Notre Dame added a huge piece to its 2022 class today when blue-chip defensive end Tyson Ford announced for the Irish. The 6’5″, 245-pound Missourian became the fifth player and the first defensive lineman in the class. Ford also makes the 2022 class the fourth straight with a commitment from the greater St. Louis area, thanks to the Irish pulling Kyren Williams in 2019, Jordan Johnson in 2020, and Gabriel Rubio in 2021. Whether this is a coincidence or a trend we’ll have to see, but it’s definitely worth noting; an upswing in talent in St. Louis’s well-established Catholic school scene could be great news for Notre Dame.
Ford had reportedly been trending hard to Oklahoma for a couple of weeks, despite consistent involvement and hard work by Mike Elston. We don’t know for sure, but just based on the timing it sure seems like new defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman worked some magic here to turn things around. That’s not a dig at Elston by any means; it was likely the tag team that pulled it off. Just saying… Also, anytime there’s a dynamic like this right before a commitment, it’s good to remember that the recruitment of Ford will likely continue through signing day. Today, though, Notre Dame got a big win on the recruiting trail, and that’s worth celebrating.
BREAKING: 4 🌟 WDE Tyson Ford has just Committed to Notre Dame!
The 6’5 245 WDE from Saints Louis, MO Chose the Fighting Irish over Oklahoma, Mizzou, and Georgia
He headlines Notre Dame’s 2022 Class (#5 in the Nation) pic.twitter.com/6j9W4C4BiS
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) January 18, 2021
Recruiting Service Rankings
247Sports Composite — 4 star (.9510 rating), #117 overall, #9 WDE, #3 in MO
247Sports — 4 star (91 rating), #181 overall, #10 WDE, #5 in MO
Rivals — 4 star (5.9 rating), #64 overall, #5 SDE, #3 in MO
ESPN — 4 star (83 rating), #148 overall, #22 DE, #3 in MO
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (93 rating)
Cohort
In addition to Notre Dame and Oklahoma, Ford holds offers from Arizona State, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Texas, Texas A&M, and Washington, among others.
Highlights
You can see why there are some top programs chasing after Ford. He shows impressive athleticism for his position – his burst off the line is really good and when he has to cover some ground he eats it up pretty easily. What I really love here though is his ability in tight spaces; his feet and his hands are quick as hell and he uses them to great effect, sliding past linemen and shuffling through traffic very effectively. He already has some solid pass rush moves too. He shows a good swim move, a couple of effective spins, some bull rushes, and a brutal push-pull on the last play of the reel. The push-pull and bull rushes highlight the other part of his game that I really like, which is violent power. This kid is strong, he’s not shy about using his strength, and he’s not shy about letting you know he used it. I love that attitude along the line.
On the flip side, I think he plays too upright at times and relies on that power to just overwhelm kids. That’s not too concerning though given that he shows good bend often enough here, so I think it’s just a consistency thing more than a physical limitation. He doesn’t always wrap up either, which again is okay when you can just shove the ball carrier into next week but not so much when you can’t. Again, a pretty minor thing to work on from a technical standpoint. The fun stuff is there for sure.
Impact
Without any senior film yet it’s a little hard to project, but I could see Ford being on the Isaiah Foskey plan – given a chance in a handful of key spots as a freshman and entering the rotation as a sophomore. I think he’ll be physically ready for college ball from the beginning, so his entry to the rotation will depend on how quickly he can get his technique and consistency down. He has all the athletic tools of an eventual starter, and a very good one at that. It’ll be a fun career to track.
Welcome to the Irish family, Tyson!
Great get, glad he’s Irish. Also encouraging, Ford told Carter Karels that he believes Elston is remaining at ND.
https://twitter.com/TJamesNDI/status/1351274522733850630?s=20
Purdue has named Co- DC’s so you can put that Elston rumor to bed.
Great post — it’s almost as if you have some of these ready before the recruits announce!
It seems like the d-ends have included some developmental projects lately, so it’s nice to land a guy with a high rating.
