Up until today, linebacker was the position with the longest running recruiting drought for Notre Dame football. It had been 628 days since the Fighting Irish last received a verbal commitment (JD Bertand — November 19, 2018 if you were wondering). That long drought finally ended today when Prince Kollie decided to verbally commit to Notre Dame. The 6’1″/200-pounder out of Jonesborough, TN is the 16th commit in Notre Dame’s recruiting class of 2021.
— Prince Kollie (@p_kollie_21) August 7, 2020
@NDFootball @youngballcoach_ @k_rams10_52 @CoachBrianKelly @Coach_Lea 🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/HdT7bB25H1
— Prince Kollie (@p_kollie_21) August 7, 2020
Recruiting Service Rankings
Rivals — 3 star (5.6 rating), NR overall, #57 ATH, #19 in TN
ESPN — 4 star (83 rating), #211 overall, #22 OLB, #5 in TN
247Sports — 4 star (90 rating), #231 overall, #16 OLB, #6 in TN
247Sports Composite — 4 star (.8977), #300 overall, #19 OLB, #8 in TN
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (91 rating)
Kind of feels like Rivals is a little bit out of the loop with this one. I mean, 247 and ESPN both have him in their Top 250 but Rivals has him as a mid 3-star? Don’t take it from me, though. Take it from the rest of the schools in his offer list…
Cohort
Prince chose the Irish over other offers from Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, Georgia, Louisville, LSU, Oklahoma, Virginia Tech, and many others. His offer list totals 34 teams at this point. Louisville, LSU, Georgia, and Oklahoma were the other teams in his Top 5 that he released back in June. Notre Dame won out against some stiff competition in this recruitment.
Highlights
As usual, Jamie over at ISD has his post-commit film review up on Prince, and it can be read here. As for my own thoughts, I’ve got to say Prince’s film is really impressive. He’s clearly an athletic option at linebacker. He’s got excellent range and the ability to make plays all over the football field. He seems to relish contact, both when driving through his tackles and blowing up blockers. He also plays wide receiver for his high school team, and he makes some shifty plays from that position as well. He clearly has speed well above average for a linebacker and I’ve seen rumors that he runs somewhere around a 4.6s 40 already.
As far as player comparisons, I’ve seen a couple of good ones — Drue Tranquill and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah included. Barton Simmons at 247Sports has him compared to Washington linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis, the former 4th round pick and First Team All-ACC selection out of Boston College who wowed at the 2014 combine with a 4.51 40-yard dash and 4.02 shuttle.
Impact
From a recruiting aspect, the commitment of Prince Kollie just continues the absolute roll Notre Dame has been on for the past few weeks. Prince is the 6th commitment Notre Dame has gained since Chance Tucker committed on July 22nd, and the 4th in the class of 2021. Things are certainly looking much better than they were a few months ago.
This also probably wraps things up at linebacker recruiting for 2021. Unless high school football is played in the fall this year and the Irish find another kid with really good film, I’m assuming Clark Lea will turn his attention to the 2022 class — in which the Irish are already in pretty decent shape with a number of good options at the position.
From a depth chart perspective, Prince should turn into a good option at Rover or maybe Buck if he grows into it. He’s the kind of athlete who should find his way onto the field eventually, one way or the other. The Irish do have a lot of young talent at linebacker already in South Bend with plenty of eligibility remaining. All four 2019 signees were able to redshirt last season, but they will likely remain unproven by the time Prince arrives on campus so there could be an opportunity for him to find early snaps if he is able to get to the level he needs to be physically.
Welcome to the Irish family, Prince!
Great write-up — he sounds like a great fit for rover or possibly buck (if he grows).
Who else do you think the staff will land this year? Do you expect them to close with Rocco, J Thomas, J Slocum, and Titus? In your opinion, are any of these guys more or less likely to sign with ND?
In order of likelihood of committing to Notre Dame…
Rocco is deciding tomorrow night and it is looking good for Notre Dame.
It looked like it might be a close battle with Michigan for Thomas, but they decided they’d rather steal Andrel Anthony from Sparty for their 4th WR commit rather than battle with ND here for the next 3-4 months. With Michigan out of the race, I think he is ND’s to lose.
Titus has a lot of ND connections. If visits were permitted this spring, he might already be in the class. I don’t think he’s a sure thing but pretty much everyone thinks ND leads and I have a feeling he’ll eventually feel comfortable enough to commit to ND without a visit.
Slocum was able to get a Stanford visit in right before the dead period hit and hasn’t been up to ND yet, so the trees probably lead right now.
This dude was a legit WR in high school? Well now if he turns into anything less than James Onwualu I’m going to be disappointed.
Oh yeah! Great writeup. I’m glad you mentioned JOK as a comparable, watching the film with his size/frame and demeanor that was my instant thought. Hopefully it’s just the same.
Also as mentioned, when it’s a kid from the south and the last 5 are: Louisville, LSU, Georgia, and Oklahoma and Notre Dame wins, that’s a really good thing. Have to win more like that.
..Also, another post like this for this time tomorrow? Let’s gooo!
Jamie at ISD is the biggest proponent of the JOK comparison that I’ve seen. I trust Jamie’s evaluations and I’m here for it.
Agreeance with the others, really a super rendition, thanks. And kudos to everyone engaged, yep it’s been a while. I like these kids who commit despite the COVID 19 conditions.