Notre Dame football got one step closer to completing its 2022 defensive back haul this Independence Day when cornerback/safety prospect Devin Moore verbally committed to the Fighting Irish. The 6’3″/190-pounder out of Naples, FL is the 18th player to join Notre Dame’s recruiting class of 2022 — the 10th on the defensive side of the ball.
— Devin Moore (@realdevinmoore3) July 4, 2021
Devin took his official visit to Notre Dame on the weekend of June 11th, shortly after visits to Alabama and Florida. By all reports it sounds like the Irish surged into the lead that weekend and held it even through an official visit to Stanford later in June. His commitment caps off an excellent seven-day stretch on the recruiting trail for Marcus Freeman and the rest of the defensive staff.
Recruiting Service Rankings
Rivals — 4 star (5.8 rating), NR overall, #29 CB, #37 in FL
ESPN — 3 star (78 rating), NR overall, #35 S, #82 in FL
247Sports — 3 star (88 rating), NR overall, #26 S, #50 in FL
247Sports Composite — 3 star (.8900), #364 overall, #25 S, #48 in FL
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (91 rating)
Cohort
Devin chose the Irish over his other finalists in Alabama, Florida, Miami, Stanford, and Cincinnati. He held other Power 5 offer from Florida State, Auburn, Georgia Tech, Iowa State, Louisville, Michigan, Michigan State, Mississippi State, NC State, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Virginia, and Virginia Tech. His offer list totals 24 schools, including the Irish.
Highlights
Just watching Devin move, it’s plain as day why he has teams like Alabama and Florida coming after him — as well as why most schools are intrigued with his potential to play corner over safety. He’s so fluid with his hips and feet that he moves like a guy with a lot less length would. He’s an absolute blanket in man-to-man coverage and he doesn’t seem to fall for any fakes or other moves. I would like to see him utilize his size a bit more in press coverage situations to jam receivers at the line of scrimmage. He does it at times on film, and it’s effective when he does it — but like many young corners he often lines up as if he’s going to jam the receiver, and then ends up just running with him instead.
Part of Nick Saban’s recruiting pitch was that he sees a lot of similarities between Devin and 2021 first-round draft pick Patrick Surtain II. If reading that doesn’t get you excited about this pick-up, I’m not sure what will.
Impact
This effectively finishes the cornerback haul for Notre Dame in 2022. The Irish now have three prospects committed to play corner — Jaden Mickey, Jayden Bellamy, and Devin Moore — with the latter two also possessing the ability to play safety as well if needed.
Coaches Freeman and O’Leary still need to land at least one safety to finish up the haul at defensive back. Jake Pope and Xavier Nwankpa are the top targets left on the board, and the Irish have themselves in pretty good position with both. Pope will be making a decision sometime in the near future. Nwankpa’s timeline is unclear at this point, but he’ll probably decide before the summer is over.
I really like all three corner prospects that the Irish currently have in the fold — even more than the 2021 haul — but I think I probably like Moore the best. His potential is sky high, and I think Mike Mickens can coach him into a really good player for the Irish.
Welcome to the Irish family, Devin!
Where would you rank Moore compared to the other CB recruits this year and last? It seems like everyone is saying really good things about this guy
yea from what people are saying, he is the best.
It is exciting that we may end up with 3(!) 4 star CB’s. Bellamy and Moore are right on the cusp and if people are right that they are pretty good, I imagine they may get a slight bump from next year’s season that would move them up to 4-star status.
When have we had that many 4-star CB’s in one class?
Mickens/Freeman factor. Bet 2023 will be as good or better!
yea, that’s scary! (In a good way.) If this is what they are doing short on time, what will they do with the normal amount of time? Hopefully the DL recruits are a sign of what the DB recruits could be in 2023.
We just need to survive the OSU/Clemson in back to back year schedules.
Yeah, it sounds like we’re already in good shape with several extremely well-regarded, top-100-caliber corners in ’23 who made June visits to campus. Might even see a commitment there by the end of the summer.
Related to the discussion below, I would be surprised if we don’t go to 25 again in this class. It’s partly due to the new transfer rule, but I think that Kelly has adjusted his philosophy somewhat on the numbers and understands that actively promoting roster churn (to put it nicely) can be extremely valuable in upgrading your talent level.
I think Moore will end up being the best DB out of ND’s 2021 and 2022 classes, unless of course they also land Nwankpa this cycle
A couple crystal ball predictions for 4star CB Benjamin Morrison from AZ.
wow, Freeman is on a tear.
Saw that, very interesting. Makes you wonder what changed over the past few days that they’d be willing to sign 6 DBs for a 2nd straight year
wonder if they figure the new talent will push some of the old talent out (transfer) and so it’s worth upgrading now.
That’s a good point. I also wonder if it is in response to the new one time transfer rule. Players will probably be quicker to leave, and Kelly spoke about how receiving undergrad transfers are still going to be challenging. Might as well overload with young players in case there is some attrition and ND is bound to lose more than they gain via the portal.
It will be interesting to see if this is a new trend for ND recruiting where class sizes go up in anticipation of more movement in terms of transfers going out..
good point about the transfer rule which will likely mean more will end up transferring earlier.
I was just thinking about the talent difference (if we bring in DBs who end up playing ahead of the older DBs and the older DBs see this quickly, more of them are likely to leave – esp. now considering the one-time transfer rule.
Devin Aupiu also recently entered the portal. That’s one more body right there. Makes sense they would go with another DB, since we are landing guys that seem to be high upside, but not near 5 star. That’s the type of area where I would throw more bodies.