Yep. I love the idea of landing the next Ogundeji, but they can’t all be upperclassman contributors. Ford is a kid who is likely to be ready earlier.
Just noticed the Rawlings football uniform. You don’t see that very often.
Early returns on Freeman are good! Also saw that he is bringing with him from Cincy a guy whose job title is head of *defensive* recruiting, which seems to imply there will or should be a head of offensive recruiting… which hopefully means ND is expanding its relatively small recruiting staff.
I wonder if this was one of the things he was negotiating that helped him switch from LSU to ND?
Hopefully his recruiting skills can work with Griffith — ND needs help at safety.
ND needs safety help but can Griffith provide it? He’s been benched several times for a few other players. He just doesn’t seem like he’s been that great of a player in the first place.
I wouldn’t mind bringing him back and hoping for a Bilal-like senior glow-up, but if Griffith wants to go and they find another name in the portal, just as well. Either way, I assume they’re going to add something to the roster for the DBs from what they have right now.
I think the hope would be that Freeman could work his magic with him and with a new scheme might be a better fit at the viper position rather than corner or safety.
I get the hope, it just seems like a longshot that Griffith is good enough to stay on the field for Notre Dame, regardless of scheme or DC. Not impossible, but a longshot. I’d feel the same if Simon or Pryor wanted to go. Would be better to have them for 2021 than not have them, but I don’t expect much from that level of player anyways. If they have to dip into the portal to replace Griffith, it probably would be a lateral move anyways. Maybe even a slight improvement.
I had some of your same thoughts pop into my head right after I made that last post. While I have been hoping for Griffith to make the jump, I have been disappointed by his play so far.
If he is not the answer, perhaps one of these new athletic DBs that they have brought in the past two years might be a good fit at safety? Maybe Ramon Henderson or Philip Riley?
With Simon and Pryor, I’m hoping that they can both find a niche in the new scheme. Simon seems like a perfect fit on paper to be an athletic LB, but outside of Clemson1 I do not remember seeing him make many plays at all
That’s a totally reasonable position given what we’ve seen to date, but I’m still open to the possibility that Terry Joseph left a lot of meat on the bone with some of these kids. Did a nice job with Jalen Elliott, but how much has he really done with any of the others? Hamilton, for instance, could coast on talent alone, and last season it sometimes seemed that he did.
I think the fact that Kelly and Freeman really pushed to get him back (heard nothing similar about Lamb or the others who went into the portal) suggests that he still has a good bit of untapped potential.
Does it suggest that? Griffith played 215 snaps last year and ND has to replace Shaun Crawford’s 600+ snaps. And they have no real candidates to do so.
Lamb played 37 snaps last year, but was good on special teams. There are plenty of good LBs to replace Lamb for that role (Kiser, Liufau, Simon, Bauer, Bertrand). No sweat to lose Lamb given that he barely played as it is because they have better LBs anyways, all of whom will still be back (not counting JOK in the rover role, which is different from Lamb’s spot anyways).
ND needs Griffith back because of the lack of safety depth. They need to believe and sell him on untapped potential, but idk if that makes it true that it exists. If the team had someone else on the S depth chart to join Hamilton, they’re not begging Griffith to stay.
Maybe you’re right that new safety coach, new DC means a fresh start for Griffith. That would be the best case scenario.
Yes, Chad Bowen and it sounds like he will be very important to the program.
Here’s a nice article about how they did months of research to make a “midnight pounce” and release customized, personalized touches for 2022 prospects the moment NCAA regulations allowed them to make contact. A lot of programs do it, but feels like a lot of energy and some nice creativity that Bowen (and to an extent Freeman) were spearheading.
Looks like Freeman also tipped the scales to bring a top120 DE to Notre Dame. I’m very excited about what this means for the future. I really, really hope ND can keep Freeman for 2 years, starting to believe he will help for years to come if he’s able to push recruiting momentum forward.
https://theathletic.com/2036794/2020/09/01/midnight-pounce-how-uc-launched-its-2022-recruiting-cycle-with-a-personal-touch/
Great get at a definite position of need for 2022. Now Freeman, go lock us up a CB or two of this caliber.