A few weeks back we kicked off the 2022 offense big board with a comprehensive run down of where everything stood. Fast forward a couple of weeks and we don’t have a ton of movement, but we do have a couple of developments worth noting. The Irish staff used St. Patrick’s day as a huge push for the 2023 class, and it paid off brilliantly – it was one of those rare occasions where awareness outside the ND bubble was just about as high as inside, with all of recruiting Twitter chirping about the campaign. It was a lot more work than just posting some (really) funny Big Dad Energy tweets too; per NCAA rules the coaches can’t initiate contact with the kids, so the recruiting staff had to do a lot of legwork to coordinate all the calls that the coaches had with recruits throughout the day that were timed with the social media stuff.

Reportedly the whole thing was the brain child of once and current recruiting coordinator Mike Elston; it’ll be interesting to track what other tweaks he has in store for Notre Dame’s recruiting strategy. I think Brian Polian was very effective at making the trains run on time, while Elston may bring a bit more flair. We’ll see! All of that focus on ’23 and some hopes that the NCAA will lift the dead period in June mean that there haven’t been a ton of developments recently with the ’22 class. Coaches have divided attention and kids, at the moment, seem happy to remain a bit patient with an eye on taking real visits in the near future. Let’s hope.

The Offense 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 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.

Position 247C First Name Last Name Temp
OG 0.9497 Carson Hinzman Mild+
OT 0.9880 Zach Rice Mild
OT 0.9814 Tyler Booker Cold
OT 0.9773 Joe Brunner Cold
OT 0.9607 Gunner Givens Cold
OT 0.9602 Jacob Allen Cold
OT 0.9444 Aamil Wagner Mild+
OT 0.9435 Julian Armella Cold
OT 0.9362 Billy Schrauth Warm
OT 0.9206 Jacob Sexton Cold
OT 0.9076 Jake Taylor Mild
OT 0.9008 Grant Bingham Cold
OT 0.9000 George Fitzpatrick Cold
OT 0.8739 Aliou Bah Cold
QB 0.9617 Gavin Wimsatt Cold
RB 0.9871 Gavin Sawchuk Mild
RB 0.9583 Nicholas Singleton Mild
RB 0.9285 Jordan James Cold
RB 0.9278 Gi’Bran Payne Cold
RB 0.9207 Dallan Hayden Mild
RB 0.9044 Damari Alston Cold
RB 0.9013 Emeka Megwa Cold
RB 0.8688 Zach Evans Mild
TE 0.9226 Holden Staes Warm
TE 0.8839 Eli Raridon Warm
TE 0.8778 Arlis Boardingham Cold
WR 0.9891 Kevin Coleman Cold
WR 0.9885 Tetairoa McMillan Cold
WR 0.9821 Evan Stewart Cold
WR 0.9795 CJ Williams Mild
WR 0.9759 Kaleb Brown Cool
WR 0.9696 Brenen Thompson Cold
WR 0.9654 Tyler Morris Mild
WR 0.9596 Kojo Antwi Cold
WR 0.9555 Tobias Merriweather Mild+
WR 0.9525 Kendrick Law Cold
WR 0.9453 Darrius Clemons Cool
WR 0.9447 Kaden Saunders Mild
WR 0.9236 Andre Greene Mild
WR 0.9211 DJ Allen Cold
WR 0.9195 Antonio Williams Cold
WR 0.9173 De’Nylon Morrissette Cold
WR 0.8889 Eli King Cold
WR 0.8866 Nicholas Anderson Cold
WR 0.8678 Jay Fair Cold
WR 0.8638 Jarel Williams Cold
WR 0.8516 Addison Copeland Mild+
WR 0.0000 Xayvion Bradshaw Mild

On the Board

  • WR Evan Stewart, 0.9821, #40 overall/#5 position, decommitted from Texas

Off the Board

  • RB Emmanuel Henderson, Alabama, 0.9858 rating, #28 overall/#2 position
  • OT Tony Livingston, Florida, 0.9384 rating, #156 overall/#19 position
  • WR Amorion Walker, Notre Dame, 0.8466 rating, #869 overall/#115 position

