The Notre Dame football staff added to it’s 2022 offensive line haul on Saturday night when center/guard prospect Ashton Craig verbally committed to the Fighting Irish. The 6’5″/280-pounder out of Lawrenceburg, IN is the 16th player to join Notre Dame’s recruiting class of 2022 — a class which currently ranks #2 in the nation behind Ohio State.

Ashton is a bit of a late bloomer relative to some of the other offensive linemen the Irish have been targeting in 2022. He played his sophomore year of high school at about 230 pounds. He bulked up a bit for his junior year, and that’s when his scholarship offers started to come in.

Ashton is one of many kids to benefit from the dead period ending at the beginning of June. He was able to visit Notre Dame unofficially and camp during Irish Invasion earlier this month. Obviously the Irish staff was impressed after evaluating him in person, and they offered Ashton a scholarship on June 22th ahead of the start of his official visit this weekend.

Recruiting Service Rankings

Rivals — 3 star (5.6 rating), NR overall, #64 OT, #12 in IN

ESPN — 3 star (79 rating), NR overall, #42 OT, #11 in IN

247Sports — 3 star (89 rating), NR overall, #36 OT, #8 in IN

247Sports Composite —  3 star (.8728), #579 overall, #51 OT, #11 in IN

Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (90 rating)

Cohort

Ashton chose the Irish over Power 5 offers from Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska, Northwestern, Indiana, Purdue, Duke, Florida State, Boston College, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, Iowa State, and Baylor. Including the Irish, his offer list totaled 25 schools.

Highlights

You don’t need to get far into Ashton’s highlights to determine that he’s very athletic for an interior offensive line prospect. He’s quick off the snap with good knee bend and mobility. He also plays defensive end for his high school team, and those defensive highlights showcase some explosiveness coming off the edge. He doesn’t look massive on film, so his frame might be a concern to some. But the Notre Dame staff has seen him in person twice now, so they must be confident he has the frame to add the necessary weight while still maintaining his athleticism.

Impact

Notre Dame is bringing Ashton in primarily as a center, but he has versatility to play guard as well — possibly even right tackle. Jamie over at ISD always does a great job with his Film Don’t Lie reviews, and he thinks Ashton reminds him of current Irish center Jarrett Patterson. If he ends up being anywhere near as good of a center as Patterson at the next level, this would be a good pickup for the Irish.

This is the third offensive lineman to join Notre Dame in the 2022 recruiting class — joining guard Joey Tanona (#166 in the 247Sports Composite) and tackle Ty Chan (#204). Jeff Quinn will be looking to add one, maybe two more to the group. The top targets at this point would be tackle Aamil Wagner (#110) and guard Billy Schrauth (#159). However, neither is a sure thing for the Irish at this point with Ohio State and Wisconsin, respectively, making those two recruitments a couple of close battles. We’ll have to see how things turn out.


Welcome to the Irish family, Ashton!