2021 Football Recruiting: Offense Big Board Launch

The clocks have jumped ahead, the weather inches ever warmer, the birds warble their reveille once again. You know what that means – time to revive the Big Board! YEAH BUDDY! Huh? Spring, you say? Oh… Well, I guess it’s a sign of that too. We hadn’t noticed. Nice.

In more significant news, we welcome the Big Board back from an eight month hiatus. Why eight months? Have we mentioned before that the 2020 class wrapped up really quickly? The last Big Board post we did went live on July 6th of last year. The Irish added a single commitment between that post and the official end of the cycle in February – CB Ramon Henderson, who signed in December. There just wasn’t really anything to talk about. It’s a different story now though, with the 2021 class off to a rousing start and some big developments due over the next several weeks.

The Notre Dame staff will look to continue the hot start to the class as visit season really kicks into gear. The class currently has seven commits while the 2020 class had five commits at the same point last year. Not a meaningful gap, especially when you consider last year’s class was always going to be small and this year’s should be a pretty average size. The real difference comes in quality, with all due respect to the 2020 commits. Those five 2020 commits had an average 247 Composite rating of .9083, which is roughly a top 300 prospect. The seven 2021 commits have an average score of .9491, which is a borderline top 100 prospect. There are some questions marks, which we’ll get into in this and particularly the defense update next week, but the class is off to a scorching start.

The Offense Board

A reminder on how we do this – we’ll include the entire big board but only review prospects who are above “Cold” status. Speaking of which, the temperature scale:

• Hot means the prospect is on commit watch.
• Warm means the prospect has Notre Dame in a small final group and/or is a possible Irish lean.
• Mild/Mild+ means the prospect is in regular contact with the staff and has visited or has firm visit plans.
• Cool means the prospect has some level of contact with the staff and/or vague visit plans; also the default temperature for most new offers.
• Cold is a known (or reasonably safely assumed) lack of contact with the staff and/or an elimination.

Remember that of course we don’t have perfect information on all prospects – we don’t know for sure whether a prospect has or hasn’t talked to the staff outside of what’s reported elsewhere. We don’t know for sure how high prospects are on the staff’s board. We try to make highly-educated guesses at all of it, but we don’t know.

Quarterback

Commits: Tyler Buchner, 0.9833, #33 overall/#3 position
Slots: 1

Crazy as it may sound given that he’s just one spot out of five-star status, Buchner might still be underrated by the services. He just dominated at the Los Angeles Elite 11 regional and earned an invite to the finals, so that may resolve itself over the summer. The Irish are obviously done at the position, and Buchner has been working hard as a recruiter. Especially for the top target at…

Running Back

Commits: None
Slots: 1-2

Five-star APB Will Shipley clearly heads up the board here. Could the Irish possibly pull five-star backs in consecutive years (I’m still counting Tyree, go ahead and fight me if you want)? The strongest competition for the speedy North Carolinian is likely Clemson, as the home-ish team that plays elite football. Stanford is on the edges of the picture but distance and recent play are working against them. Irish RB coach Lance Taylor has done a phenomenal job here; it doesn’t hurt that Shipley idolizes Taylor’s former protege, Christian McCaffrey, either. And finally, as I alluded to above, Shipley and Buchner are good friends from their years as elite lacrosse prospects. Shipley will visit twice soon – unofficially on March 20-22, and officially a couple of weeks later.

Two other five-star backs have shown some interest in Notre Dame this cycle as well. Camar Wheaton visited last year, but it’s tough to gauge his true interest level – he doesn’t talk to the Notre Dame beat guys but he doesn’t talk to anyone, so who knows there. We believe the staff has kept in touch with him though… TreVeyon Henderson was originally a CB target for the Irish but has blown up as a RB prospect – ranked #203 overall as recently as November, he’s currently #17, one spot behind Wheaton and two ahead of Shipley. We don’t believe the staff is pushing hard here right now, perhaps because he’s fairly similar to Shipley and they like Shipley better.