Quarterback

Commits: Steve Angeli, 0.8900 rating, #375 overall/#16 position
Slots: 1

Running Back

Commits: JD Price, 0.9201, #212 overall/#23 position
Slots: 2

Nicholas Singleton spoke with the staff on St. Patrick’s Day, shortly after he released a top nine with Notre Dame. Despite the size of that group, the smart money has his final three as Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Penn State in some order. Don’t ask us to guess at the order… Dallan Hayden just completed independent visits to Ohio State and Notre Dame and was impressed by each. If you’re the type to parse recruits’ tweets – really, don’t, that way madness lies – he posted kind words about both schools but two pictures from his Notre Dame visit and four from his Ohio State visit, including one of him making the “O” while wearing a Zeke Elliott jersey. Maybe something, maybe nothing…

Gavin Sawchuk took an independent visit to USC a couple of weeks ago. He’s long been rumored to be a heavy Oklahoma lean, but it seems like he’s still keeping things fairly open for the time being. The Irish staff also caught up with Sawchuk on St. Patrick’s Day and are angling for a potential summer visit. In fact, they just might end up with all three backs coming into town in the same month, which could be awkward. Or it could be awesome. Who knows!

Wide Receiver

Commits: Amorion Walker, 0.8466, #869 overall, #115 position
Slots: 3

Right after we posted the offense Big Board launch article, Amorion Walker committed to the Irish. Thanks, kid… I said in the launch article that I thought he was similar to Addison Copeland but I liked Copeland a little better; while I do like Walker, I’ll stand by that comment and I still wouldn’t be sad if we landed Copeland too. To be fair to him, Walker missed almost his entire junior season; I’m very interested to eventually see his senior film… Evan Stewart re-entered the board but, as you’ll notice, is listed as “Cold” and is not expected to be a serious target. By all accounts neither side sees what they’re looking for in the other, and we’ll leave it at that…

No changes with Tyler Morris, Tobias Merriweather, or Andre Greene – all remain interested in Notre Dame with nothing seemingly imminent… Darrius Clemons released a top ten with Notre Dame recently, but we suspect the Irish are in the back half of that group… Kaden Saunders is still listening to Notre Dame but also still recruiting for Penn State, so it’s very hard to get a read on how that all will shake out… Xayvion Bradshaw‘s legend is growing as he racks up absurd stats week by week; he and Irish DE commit Aiden Gobaira, who has been stealing souls like Connor MacLeod, may be the biggest beneficiaries of Virginia’s spring season. Notre Dame is in good position here but I think Bradshaw will take his time and let his exposure increase.

Tight End

Commits: Jack Nickel, 0.8856, #409 overall/#18 position
Slots: 2

There’s no official news on Holden Staes, but there has been a run of predictions in Notre Dame’s favor on 247 – first Notre Dame analyst Tom Loy and national guy Steve Wiltfong in February, then Notre Dame analyst Kevin Sinclair, Michigan analyst Steve Lorenz, and Penn State analyst Sean Fitz in mid March. Fitz is particularly significant as Staes was once committed to Penn State…

No developments on Eli Raridon other than to note that the staff is still recruiting him. There have been some rumblings from spring workouts that 2021 signee Mitchell Evans showed up bigger than expected and may already be headed for the offensive line, which could lead the staff to take three tight ends in this class. I don’t think that’s tremendously likely, but who knows. Stranger things have certainly happened.

Offensive Line

Commits: OT Joey Tanona, 0.9385, #155 overall/#18 position; OT Ty Chan, 0.9235, #199 overall/#26 position
Slots: 4

Five-star Zach Rice just released a top five of Ohio State, Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, and Notre Dame. The exclusion of Clemson is mildly surprising, but otherwise the group is as expected. I think Virginia is included as a nod of respect to the local (and early-offering) team, and I think Ohio State and North Carolina are probably his top two. Where Alabama and Notre Dame slot in and how far they are beyond the top two, I’m not sure… Notre Dame is still heavily involved with Aamil Wagner and the interest is definitely mutual, but a recent Ohio State offer has shaken things up a bit for the Cincinnatian. He talked about academic opportunities in Columbus, which always makes me nervous. One to watch…

Like Sawchuk and Singleton, the Irish staff also caught up with Billy Schrauth and Jake Taylor over (presumably) corned beef and cabbage. I think there’s no question Notre Dame is in better position – ahem, likely much better position – with Schrauth then with Taylor, but Taylor also seems more positive about the school now per recent comments he gave to 247 (free)… Carson Hinzman doesn’t seem likely to decide soon, and Wisconsin looms large, but he still communicates often with the Irish staff. Can Notre Dame pull two blue-chip linemen out of Wisconsin in the same cycle?