Grab your smelling salts: Notre Dame’s 2021 class added its third cornerback today when Chance Tucker announced his pledge to the Irish. The 6’1″, 170-pound Californian’s recruitment reportedly was jolted, in a good way, by a stealth July 4th weekend visit with his father. Tucker is at least the third – what should we call it? independent? non-contact? – visitor during the COVID outbreak, joining fellow 2021 commit Joe Alt, 2021 prospect Mitch Evans, and 2022 prospect Jack Nickel. On Evans’s visit, Blake “The Mayor” Fisher came to campus to show him around as well; it’ll be very interesting to see if this is something the staff can leverage for other kids who are able to make it to campus. Recruits can’t have any contact with current athletic and administrative staff, players, or students. But prospective students? A different kettle of fish indeed.

Tucker is a great example of a kid whose stock was hurt by the pandemic too. He started to garner serious interest from programs in the spring, but without a spring evaluation period or spring camps it was hard for him to “blow up” in the traditional recruiting sense. Even so, as teams dove deeper into junior film everywhere some definitely started to notice him; Colorado was his first Power 5 offer in mid-April, and he picked up several more after that plus interest from some solid programs that could’ve led to an offer. We’ll get into this more below, but I think Tucker is a scouting steal for the Irish and will likely prove to be much better than his rankings.

Perhaps one of the most delicious elements of this recruitment for Irish fans is that finally, FINALLY, the staff went head-to-head with Washington and Jimmy Lake and came out victorious. And not just for any mutually desired recruit, but for a defensive back. (Washington was courting Philip Riley too, but that was less of a true head-to-head.) Halcyon days! Of course one commit – who (knock on wood) won’t even sign for at least three months – doesn’t fully erase the sting of Julius Irvin, Asa Turner, Kyler Gordon, Jalen McMillan, etc. But a turnaround has to start with one step, and Tucker is that step for the Notre Dame staff.

Finally, Mike ****ing Mickens, man. Lands three CBs against elite suitors at the position (Washington for Tucker, Washington and Virginia Tech for Philip Riley, Clemson and Virginia Tech for Ryan Barnes) at a time when none of them can officially visit campus. Insane. Get that man some coffee!

Recruiting Service Rankings

Note that although Tucker is rated as a WR in the 247 Composite, we believe all programs and certainly all major programs were recruiting him at CB.

247Sports Composite — 3 star (.8627), #687 overall, #54 WR, #66 in CA

247Sports — 3 star (87 rating), NR overall, #46 WR, #60 in CA

Rivals — 3 star (5.6 rating), NR overall, NR CB, NR in CA

ESPN — Not evaluated

Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (91 rating), ATH

Cohort

In addition to Notre Dame and Washington, Tucker holds offers from Arizona, BYU, Colorado, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Penn, and Princeton, among others, and was drawing interest from UCLA and USC.

Highlights

Tucker also runs track; he added the 100M to his repertoire this past season and, in his only chance to run it before the quarantine started, recorded a 10.97. He has said that he thinks he could’ve gotten down to 10.7 in a full season. Unfortunately there’s not much to see on his film one way or the other, but a sub-11 second time in his first ever attempt at the race is nothing to sneeze at; it’s also entirely reasonable to think that by the end of his senior season he could be at 10.7 or even a bit better. So we’ll see on that score, but early signs are promising.

What we do see on film is pretty impressive. His ability to mirror receivers is absolutely outstanding; on most of the plays here he looks like he knows the route just as well as the receiver does. He also moves very effortlessly, with a smooth backpedal and a smooth transition from the backpedal to “normal” running. I didn’t see any zone coverage on here, but his man coverage skills are excellent and a good sign about his ability to contribute early. As is his willingness to get physical – check the run support at the 1:25, the way he comes off his man to lay the wood on a swing pass on the next play, and his specials teams plays at the end of the reel.

Something working against early contribution generally is, of course, physical readiness. One thing that caught my eye here is that he played a lot of press coverage, but never with any kind of jam to speak of – just mirroring the receiver. Sometimes it looks like he misses the jam, but sometimes it looks like he’s not even trying. Not sure what’s going on there, but added strength will definitely help as will technique work with Mickens. If his listed dimensions are correct, he’ll probably need to add 15-20 pounds before he can credibly step on the field at the next level. The good news there is that he’ll have over a year to do that.

Impact

There could be opportunity in the Irish secondary in 2021. Tariq Bracy is the only known quantity at cornerback on the roster now who will have eligibility in 2021. KJ Wallace and/or Isaiah Rutherford might emerge, as might one of the 2020 signees – Ramon Henderson, Caleb Offord, and Clarence Lewis. That’s a whole lot of “might,” though, and that means that there also might be a chance for a youngster to make an immediate impact. Will it be Tucker? Or maybe classmates Riley or Barnes? Maybe an as-yet uncommitted 2021 CB? Maybe!

Regardless, I think Tucker has some plus physical skills and some precocious technical skill that will give him a chance to get on the field early. Long-term, I definitely think he has the ceiling to be a starter and a good one at that.

Welcome to the Irish family, Chance!