We’re just under three weeks away from the end of the longest dead period in the history of modern college football recruiting.  There hasn’t been a ton of movement since our last defensive big board update, but I fully expect that to change within the next couple of months after recruits have a chance to make official visits. I wouldn’t be surprised if we add a handful of commits to the class from the defensive side of the ball by this time in July, but that will ultimately come down to how things go with June officials.

The Defense Board

A reminder on how we do this – we’ll include the entire big board table 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.

Also, on the 247 Composite ratings, roughly speaking above .9830 is a five star, above .9500 is a top 100 prospect, above .9200 is a top 200 prospect, and above .8900 is a four star. Those slide around a little within a cycle and from one cycle to the next, but they’re pretty solid ballpark numbers.

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.

Unit Position 247C First Name Last Name Temp
D CB 0.9948 Denver Harris Cold
D CB 0.9835 Jeadyn Lukus Cold
D CB 0.9834 Daylen Everette Cold
D CB 0.9725 Khamauri Rogers Cool
D CB 0.9565 Earl Little Jr. Cold
D CB 0.9510 Jyaire Brown Mild+
D CB 0.9507 Keenan Nelson Cold
D CB 0.9635 Terrance Brooks Mild
D CB 0.9399 Jaeden Gould Cool
D CB 0.9267 Toriano Pride Cold
D CB 0.9220 Austin Jordan Cold
D CB 0.9214 Ephesians Prysock Cool
D CB 0.9062 Dillon Tatum Cold
D CB 0.8989 Nikai Martinez Mild+
D CB 0.9016 Cam Miller Mild
D CB 0.9002 Benjamin Morrison Mild+
D CB 0.9018 Jared Kerr Cold
D CB 0.8839 Jayden Bellamy Mild+
D CB 0.8739 Davison Igbinosun Cool
D CB 0.8697 Avery Powell Cool
D CB 0.8627 Ryland Gandy Cool
D DT 0.9862 Mykel Williams Cold
D DT 0.9632 Caden Curry Cold
D DT 0.9502 Anthony Lucas Mild+
D DT 0.8925 KJ Miles Cold
D DT 0.8850 Kaleb Artis Cool
D DT 0.8789 Donovan Hinish Hot
D ILB 0.9742 Shawn Murphy Cold
D ILB 0.9783 Jaishawn Barham Cold
D ILB 0.9642 Niuafe Tuihalamaka Warm
D OLB 0.9922 Harold Perkins Cold
D OLB 0.9682 Jaylen Sneed Warm
D OLB 0.9728 David Bailey Cold
D OLB 0.9477 Sebastian Cheeks Warm
D OLB 0.9355 Devon Jackson Mild
D OLB 0.9104 Tevarua Tafiti Cool
D OLB 0.9041 Lander Barton Cool
D OLB 0.9000 Robby Snelling Cold
D OLB 0.8900 Martrell Harris Cold
D S 0.9861 Kamari Wilson Cold
D S 0.9803 Bryce Anderson Cold
D S 0.9784 Zion Branch Cold
D S 0.9700 Xavier Nwankpa Mild+
D S 0.9543 Kamari Ramsey Cold
D S 0.9195 Sherrod Covil Mild+
D S 0.9168 Cristian Driver Cold
D S 0.9056 Taylor Groves Cool
D S 0.9000 Jaden Mangham Mild
D S 0.8889 Jake Pope Cool
D S 0.8850 Cooper Barkate Cold
D S 0.8789 Devin Moore Mild+
D S 0.8678 Kevin Winston Mild+
D SDE 0.9946 Shemar Stewart Cold
D SDE 0.9767 Derrick Moore Cold
D SDE 0.9712 Dani Dennis-Sutton Cold
D SDE 0.9235 Ernest Cooper IV Mild+
D SDE 0.8975 Isaac Hamm Cold
D WDE 0.9831 Enai White Cold
D WDE 0.9774 Cyrus Moss Mild+
D WDE 0.9647 Kenyatta Jackson Cold
D WDE 0.9397 Wilfredo Aybar Cold
D WDE 0.9289 DJ Wesolak Mild
D WDE 0.8567 Alex Bauman Cold

Defensive End

Commits: WDE Tyson Ford, 0.9484, #123 overall/#8 position; WDE Aiden Gobaira, 0.9000 #292 overall/#17 position; WDE Darren Agu, 0.8797, #461 overall/#26 position
Slots: 3-4

Notre Dame is being extremely selective about who they are continuing to recruit at defensive end now that three commits are currently in the fold for the class. Cyrus Moss is the biggest priority by far — honestly the only guy they would for sure take at this point. He will officially visit Notre Dame the weekend of June 18-20. DJ Wesolak and Tevarua Tafiti are two other talented defensive ends that are high on Notre Dame, but it definitely sounds like if the staff is going to accept a commitment from a 4th defensive end, they want it to be Moss.

Defensive Tackle

Commits: None
Slots: 1-2

Not a ton to report here. The Irish are still in a good spot with Anthony Lucas, but it’s a battle. His OV to Notre Dame is set for June 11-13. Probably the most notable change since our last update is a temperature change for Donovan Hinish. He took an unguided visit for the Blue-Gold game at the beginning of the month. Sounds like he is definitely a take for the staff at this point and I don’t think he makes it out of the month of June without committing to Notre Dame.

Linebacker

Commits: OLB Josh Burnham, .9515, #114 overall/#9 position; OLB Nolan Ziegler, 0.8958, #317 overall/#24 position
Slots: 4

Again, not a ton to report since our last update. Junior Tuihalamaka has an OV set for the weekend of June 11-13. Jaylen Sneed has a mid-week OV set for the following week. If I were to guess who Notre Dame closes out the linebacker haul with, it would be those two. Sebastian Cheeks and Devon Jackson remain the other two linebacker prospects ND is in good shape with. Cheeks’ OV to Notre Dame is scheduled for the weekend of June 18-20.

Cornerback

Commits: Jaden Mickey, 0.9129, #227 overall/#26 position
Slots: 2-3

There is a lot of positive on the defensive big board, but we do have a negative update as well. We’re not sure the specifics, but it doesn’t sound like Khamauri Rogers is going to be a realistic target moving forward. There was talk of him making an unofficial visit to South Bend this summer and an official visit in the fall, but those aren’t expected to take place anymore.

Jyaire Brown, Benjamin Morrison, Nikai Martinez, Jayden Bellamy, and Devin Moore all remain in play for Notre Dame at corner. Any one of them would be a strong pairing to go along with Jaden Mickey. We should see all of them visit South Bend in June, and we’ll have a clearer idea of who is most likely to commit at that point. It’s unclear right now if the staff would take three corners, but I wouldn’t be surprised by it.

Safety

Commits: None
Slots: 2

Notre Dame has been doing a very good job with 4-star safety Sherrod Covil lately. He has two official visits scheduled at the moment — a mid-week visit to Clemson on June 9th and another mid-week visit to Notre Dame from June 21-23. It’s tough to say for sure, but I have a feeling the Irish are firmly in his top 3 right now. His visit to South Bend will be key.

Xavier Nwankpa, Jake Pope, and Kevin Winston are the other safeties who currently have OVs scheduled to Notre Dame in June. It’s a really tough position to project right now, but we should have a clearer picture of where things stand by the end of June.