Notre Dame broke the seal on 2020 secondary recruiting today when Clarence Lewis became the 12th commitment in the class. The 6’1″, 185-pound New Jerseyan committed less than 24 hours after the conclusion of his official visit; safe to say the staff and the school made a big impression on him. At the New Jersey Opening regional in April he logged a 4.59 40 and a 4.2 shuttle, which he apparently backed up when the staff saw him in person this weekend. He’ll need some time to develop, but he has the length and athleticism the staff looks for in its defensive backs.
Recruiting Service Rankings
247 Composite — 3 star (0.8627 rating), #692 overall, #115 WR, #18 in NJ
247 Sports — 3 star (87 rating), #585 overall, #106 WR, #15 in NJ
Rivals — 3 star (5.6 rating), NR overall, NR position, #21 in NJ
ESPN — 3 star (77 rating), NR overall, #164 WR, #27 in NJ
IrishSportsDaily — 4 star (90 rating)
Cohort
In addition to Notre Dame, Clarence Lewis holds offers from Boston College, Duke, Minnesota, NC State, Nebraska, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia, among others.
Highlights
Lewis mostly plays receiver for his high school, but there’s a decent amount of film as a cornerback as well; on both types of plays here, you can see some of the traits (heh) that interest Notre Dame’s defensive staff. Lewis measured 5’11.5″ at the Opening regional but I’m not sure that’s right, or at least if it is he plays bigger. He definitely has good length and I think a nice frame to add a little extra muscle. His long speed is very good, and he shows flashes of short-area quickness that make me think he can improve there with polish. He moves very easily, which is a good sign for his future coverage skills. And he’s certainly not afraid of contact.
You really can’t see much in terms of coverage technique; what there is looks sort of OK, but that’s not surprising for a guy who spends so much time on offense. He clearly has some stuff to work on. You know what he doesn’t have to work on? Finding the ball. Kid is an absolute ballhawk, and when he gets it he makes things happen. That might be my favorite part of this whole highlight reel. Guys like that tend to keep making plays at the next level – think Julian Love or Shaun Crawford. They just have a sense for what’s going on and a nose for the ball.
Impact
The 2020 depth chart should have plenty of opportunity available at corner. Troy Pride and Donte Vaughn will definitely be gone, and while Shaun Crawford will have a sixth year available I’m not sure he’d take it; also, Houston Griffith may move back to safety. Lots of stuff to shake out between now and then, but there will almost certainly be opportunity for a precocious youngster. I don’t think Lewis will be ready to push for reps that quickly, but who knows? Down the road, I think his athleticism gives him a very good ceiling and I could definitely see him as an upperclassman contributor or even a starter.
Welcome to the Irish family, Clarence!
Kind of odd that CB recruiting has been so eh while everything else is basically on fire. Given that we had struck out on a number of higher-ranked guys, this seems like a good 3-star take. Relatively high upside, plus we needed to get *someone*. Hopefully this relieves a bit of the pressure and the staff can try to use senior film to find some other diamonds in the rough (and/or poach from other schools).
Yeah, it’s been disheartening for sure. We haven’t been in on many highly-ranked guys this year; I’d say there were just four four-star CBs we had a real shot at:
– Clark Phillips, #47 overall: Got his attention early but he’s been trending to OSU for a while.
– Jalen Kimber, #77: Absolutely glowed about ND after his visit and emphatically said he’d be back, then committed to Georgia a few days later.
– Dontae Manning, #98: Canceled an OV to the Blue-Gold game and said he would reschedule, but never made it and committed to Oklahoma shortly after.
– Ryan Watts, #291: Like Kimber, visited and said some great things and then committed to Oklahoma at their spring game.
I can’t point to any current blue-chip guys we might make progress with, either. It’s a cipher.
There are 14 CBs in the top 200 prospects in this class. Last year there were 23, in 2018 there were 21, in 2017 there were 28. So some of it is maybe a supply issue? I think if Love had gone in the second round like he should’ve, you might’ve seen a little more interest too. NFL development matters to these kids.
Regarding Lewis, agreed, he has all the physical tools to be very good. I’ve seen some conjecture that the current defensive staff values speed, length, and athleticism above all else at DB and believes they can develop the right athletes. It’s not the worst angle to take; Clemson made a living for years off signing athletic three-stars at DB and developing them. Only recently have they really started to amass top CB prospects.
Germane to this discussion, there are some indications (pay info, so I won’t share more than that) that both Ryan Watts and Dontae Manning are wavering on their commitments to Oklahoma. I don’t expect us to get back in on Manning if he does decommit, but Watts is another story just based on the impression ND made on his official visit in April. Something to track.
