Welcome back to another Notre Dame football recruiting big board update, folks. You may remember from a few weeks ago that we have officially consolidated our offensive and defensive targets into a single board. With the Irish already having 21 commits already in the fold for the class of 2022 and limited spots remaining, it just doesn’t make sense to have separate updates for each side of the ball moving forward.
The 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 and who have had actual developments of late. 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 scores: 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.
| Position | 247C | First Name | Last Name | Temp |
| OG | 0.9452 | Carson | Hinzman | Cold |
| OG | 0.9349 | Billy | Schrauth | Mild+ |
| OT | 0.9949 | Zach | Rice | Mild+ |
| OT | 0.9502 | Aamil | Wagner | Warm |
| OT | 0.9481 | Julian | Armella | Cold |
| RB | 0.8739 | Quinshon | Judkins | Mild |
| TE | 0.8958 | Benji | Gosnell | Cold |
| TE | 0.8810 | Arlis | Boardingham | Cold |
| WR | 0.9880 | Kevin | Coleman | Cold |
| WR | 0.9872 | Evan | Stewart | Cold |
| WR | 0.9635 | Andre | Greene | Cold |
| WR | 0.9624 | Brenen | Thompson | Cold |
| WR | 0.9579 | Kendrick | Law | Cold |
| WR | 0.9467 | Darrius | Clemons | Cold |
| WR | 0.9354 | Antonio | Williams | Cold |
| WR | 0.8742 | Major | Everhart | Mild+ |
| WR | 0.0000 | Xayvion | Bradshaw | Cold |
| CB | 0.9939 | Denver | Harris | Cold |
| CB | 0.9585 | Earl | Little Jr. | Cold |
| CB | 0.9172 | Ephesians | Prysock | Cold |
| CB | 0.9211 | Austin | Ausberry | Cool |
| CB | 0.9047 | Dillon | Tatum | Cold |
| CB | 0.8697 | Avery | Powell | Cold |
| DT | 0.9715 | Caden | Curry | Cold |
| DT | 0.9647 | Hero | Kanu | Mild+ |
| DT | 0.9735 | Anthony | Lucas | Mild+ |
| LB | 0.9913 | Harold | Perkins | Cold |
| LB | 0.9741 | Jaishawn | Barham | Cold |
| LB | 0.9718 | David | Bailey | Cold |
| LB | 0.9355 | Devon | Jackson | Cold |
| LB | 0.9041 | Lander | Barton | Cold |
| LB | 0.9038 | Robby | Snelling | Cold |
| S | 0.9895 | Kamari | Wilson | Cold |
| S | 0.9777 | Zion | Branch | Cold |
| S | 0.9786 | Xavier | Nwankpa | Warm |
| SDE | 0.9946 | Shemar | Stewart | Cold |
| SDE | 0.8979 | Isaac | Hamm | Cold |
| WDE | 0.9817 | Enai | White | Cold |
| WDE | 0.9763 | Cyrus | Moss | Mild |
| WDE | 0.9665 | Kenyatta | Jackson | Cold |
| WDE | 0.9311 | DJ | Wesolak | Cool |
| WDE | 0.8315 | Alex | Bauman | Cold |
Off the Board
WR Omari Kelly (.8925) — Auburn
WR Elic Ayomanor (.8594) — Stanford
DL Ernest Cooper (.9409) — Stanford
DE Wilfredo Aybar (.9347) — Stanford (reclassified to 2021)
S Cooper Barkate (.8850) — Harvard
S Jake Pope (.8884) — Alabama
Quarterback
Commits: Steve Angeli, 0.9127, #228 overall/#15 position
Slots: 1
Future Irish signal-caller Steve “Peanut Butter” Angeli is off to a dominant start to his senior season through two games.
Tuesday Tweet for Bergen Catholic QB/Notre Dame commit Steven Angeli on another near flawless performance in the win over Smyrna (DE). He completed 14 of 15 for 360 yds and 5 tds. To date he is 28/31 (90%), 555 yds, 7 tds, 0 ints. @SteveAngeli_125 @BergenCathFBall @NDFootball pic.twitter.com/DitOxLLuhC
— EliteQB (@EQBcoach) September 7, 2021
Not quite Tyler Buchner-level numbers, but almost…
Running Back
Commits: JD Price, 0.9120, #233 overall/#22 position
Slots: 1-2
Since our last update, Alabama running back Quinshon Judkins completed his official visit to South Bend for the Toledo game. Reports are that that visit went well, but it’s still too early to tell how big of an impact that visit will have in his recruitment.
