s attention: his frame, his athleticism, and his personality. He may need time to develop, but he has everything he needs to have a high ceiling.
God. Country. Notre Dame.
COMMITTED‼️💰#IrishBouNDXX #GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/kvCYzjFewn
— Landen Bartleson (@lbb_5) June 24, 2019
Recruiting Service Rankings
247Sports Composite — 3 star (.8566), #864 overall, #62 ATH, #10 in KY
247Sports — 3 star (88 rating), #475 overall, #39 ATH, #5 in KY
Rivals — 3 star (5.6 rating), NR overall, NR CB, #11 in KY
ESPN — 3 star (76 rating), NR overall, #54 RB, #7 in KY
Irish Sports Daily — 3 star (88 rating)
Cohort
In addition to Notre Dame, Bartleson holds offers from Colorado, Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan, Ohio State, Purdue, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Highlights
It’s tough to evaluate Landen Bartleson as a corner based on this film; only the first play shows him on defense, and there’s not much to see there. I do see excellent agility, good acceleration, and plus elusiveness. I don’t think his long speed is remarkable for a skill position guy, although he sports a PR of 11.08 in the 100M so I could be wrong about that. Regardless, that’s not really a problem if he gets his technique squared away. He has the athleticism to be a quality defender and, by all accounts, the makeup to want it. I’m cautiously optimistic as to where his ceiling lies.
Impact
Barring catastrophe (knock on wood), Bartleson won’t be needed in a meaningful role in 2020. Corner is a clear position of need in this class, but an immediate contribution is more of a luxury. That’s good, because Bartleson will need time to learn the position. He’s skinny and will need to add probably 10-15 pounds, so the ramp-up will be about both mental and physical adjustments. I could see him getting on the field some as a sophomore and contributing for real as a junior. It’s also worth noting that his frame will let the staff give him a look at free safety if needed.
Welcome to the Irish family, Landen!
H/t to Friend of the Site Jamie Uyeyama at ISD – I didn’t even check Bartleson’s sophomore film, but Jamie did and it includes lots work on defense.
http://www.hudl.com/v/28BEs0
Obviously my preference would be to kind Clark Phillips and the safety from Tucson (btw Ohio state still recruiting this high with a complete unproven head coach is a little frustrating but whatever) but this method for dB recruiting seems to be next best. 3/4 of a really good backfield last year were these types of recruits so I guess trust the coaches and let them do their job. Getting multifaceted athletes seems like a solid approach if you can’t land top 75 guys
Your comments on him on the last Big Board update were also interesting. I wonder if anything changed or just a mistaken read. I assume you guys hear lots of rumors.
Lyght/Lea seem to like tall corners with speed. They can teach technique. It worked well with Julian Love, as I recall he was a low to mid 3* athlete.
Well, that was Jaden, not me, but thanks. 🙂 The DB board has been hard to read all cycle. I do think Bartleson had to wait for a green light, but I’m not sure how long he had to wait or what the wait was related to (academics, other prospects, etc.). I suspect we’ll get one more CB commit soon and then try to hold a spot to flip a guy during the season. If we can do that then it becomes more likely that one of Bartleson/Lewis/Mystery CB Recruit might move to free safety.
I am sure the board is always hard to read, and I wasn’t being negative at all. You guys do a great job. My guess is given the timing, unless he hit grades at the end of the school year, it was probably prospects. No matter.
I guess corners are smaller and safeties are bigger, but are there other differences/traits that are looked for? Are all safeties failed corners or did they lack something? Good coaches can put a good athlete anywhere. As Lou (and probably countless others) said, you can’t coach speed or size. you can add a few pounds with better workouts, but that is about it.
I’d say speed and hip mobility are a couple of the traits that can separate a CB from a S. There is a lot more turning around and change of motion as a CB compared to S.
As Brendan said, I think it was kind of unknown who the staff was willing to take from the weekend. Academics were maybe a factor, but with where things stood with these 3-stars, it wasn’t perfectly clear who the staff wanted to slow play. Obviously they were happy to give the green light to Bartleson at this point.
I’m cool with seeing bodies added, hope he grows! Seems like they do develop pretty decent CB so I’ll be patient.
Also….(picture the way Jerry Seinfeld says “Newman”……)
“Fresno!”
https://twitter.com/jalenmcmillan20/status/1143569096966995969
247 board in full-on meltdown mode.
Nice get. I bet it was the promise of immediate induction into The Finer Things Club that pushed ND ahead of Bartelson’s other suitors.