Notre Dame landed a last-minute surprise in its 2021 defensive class today when safety Khari Gee flipped from LSU. The 6’3″, 185-pound Georgian actually signed with the Irish on Wednesday and publicly announced today. LSU, by all accounts, did still want him despite landing three other safeties – five-star Sage Ryan, top 100 (and former ND target) Derrick Davis, and three-star (and brief ND target) Matthew Langlois. LSU saw his best future at linebacker and the Irish likely do too, but it’ll be interesting to see how his position fit plays out on campus.
Notre Dame offered Gee way back in March but didn’t seem to get much traction. The staff clearly kept tabs on him though and kept communication lines open, and it paid off today. Or Wednesday, I guess…
I’m locked in 1000% now.. The University of Notre Dame 🍀… #GoIrish #AllGloryToGod pic.twitter.com/HcdbpZf6zy
— KG (@KhariGee) December 18, 2020
Recruiting Service Rankings
247Sports Composite — 3 star (.8871 rating), #391 overall, #27 S, #30 in GA
247Sports — 3 star (88 rating), NR overall, #43 S, #30 in GA
Rivals — 4 star (5.9 rating), #79 overall, #7 DT, #4 in VA
ESPN — 4 star (83 rating), #147 overall, #15 DE, #3 in VA
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (92 rating)
Cohort
In addition to Notre Dame and LSU, Gee holds offers from Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Oregon, USC, Vanderbilt, and Virginia Tech, among many others.
Highlights
The thing that stands out the most for me on this reel is Gee’s versatility. He lined up deep, in the box, on the line of scrimmage, at boundary corner, at field corner, and at wide receiver – all in a four minute video. That’s a strong recommendation for his athleticism, football intelligence, and mentality. The next thing that really jumped was his burst; once he’s confident about what he’s seeing he closes fast. And he hits like a truck when he gets there. I also LOVE, not like, the way he takes on blocks. It’s a mix of toughness and intelligence that bodes very week for his future as a run defender.
Impact
There will be opportunity at safety in 2021, which will be arguably the thinnest position on the team. I don’t see Gee making an instant impact there, but he’ll get a chance to show something. I think his most likely path is to eventually become a plus-athlete rover; combine him with Prince Kollie and Kahanu Kia on the inside, and you have one hell of a linebacker class. We might have to wait until 2022 to see them contribute meaningfully, but the addition of Gee makes it a very strong group that clearly has a bright future.
Welcome to the Irish family, Khari!
From Prister to Leming to Sinclair it kinda surprised me how much praise and how excited the media is for this guy, seemingly across the board everyone that analyzed him thinks this could be a potential game-breaker. Pretty cool but just surprising. Supposedly Clemson and LSU both went after him hard, and they have pretty good track records with DBs so that’s cool.
Also is 6’3, 185 really going to grow into rover? Wasn’t Tranquill like 220-230? And JOK is 215 but that’s a world away from 185. What’s wrong with like a really good safety? I guess nowadays defenders have to be so fluid and versatility is only a positive attribute, but I kinda think safety is how he’ll find the field first, if he’s as good as some think he might be. And Kollie coming in at 6’1, 210 just seems to be that perfect fit for rover anyways. But we shall see.
Something’s gotta be off here:
Rivals — 4 star (5.9 rating), #79 overall, #7 DT, #4 in VA
ESPN — 4 star (83 rating), #147 overall, #15 DE, #3 in VA
This must be for another recruit.
It appears Kelvin Gilliam Jr was #79 on rivals (has since dropped a bit) and is a DT from VA. I know there had been talk of flipping him at one point. Maybe they had the post ready to go. Sadly, rivals says he has signed with OU.