Current Irish commit JD Price has been having a heck of a senior season thus far and appears to be even better than we anticipated.
2022 Notre Dame RB commit Jadarian Price (@Jadarian15) @seancooper_C4 pic.twitter.com/n6px0eJkVj
— Matt Freeman (@mattfreemanISD) August 30, 2021
Wide Receiver
Commits: CJ Williams, 0.9615, #91 overall, #12 position; Tobias Merriweather, 0.9477, #128 overall, #19 position; Amorion Walker, 0.8743, #542 overall, #40 position
Slots: 4-5
As time goes on, it appears less and less likely that Amorion Walker ends up signing with Notre Dame. He just visited Michigan this past weekend for their game against Washington — an unofficial visit on his own dime — and has yet to set up a return trip to South Bend. His coach has a history with new Michigan safeties coach Ron Bellamy, and that connection appears to be paying off for the Wolverines. Oh, and his dad is apparently a huge Michigan fan. So there’s that, too.
Aside from that, Xayvion Bradshaw appears to no longer be a target for the Irish staff. Not that he doesn’t have interest — it’s actually quite the contrary. The Irish are just looking elsewhere.
Texas speedster Major Everhart (love the name, BTW) will be in town this upcoming weekend on an official visit for the Purdue game. Notre Dame seems to be in a pretty good spot here and they are hoping a great visit can potentially wrap this one up.
Tight End
Commits: Holden Staes, 0.9032, #10 position/#273 overall; Eli Raridon, 0.8830, #18 position/#439 overall
Slots: 2
Offensive Line
Commits: OT Joey Tanona, 0.9316, #166 overall/#16 position; OT Ty Chan, 0.9286, #175 overall/#17 position; OT Ashton Craig, 0.8789, #497 overall/#46 position
Slots: 4-5
Jeff Quinn has been having a rough stretch of late and that extends to the recruiting trail as well. Billy Schrauth did make it out of a weekend visit to Wisconsin for their opener against Penn State without committing, but the Badgers still look to be in the driver’s seat right now. He will be at the Notre Dame-Wisconsin matchup in Chicago towards the end of the month, and it is possible that he makes it back to South Bend for a game day visit sometime this fall. I don’t think anybody has a good read on when he actually makes a decision, though.
I don’t really see Zach Rice to ND happening. I’d guess we are firmly in his top three but North Carolina and possibly even Virginia have the edge over the Irish.
Ohio State appears to be fading for Aamil Wagner, but Kentucky is surging in their place. He has one older brother that is currently on the Wildcats roster and they’re about to hire another brother of his onto the staff. I’m not sure if Notre Dame will be able to overcome such a strong family connection. He’s expected to visit South Bend for a game day visit sometime this fall, but that trip hasn’t been locked in yet.
The good news is that Notre Dame already has a strong trio of commitments in the fold as all three of Tanona, Chan, and Craig have been named All Americans. I fully expect more names to emerge as potential targets sometime this fall, as well.
Defensive Line
Commits: DL Tyson Ford, 0.9406, #151 overall/#24 position; DL Aiden Gobaira, 0.9154, #221 overall/#29 position; DL Donovan Hinish, 0.8797, #490 overall, #74 position
Slots: 4-6
The defensive line is a pretty tough read. Cyrus Moss will probably end up in Oregon. I’m not sure where Anthony Lucas and DJ Wesolak will end up, but at this point I’m thinking neither of the two sign with Notre Dame. There’s just no Notre Dame buzz with either of them at the moment.
If there’s one defensive linemen that I think the Irish might land, it’s Hero Kanu. At this time it looks like he is either going to end up at Ohio State or Notre Dame, but he has multiple fall visits set up. He will be in South Bend next month for the USC game.
Again, I have a feeling a few more names will emerge as potential targets along the defensive line sometime this fall — particularly at defensive end.
