So, I don’t know if you folks have heard, but 2023 recruiting is going really well. Like, really well. In his first cycle as the head man, Marcus Freeman has Notre Dame ranked #1 nationally in the 247 Composite; it’s very unlikely (but not impossible!) that they’ll finish there, but our recruitnik opinion is that the floor for the class’s final ranking is likely #5, with a finish as high as #3 reasonably in play. No, wait wait, don’t walk away! We promise it’s real this time! We know you’ve heard all of this before, but this time we mean it!

In all seriousness, we believe that it is in fact quite real this time. In terms of 247 Composite average recruit score, the high water mark for the Brian Kelly era was the #5-ranked 2013 class, led by five-stars Jaylon Smith and Max Redfield and top 50 prospect Greg Bryant (RIP), checked in at 0.9230. The #8-ranked 2022 class, headlined by five-star linebacker Jaylen Sneed, was just behind with an average score of 0.9225. The internet era high (roughly 2000 forward) is Charlie Weis’s 2008 class, which featured Michael Floyd, Dayne Crist, Kyle Rudolph, and Ethan Johnson; it landed at a 0.9310 average and #2 ranking. The 2023 class currently sits at 0.9356. We track reasonable, optimistic, and pessimistic closing scenarios through the cycle; at the moment our reasonable scenario is 0.9416, our optimistic is 0.9596, and our pessimistic is 0.9326 – meaning, yes, our pessimistic outlook is 0.0016 ahead of the best class of the internet era. The class is also within striking distance of Weis’s high mark of nine top 100 players, also set in the 2008 class, with five now and four or five more it could reasonably add based on where things stand now.

So where would these hypothetical classes rank, you ask? Our realistic guess yields a 247 Composite score of 310.60, which over the last five cycles would’ve ranked anywhere from second to fourth. Our optimistic guess gives a 323.48 score, which would’ve ranked first or second in any of the last five cycles. Our pessimistic guess gives a 290.57, which would’ve ranked anywhere from third to sixth. That’s why we feel fairly confident in saying that the floor for this class is likely within the top five. There’s a very strong probability that, in his first full cycle, Freeman will break into the “not sure we can get that high” level of the Brian Kelly era. Crazy stuff man.

One final note before we jump into the board itself: The staff seems to be setting up consecutive weekends in June as the major official visit dates for this summer. We’ll get into them more after the board review, but for now just keep in mind that those are the weekends of June 10th and June 17th.