Donovan Edwards visited Notre Dame recently and had good things to say, but for now it hasn’t gone much beyond that. Pretty much everyone penciled the Michigan native into the Skunkbears’ class, but recent momentum actually favors Ohio State. Heh… Prophet Brown is a more recent addition to the board, and could possibly be either a plan B for Shipley or eventually a CB target. He has no firm visit plans yet but has expressed interest in visiting.

Wide Receiver

Commits: Deion Colzie, 0.9771, #46/#5; Lorenzo Styles, 0.9516, #113/#18
Slots: 3

With two excellent prospects already on board, the staff can afford to be extremely picky about the last receiver they’ll take. Top 50 Dont’e Thornton decommitted from Penn State last summer and has seen his recruitment explode since then. He just visited Alabama and has a string of other visits set up this spring, including Notre Dame in April. I’d actually put my money on Oregon as of today, but with his personal board so open who knows… Floridian Troy Stellato is another fast-riser; he has talked about visiting in the next few months but doesn’t have anything set up yet that we’re aware of. Despite that professed interest, this is probably a Clemson-Ohio State battle

The staff dipped into Georgia once again to offer Jayden Thomas, who shares a trainer with Colzie and TE commit Cane Berrong and whose principal is walk-on/resident comedian Mick Assaf’s father. Thomas visited for the Virginia Tech game last year and could visit again this spring. His offer list is a who’s who of CFB and, yes, it includes Georgia… Titus Mokiao-Atimalala is a very intriguing prospect. He could play on either side of the ball but has expressed a clear preference for offense. Brian Kelly and Brian Polian have made a big early impression here, and of course it also helps that current Irish DT Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa is his cousin. His interest in Notre Dame is real and I would expect him to visit at some point.

Much more local than TMA is Andrel Anthony; the Michigander has visited several times and would likely be committed already if the staff was willing to give him a green light. He’s a solid prospect but will likely have to wait to see how the board above him shakes out. He just tweeted that he’ll make a new round of visits soon when his basketball season is over.

Tight End

Commits: Cane Berrong, 0.9336, #131/#7
Slots: 2

Thomas Fidone just climbed into the 247 Composite top 100 and is knocking on the door of five-star status on 247’s own rankings. In addition to his status as an elite football prospect, he’s a standout basketball player and track and field star, winning the state 400 hurdle title last year in his first time ever running the race. That’s Bill Brasky stuff. Notre Dame’s history at the position has caught his attention, and he’ll take an official visit in April. It is perhaps worth noting that he and current Irish freshman Xavier Watts are friendly – they hail from opposite sides of the Missouri River and competed against each other for years. Hmm.

Californian Brock Bowers is also a top 100 talent and is fresh off an unofficial visit to Notre Dame as part of a Midwest swing. Bowers crashed onto the national stage in a big way at the Opening regional last year, where he checked in at 6’3″ and 215 pounds and logged a 4.55 40 and 40″ vertical. An interesting twist here is that he’s an elite linebacker prospect as well, and while he has expressed a preference for offense he’s open to playing defense. My gut says he’ll be a tough pull from the West Coast but the Irish definitely have his attention.

Offensive Line

Commits: Blake Fisher, 0.9741, #58/#8
Slots: 4-5

Fisher is not only an elite talent – I firmly believe he’s still underrated given that he dominated older kids at camps last year – but an elite recruiter. “Mayor Fish,” as he’s affectionately known, has worked as tirelessly as any recruit I can remember in my [redacted] years of following Irish football. He’ll anchor this class in more ways than one.

Now, the fun really begins… The Notre Dame staff has arranged a massive recruiting event for next weekend that, in addition to Will Shipley as noted above, will see en exceptional group of line talent visit South Bend. Fisher will be there, of course. Potential future linemates Nolan Rucci, Landon Tengwall, Rocco Spindler, and Garrett Dellinger will all join him – as will Shipley, Buchner, Styles, and Berrong. Nearly an entire offensive class in town for the same weekend is no accident, of course.