Linebackers
Commits: Jaylen Sneed, 0.9774, #51 overall/#6 position; Niuafe Tuihalamaka, 0.9524 overall, #115 overall/#12 position; Josh Burnham, 0.9489, #125 overall/#14 position; Nolan Ziegler, 0.8958, #315 overall/#36 position
Slots:Â 4
How good is Notre Dame’s 2022 LB haul?
Joshua Burham, Jaylen Sneed, Niuafe Tuihalamaka and Nolan Ziegler are all on the 2021 High School Butkus Award Watch List. pic.twitter.com/mimR71wMDC
— Matt Freeman (@mattfreemanISD) July 26, 2021
Everything is awesome.
Defensive Backs
Commits:Â CB Jaden Mickey, 0.9127, #229 overall/#27 position; CB Benjamin Morrison, 0.8958, #318 overall/#32 position; S Devin Moore, 0.8883, #380 overall/#27 position; CB Jayden Bellamy, 0.8830, #438 overall/#42 position
The Irish are just about finished up recruiting defensive back this cycle. They could really use a crown jewel to wrap things up — and that’s where Xavier Nwankpa comes in. A couple of months ago, it was looking like Nwankpa was a heavy lean to Ohio State. Now, however, the Buckeyes appear to be running third behind Notre Dame and Iowa. Marcus Freeman, Mike Mickens, and Chris O’Leary all have a really good relationship with the elite prospect. He’d most likely walk into a starting job and be the best safety on the roster the second he arrives on campus at Notre Dame. The Iowa team is looking really good so far this year and that may have some sway on in-state recruits, but I’m liking the Irish’s chances more and more here.
Honestly, I think we should cut Walker loose. If he wants to sink or swim with whoever replaces Harbaugh, more power to him. In the meantime, eat shit and enjoy a fistful of 4-loss seasons.
I realize that’s irrational, but there’s something about this whole situation that really grinds my f-ing gears.
Next GameDay in South Bend, there better be sign that says “Hey Michigan, eat shit and enjoy a fistful of 4-loss seasons”
He’s a lot better than his current ranking IMO so they should try to keep him, but it’s pretty clear where this is going. From what we’ve heard, he’s been less than truthful to the Notre Dame staff over the past few months.
Get Everhart in the fold, finish up fall evals, and recruit a 5th WR until the situation with Walker sorts itself out.
He’s a teenager making a life-defining decision. Good for him for exhausting all his options.
Thanks for doing this Tyler, some very informative stuff. Scattered thoughts.
Getting Nwankpa would be great. I didn’t realize that things had shifted so much towards ND with him. If they could get Sonny Styles in 2023 , Wow! Conversely, I didn’t know Walker had such a bad case of wandering eyes. You are correct he’s an underrated talent and ND should try to salvage his recruitment. I do see a crystal ball prediction for him to Mich. now. Yeck!
So as good as this class is there’s still some holes. OL, WR, maybe RB on offense. DL, on defense all need one more body and not just any body. But, it’s kind of late to start new relationships with top players, No ? Does ND circle back and try to reestablish things with some kids. If we go two for four at these positions, I’ll be happy.
Lastly, there’s no way that there are 9 better TEs than Staes and 17 better than Rairdon. I think Rairdon especially could make a big jump in the rankings.
This is the time to start new relationships with guys who are late bloomers.
It’s still late in the game. It’s only 3 months until early signing day.
Totally agree. But, a chance to go to ND as opposed to say Illinois or Nebraska would be potentially a big plus. Especially if a high level program starts putting the full court press on you. I could see how that would be flattering and very exciting if you hadn’t had any elite type programs offering you and then in steps ND with all the bells and whistles to convince you.
Yes, ND does have a lot to offer but, it’s harder than you think to flip a kid. Most know what the word “commitment” means. Especially the type that would be interested in ND. How many good players haven’t had any “elite programs” offer ?
No I agree but I think that it is at least a possibility as the staff looks to fill the last few holes.
Last cycle I would include Devin Auipu in this category (even though he already transferred). But another that comes to mind are Ian Book who wasn’t highly ranked and committed but flipped to ND.
