It was an extremely busy month of June for the Notre Dame staff. With multiple commits since our last update, the Irish have been reaping the benefits from those three weeks of official visits — and they’re not done yet. The Irish are still expecting a couple of more commits in the near future, and then we’ll likely experience a bit of a lull in 2022 defensive recruiting while the staff tries to close on it’s top remaining targets.

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 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.

Unit Position 247C First Name Last Name Temp
D CB 0.9948 Denver Harris Cold
D CB 0.9835 Jeadyn Lukus Cold
D CB 0.9565 Earl Little Jr. Cold
D CB 0.9507 Keenan Nelson Cold
D CB 0.9220 Austin Jordan Cold
D CB 0.9214 Ephesians Prysock Cold
D CB 0.9062 Dillon Tatum Cold
D CB 0.9016 Cam Miller Cold
D CB 0.8958 Benjamin Morrison HOT
D CB 0.8946 Austin Ausberry Cold
D CB 0.8630 Avery Powell Cold
D DT 0.9645 Hero Kanu Cool
D DT 0.9637 Anthony Lucas Warm
D DT 0.9623 Caden Curry Cold
D ILB 0.9742 Shawn Murphy Cold
D ILB 0.9741 Jaishawn Barham Cold
D OLB 0.9911 Harold Perkins Cold
D OLB 0.9704 Jaylen Sneed HOT
D OLB 0.9721 David Bailey Cold
D OLB 0.9482 Sebastian Cheeks Cool
D OLB 0.9355 Devon Jackson Cool
D OLB 0.9114 Tevarua Tafiti Cool
D OLB 0.9041 Lander Barton Cold
D OLB 0.9038 Robby Snelling 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 Warm
D S 0.9543 Kamari Ramsey Cold
D S 0.9168 Cristian Driver Cold
D S 0.9000 Jaden Mangham Cool
D S 0.8889 Jake Pope Warm
D S 0.8850 Cooper Barkate Cold
D S 0.8678 Kevin Winston Cold
D SDE 0.9946 Shemar Stewart Cold
D SDE 0.9690 Derrick Moore Cold
D SDE 0.9730 Dani Dennis-Sutton Cold
D SDE 0.9424 Ernest Cooper IV Cold
D SDE 0.8975 Isaac Hamm Cold
D WDE 0.9820 Enai White Cold
D WDE 0.9762 Cyrus Moss Warm
D WDE 0.9663 Kenyatta Jackson Cold
D WDE 0.9289 DJ Wesolak Cool
D WDE 0.8797 Darren Agu Cold
D WDE 0.8566 Alex Bauman Cold

Defensive End

Commits: Tyson Ford, 0.9456 #137 overall/#23 DL; Aiden Gobaira, 0.9075 #250 overall/#33 DL
Slots: 3-4

In an unexpected move last night, European defensive end Darren Agu has decommitted from Notre Dame. At this point we’re not sure if the Irish will try to circle back around to DJ Wesolak or Tevarua Tafiti, but it’s something to keep an eye on. Freeman and Elston would likely have some work to do to get back in the running for either prospect.

Cyrus Moss had his official visit to Notre Dame in June and by all reports it went well. He’s a tough read, though. If he has a leader at this point, it is probably Oregon. But his recruitment is probably gong to last late into the recruiting cycle, so the Irish are in it for the long haul.

Defensive Tackle

Commits: Donovan Hinish, .8797, #485 overall/#75 DL
Slots: 1-2

We have a new name on the board as Top 100 defensive tackle Hero Kanu received an offer from Mike Elston over the weekend. Hero is originally from Germany and had some of the same coaches as current Irish defensive end Alex Ahrensberger.

Ernest Cooper‘s official visit to Notre Dame never ended up happening and he won’t be a target moving forward.

Anthony Lucas took his official visit to Notre Dame in June and the Irish impressed. It looks like his recruitment is likely to come down Notre Dame and Texas A&M. Right now it’s close and I’m not sure if he has a definitive leader, but this recruitment will probably last into the winter regardless.

Linebacker

Commits: Nuiafe Tuihalamaka, 0.9545, #107 overall/#11 LB; Josh Burnham, 0.9515, #112 overall/#12 LB; Nolan Ziegler, 0.8958, #314 overall/#35 LB
Slots: 4

Since our last update, the Irish have added a commitment from 4-star linebacker Niuafe Tuihalamaka. More good news is expected tonight with Jaylen Sneed set to announce at 7 pm. If Sneed commits to the Irish as expected, Notre Dame will have completed arguably the best haul of linebackers in the entire country for the 2022 cycle.

Defensive Back

Commits: Jaden Mickey, 0.9129, #229 overall/#26 CB; Devin Moore, 0.8850, #421 overall/#29 S; Jayden Bellamy, 0.8830, #450 overall/#42 CB
Slots: 4-5

The key updates here since our last update are the commitments of Jayden Bellamy and Devin Moore to Notre Dame. A couple of other Notre Dame targets committed elsewhere in Nikai Martinez (UCF) and Sherrod Covil (Clemson). Kevin Winston is also no longer a target at safety, but he was lower on the staff’s priority list at defensive back. Jyaire Brown has been removed from the board as well as he has shut down his recruitment and will stick with Ohio State. Realistic targets still on the board include Benjamin Morrison, Jake Pope, and Xavier Nwankpa.

Jake Pope will be announcing within the next week or two. The Irish impressed during his official visit but it sounds like he’s still probably headed elsewhere.

Benjamin Morrison doesn’t have a specific date set, but he will be making a commitment in the near future as well. His recruitment has been a bit of a pendulum swing over the last few weeks — going from Notre Dame in the lead, to Washington, and now back to Notre Dame. He’s on commit watch.

Xavier Nwankpa‘s official visit to Notre Dame went almost as well as we could have hoped. It might be a while before he makes a decision yet, but it looks like Notre Dame has pulled even with Ohio State. Hopefully things continue to trend in the right direction for the Irish.