Most consider Rucci a Penn State lean, and it’s true that he has visited the hometown team a lot. But they’re close, so we’ll see. Wisconsin, where his brother plays, is also in the picture. But we have a strong suspicion that Notre Dame has a much better shot here than many people realize. Not a lock, and we’re not predicting him to Notre Dame (or anywhere else), but the interest is very real… Tengwall seemed on the verge of committing last year and backed off. He really hit it off with Quinn and the current linemen and started to use the first person plural before slowing things down. Many consider him a Penn State lean too, but it’s Notre Dame that will get him on campus twice within a few weeks – once for this unofficial visit, and again in early April for an official…

Where he’ll be joined by Spindler. Yes, Tengwall and Spindler will both visit Notre Dame twice in three weeks. Very interesting, as they say… Lou Holtz recruited Spindler’s father, an elite defensive lineman who ended up at Pitt and then with the Detroit Lions. Rocco grew up in Michigan, which many assume means he’s a lock to Michigan (sense a theme here?), but everything he says and does seems to indicate that Notre Dame is in the driver’s seat. We’ve seen this movie before, of course, but even so… Adding any two of Rucci, Tengwall, and Spindler to Fisher would be incredible. All three of them? Call your doctor if your excitement level hasn’t died down after four hours.

Dellinger is Spindler’s current teammate and has a lot of interest in Notre Dame, but the Irish staff is a bit hesitant given his medical history – two significant shoulder injuries have them concerned about how well he’ll hold up at the next level. He may need to wait for other things to shake out before knowing if the staff will really push for him.

Five-star Virginian Tristan Leigh and four-stars Reuben Fatheree and Caleb Johnson are all in pretty much the same spot – all have expressed interest but haven’t set up a visit yet, so it remains to be seen how strong the interest really is. I honestly doubt the Irish will get much traction with Leigh, who seems more likely to stay east, but it’s worth a shot. Fatheree is from Texas but has a connection to Notre Dame; his mother was recruited by Muffet McGraw and, although she went elsewhere, loved her time on campus as a recruit… Similarly, Johnson is from Florida, but his mother is from Indiana and his father played football at Ball State. He’s a new offer, so we’ll have to see how much true interest there is on both sides, but he’s one to watch.

Board Thoughts

The offensive board is in excellent shape. The staff is already done at quarterback with arguably the best guy in the country, is in great shape with one of the top running backs in the country, is in position to be very picky at receiver and tight end, and has a legitimate chance at the best line class in the country. Heady times indeed. The picture on defense is, charitably, far more muddled, but hopefully we can get more clarity there with the dead period behind us finally. Some key defensive prospects will be in town for the big March weekend as well, and we could see developments come out of that.

The board overall looks very good. The offense is in excellent shape, as noted. The defensive line is in very good shape, despite having just one commit so far, and there are several promising defensive backs on the radar, despite – you guessed it – having just one commit so far. One of the big themes for spring recruiting will be how new CB coach Mike Mickens acquits himself. He was known at Cincinnati as an excellent recruiter, reeling in kids with multiple Power 5 offers, and he reportedly has a big personality. If he can make big inroads with a few key targets this spring, watch out.

The other big theme for me is what the heck is going on with LB recruiting. The team has a pile of young, athletic, and promising guys on campus, but after not taking any LBs in the 2020 class you would think it would be a position of emphasis in this cycle. However, nobody really has a clear picture of the staff’s plans there yet. I’m sure they have a plan, we just don’t know what it is. So that’s another thing we may see unfold in the coming months.

Finally, yet another statistical note related to the effects of the early signing period on the recruiting calendar: Notre Dame has 117 offers out in the 2021 class, and 27 of those prospects are already committed somewhere. That feels like a very large chunk of the offer list to be off the board by the beginning of March. We’re going to see a lot more guys come off the board over the next couple of months, too, and will probably end up with a similar national pattern to last year – a handful of elite kids and hopeful risers left uncommitted in the fall. Time marches on.