It doesn’t have to just be someone who is committed that we flip. You are right that is tough to do. I was more thinking of a kid with pretty good offers who blows up in his senior year and ND is the first really elite team to find him as a late bloomer and can then really put the full court press on late in the process.
Owusu-Koramoah comes to mind too. Probably harder to actually find that guy and really sink a lot of time/effort into a 3-star type with real upside that is worth it all.
In a perfect world, that’s probably Jake Pope. But I doubt Bama is letting him get away. Would be sick if he has second thoughts on that and wants to continue the GA-to-ND pipeline.
I think it’s a lot more likely ND flips a guy or two than lands someone they decide to circle back on at this point.
We know they’re taking a look at a few guys committed elsewhere right now, but names haven’t been made public yet and probably won’t until ND really decides to make a move.
Some recent nice work by Stanford. Do you think they would ever fire Shaw? I feel like he will settle in to winning between 6-9 games a year for the next 10 years and Stanford will be fine with that.
I can’t believe Stanford would axe Shaw as long as the program is competitive. Sure, they’d like to be where he and Harbaugh had them a decade ago, but they just aren’t all-in with football enough to fire him for going 7-5.
I’m feeling much worse about our OL group here given our current short-comings. We can’t take for granted that top 150-200 OL turns out to be an above average college lineman on a playoff type team. I’d feel MUCH better with Rice in the fold (though I’m not holding my breath).
3 solid prospects (one year after landing 3 likely AA-caliber multi-year starters in Fisher, Spindler and maybe Alt) is a good place to be. Rice would be a cherry on top, but IMO isn’t a total need. Would have been nice to get one of Schrauth/Wagner but that’s not going to happen.
Also, FWIW, supposedly for 2023 Notre Dame is in really good position with Kaiden Proctor, the #5 overall player in the whole country (6’7, 330 OT from Iowa) who is visiting for USC.
Don’t sleep on Ty Chan. He’s a big athletic kid. Due to the competition he plays, he might need some seasoning but he could be a good one.
Like Tyler said, I have no idea what to make of Schrauth’s recruitment and I’m not sure anyone else does either. I lean Wiscy for him but something’s preventing him from announcing for them, so who knows. I think Wisconsin thought they would have him wrapped up after his visit for the PSU game.
A solid recruiting class with an inability to close down the stretch and grab the true Big Fish we need to compete with the national powers? Deja vu all over again.
Alabama only has 14 commits thus far. Three are 3stars. The rest 5 & 4 stars. Thing is they’re waiting on five 5stars and 13 very solid 4stars.They aren’t looking at anymore 3 stars. Only 5 of those commits and prospects aren’t from the south. How do you compete with that ?
If we get Nwankpa and either Zac Rice or Cyrus Moss or Anthony Lucas that would be a pretty good way to close the class out.
Brendan has been sunnier on Nwankpa than I have been, I hope he’s right. Hero Kanu would be a monster get too. Add those two to the class and it’s a very good class. It’s not Bama, but does it need to be said….Notre Dame ain’t Bama.
Yeah, I had forgotten about Kanu. He would be a great addition to close out the class too.
If we land Nwankpa and Kanu that would make 2022 the best signed class since 2013 and it wouldn’t even be close
Her whole album is great.
Also, it’s amazing how every single year since 2013 there is a “this is the year!!!!” vibe at the beginning of the cycle and all of our classes are basically the same. This one is a little better than before (we’ll probably end with a ~.905 average ranking instead of our usual ~.900), but it’ll still end up somewhere in that 8-15 range.
Every year! hahahaha. It’s so true. But no, really, this is the year! Even when we start out on fire, it ends up the same.
Any of you recruitniks remember the story with George Karlaftis? A google search indicated at the time of ND’s pretty early offer that he was excited to start getting offers from more serious football programs… and then he went to Purdue.
If Quinn closes on Rice I promise to temporarily stop thinking poorly of his recruiting efforts, but from perusing elsewhere I think we’re going to strike out on the three OL targets Tyler mentions. Hopefully some guys pop this fall and it’s not just an “expanding the board” situation.