I noticed that you slipped in a comment toward the end that Houston Griffith may move to safety. Is that likely at this point? With the need at corner and the fact that he will likely start opposite Pride this year, I thought that he would be staying at corner for the foreseeable future. Any inside info on this?
From reading spring reports it looks like the question/doubt/unknown parts about Griffith at sticking corner is depending on how he fares at it. (I don’t think he had a terrific spring but they are trying to talk him up, so it seems) and he might eventually go back to safety if he’s not able to excel at CB and since they’ll probably need 2 new starting safeties in 2020 anyways.
Also, interestingly enough in The Athletic they were mentioning how Kyle Hamilton has been cross-training with his skills coaches at slot CB and even some WR and they’re trying to give him as many tools as possible all over the place and he says he doesn’t care where or how he plays just wants to be ready for as much as he can.
Not that anyone really sees him at CB long-term, I’m sure his frame and skills make him a future star safety but that would be cool to find a way to get him on the field somehow this fall in a position of need.
Reading between the lines of the practice reports, which you kind of have to do on at least 247 to glean any non-positive information, it seems that Griffith spent a good chunk of the spring getting shredded by our starting wide receivers. He and the starting LBs will likely be the weak spots on the defense.
That said (a) our starting WRs are pretty good and (b) if he starts all season, he’ll have more experience at corner than anyone going into 2020. Basically, if he can make it through the season at CB, it seems like he’d be a corner for the entirety of his ND career.
Agreed, especially on Point A. It makes sense to expect based spring practice to be shifted to favoring the experienced QB and WR’s more than a young CB….Even though to be picky I think they had Pride going against Claypool a ton, so Griffith looking bad against non-Claypool outside receivers is…not inspiring at all.
I actually feel decent about LB because Bilal makes up half the group and he’s sturdy and I think Lea can coach up and has enough bodies that he’ll find some to fit what he needs. That is left to hope though. Plus we know Gilman can step up and support the LB pretty well too like he did in the Clemson game.
Personally, I worry more about CB situation (depth, Crawford (un)availability and Griffith) a lot more.
I think reports of Griffith’s demise are greatly exaggerated. Claypool got the better of him but he looked OK against everyone else. Not great, but not terrible, with some things to work on technically (per Friend of 18S Jamie Uyeyama in his spring post-mortem for ISD). Keep in mind that he’s at his third position in 12 months – he started out last spring at free safety, then moved to nickel when Crawford got hurt, and now he’s at boundary to replace Love. And he’s still sort of a freshman-plus. We’ll see how he looks in the fall.
I’m far more worried about LB, honestly. I don’t think Bilal is sturdy in the middle at all – all spring he was slow to diagnose and to get off blocks. I’m really worried about teams targeting him in the run game until we can get one of the young guns (Simon, maybe?) up to speed enough to start. I’ve been wrong about simpler things, but I’d be really surprised if Bilal is still starting by the end of the year.
What is your prediction for who will be the starting LBs (including rover) game 1? Also, if you were in charge, who would your starters be?
Hmm, good questions… On rover, I think there’s no question that (a) JOK will start and (b) Moala will play, both early and throughout the season. JOK has a level of athleticism and attitude that just doesn’t exist on the roster – a couple of guys have the attitude (Gilman, for example), and nobody has the athleticism. He needs to get the mental side up to speed but he’s getting there. Moala seems to be one of those guys who is just good at being where the play happens. I think they’ll both have a big role.
On the ILB spots, man, I don’t know. I lean towards Bilal and JGH being the actual starters inside in game 1, although a lot will depend on how fall camp goes. It’s really hard to handicap how all that is going to shake out, but gun to my head I think I’d take Simon as the long-term starter at Mike and Lamb as the 1A at Buck with JGH the 1B/power offense specialist.
If I was picking the starters for Louisville today, it’d be Bilal and JGH too with Lamb as the third-down Buck, but for me the separation between Bilal and Simon isn’t that big. I wouldn’t consider it likely but I definitely consider it possible for Simon to pass Bilal in fall camp.
I should add that my thoughts about Griffith at safety in 2020 are more about what we’ll have returning there, which is quite possibly nothing – Elliott is definitely gone and Gilman I think is likely gone if he has a big year. That would probably leave Hamilton in one starting spot and the other spot wide open. Possibly DJ Brown would look good enough by then that the staff keeps Griffith at corner, or possibly the staff feels good enough about Bracy/Davis/Wallace/Rutherford to move Griffith. Lots to work out.