Yeah, he camped at Irish Invasion, had a horrible day, and pretty much asked the staff to move on. They circled back around later but he was pretty comfortable with Purdue. I get the sense he’s a hometown kid (super hometown in this case as he’s from West Lafayette).
David Bell is from Indianapolis and wanted to play football and basketball in college, hence Purdue. I don’t believe he ever did play basketball though, or at least if he did it wasn’t very serious. Pretty unbelievable that those two guys fell into their laps in the same cycle.
RE: Quinn, here are the guys he’s landed at ND by class.
Chan didn’t have a junior season and looks poised to make some big waves as a senior. Craig just got invited to the Army All-America game. There’s clearly a long way to go in 2023, but we’re legitimately in the running for the Kadyn Proctor, #5 overall (and Nwankpa’s teammate), and four other top 100 OL – Chase Bisontis, #42; Samson Okunlola, #54; Cayden Green, #61; Monroe Freeling, #98. My gut is that Okunlola and Freeling end up elsewhere, Bisontis and Green it’s too early to tell, but there’s a good chance we have the lead on Proctor.
They had some bad luck with 2019 evals and probably should’ve taken one more guy in 2020, but Quinn’s results haven’t been poor and his efforts, which are orders of magnitude more than what Harry ever did, certainly haven’t been poor.
I’m interested to see what we do to cover Bell this week. Last year we would have given him an 8 yard cushion every play dared them to go on a 12 play drive without messing up. I don’t think that’s going to be the defensive game plan this week.
It’s possible my irritation with Quinn is exacerbated currently by giving up 6 sacks against Toledo and hearing we’re losing Schrauth to Wisconsin in the same week. I’m not asking for him to have the line perfect, but they’ve got to know not to wash a DE upfield into the path of the only sweep we’ve run all year.
Putting it all together like that, this is actually less impressive recruiting than what certain segments of anti-anti-Quinn ND Twitter would have you believe.
2019-2021 is about as good a 3 year run as we have had under BK. ’18 was Hiestand’s last year, so that makes the past 4 year stretch look a lot worse overall.
’19-’21 ties the most top 100 (4 in every stretch except ’13-’15), and 1 behind the most top 200 (9 from ’13-15).
’19-’21: #55, 60, 95, 100, 118, 146, 183, 185, 322, 402, 611
’13-’15: #62, 89, 97, 106, 112, 141, 158, 161, 192, 216, 299, 502
’14-’16: #27, 62, 80, 89, 106, 158, 216, 299, 393, 502
’15-’17: #27, 80, 81, 89, 121, 158, 171, 378, 393, 502
His 4 year stretch could look a lot worse if we don’t land any top 100ish talent in this class.
Thanks for the update! While recruiting has been good so far, it’s a little disappointing to see that they might be competitive for just a couple of the remaining blue chippers (based on the write up it sounds like Kanu and Nwankpa still have interest in ND).
At WR, with Walker’s wandering eyes, I’m surprised that they didn’t make a stronger push for Ayomanor — while CJ and Tobias would be ready to play early, Ayomanor sounded like a possible hidden gem if he got good coaching.
I hear you there, but I think we have to keep in mind that’s it’s a pretty good class.
QB is good, probably much better than many of the people who were pissed we took him.
RB is excellent, possibly elite.
WR is very good with CJ and Merriweather, in good position for Everhart, could use one more guy (assuming Walker is gone).
TE is very good, as usual.
OL is good, also really needs one more guy.
DT is solid with Hinish, moves to very good with Kanu or Lucas.
DE is very good to excellent with Ford and Gobaira.
LB is the best class ND has signed in the internet era.
CB is very good with Mickey, Morrison, and Moore.
S is solid with Bellamy, moves to excellent with Nwankpa.
Give me Nwankpa and anything else that happens in this cycle is gravy.
Good point. It would be nice if Angeli is better than his worst critics think of him, seems like he does have upside and has been good lately. I’m happy they’re recruiting real strong on Dante Moore (2023), 5-star from Detroit. All things considered: Buchner, Angeli, Moore would be a very good turn of QB recruiting for a 3 year stretch. Especially Moore since he’s like a top 15 overall recruit, if they’re swinging for that at least every other year, then fine. That’s an improvement from how ND did 2010’s QB recruiting.