The 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 Name 247C Temp
O IOL Harris Sewell 0.9653 Cold
O IOL TJ Shanahan 0.9501 Cold
O IOL Markis Deal 0.9412 Cold
O OT Kadyn Proctor 0.9972 Cold
O OT Samson Okunlola 0.9847 Cool
O OT Chase Bisontis 0.9753 Cold
O OT Cayden Green 0.9741 Cold
O OT Charles Jagusah 0.9683 Warm
O OT Monroe Freeling 0.9622 Mild+
O OT Vysen Lang 0.8799 Cold
O OT Elijah Paige 0.8763 Mild
O OT Koby Keenum 0.8638 Cold
O QB Arch Manning 1.0000 Cold
O QB Dante Moore 0.9976 Warm
O QB Avery Johnson 0.9352 Cool
O RB Rueben Owens 0.9913 Cold
O RB Richard Young 0.9910 Mild
O RB Justice Haynes 0.9794 Cold
O RB Cedric Baxter 0.9793 Cold
O RB Treyaun Webb 0.9494 Cold
O RB Jeremiyah Love 0.9228 Mild
O RB Jayden Limar 0.9062 Warm
O RB Marquese Williams 0.8946 Cold
O TE Duce Robinson 0.9899 Cold
O TE Jaxon Howard 0.9582 Cold
O WR Brandon Inniss 0.9944 Cold
O WR Jalen Brown 0.9835 Cold
O WR Carnell Tate 0.9819 Cool
O WR Hykeem Williams 0.9817 Cold
O WR Jalen Hale 0.9817 Cold
O WR Johntay Cook 0.9816 Cold
O WR Jaquaize Pettaway 0.9774 Cold
O WR DeAndre Moore 0.9760 Cold
O WR Noah Rogers 0.9748 Cold
O WR Dalton Brooks 0.9699 Cold
O WR Nathaniel Joseph 0.9582 Cold
O WR Rodney Gallagher 0.9540 Warm
O WR Jaden Greathouse 0.9524 Warm
O WR Aidan Mizell 0.9354 Cold
O WR Christian Hamilton 0.9286 Cold
O WR Micah Tease 0.9253 Mild
O WR Tyler Williams 0.9227 Cool
O WR Rico Flores 0.9225 Warm
O WR Malik Elzy 0.8972 Cool
O WR Joshua Manning 0.8950 Cool
O WR Ronan Hanafin 0.8850 Mild+
D CB AJ Harris 0.9912 Cold
D CB Tony Mitchell 0.9909 Cold
D CB Javien Toviano 0.9877 Cold
D CB Malik Muhammad 0.9802 Cold
D CB Caleb Presley 0.9604 Cool
D CB Christian Gray 0.9495 Warm
D CB Micah Bell 0.9379 Warm
D CB Sharif Denson 0.9334 Cold
D CB Jasiah Wagoner 0.9295 Mild+
D CB Kayin Lee 0.9290 Cold
D CB Ethan Nation 0.9279 Cold
D CB Calvin Simpson-Hunt 0.9013 Mild
D CB Amare Snowden 0.8960 Cold
D CB Jyaire Hill 0.8946 Cold
D DL David Hicks 0.9977 Cold
D DL Peter Woods 0.9873 Cold
D DL Vic Burley 0.9840 Cold
D DL Jason Moore 0.9783 Warm
D DL Derrick LeBlanc 0.9612 Cold
D DL Avion Carter 0.9574 Cold
D DL John Walker 0.9558 Cold
D DL Keldric Faulk 0.9506 Cold
D DL Hunter Osborne 0.9427 Cold
D DL Xzavier McLeod 0.9296 Cold
D DL Jalen Thompson 0.9183 Cold
D DL Stephiylan Green 0.9005 Cold
D DL Kendrick Gilbert 0.8978 Cold
D DL Ashton Sanders 0.8678 Cold
D DL Stantavious Smith 0.8577 Cold
D EDGE Matayo Uiagalelei 0.9906 Cold
D EDGE Jayden Wayne 0.9860 Cold
D EDGE Chandavian Bradley 0.9859 Cold
D EDGE Desmond Umeozulu 0.9471 Cold
D EDGE Ta’Mere Robinson 0.9366 Cold
D EDGE Dylan Gooden 0.9326 Cold
D EDGE Neeo Avery 0.9286 Cold
D EDGE Derion Gullette 0.8908 Cold
D EDGE Kennedy McDowell 0.0000 Cold
D LB Nyckoles Harbor 0.9936 Cold
D LB Anthony Hill 0.9935 Cold
D LB Samuel M’Pemba 0.9927 Mild
D LB Malik Bryant 0.9831 Cold
D LB Troy Bowles 0.9794 Cold
D LB Jaiden Ausberry 0.9792 Mild+
D LB Tackett Curtis 0.9760 Cold
D LB Jordan Hall 0.9345 Cold
D LB Tre Edwards 0.9215 Cold
D LB Jayvant Brown 0.9185 Cold
D LB Tony Rojas 0.9145 Cold
D LB Jaden Robinson 0.8937 Cold
D LB Phil Picciotti 0.8884 Cold
D S Caleb Downs 0.9943 Mild
D S Derek Williams 0.9787 Cold
D S Joenel Aguero 0.9784 Cold
D S Mikal Harrison-Pilot 0.9550 Cold
D S Isaac Smith 0.9291 Cold
D S Rahmir Stewart 0.9245 Cold
D S Daemon Fagan 0.9023 Cold
D S King Mack 0.8885 Cold

Quarterback

Commits: None
Slots: 1

You either have to be a well-adjusted human adult who doesn’t follow recruiting, or you have to have been living under a rock to not know that Dante Moore is the biggest domino in the cycle for Notre Dame. The Martin Luther King (Detroit) star has Oregon, Miami, LSU, and Michigan in the picture as well, but the Irish are considered the leader by, well… everyone. Every Notre Dame beat and every other team’s beat and every regional and national analyst says the same thing, that Notre Dame leads and they can’t quite figure out who is second. This recruitment seems to be a rather agonizing question of when, not if, with the timing as much of a mystery as is who is running second. We know that Moore will not be at the June 10th recruit-a-palooza due to a 7-on-7 conflict, but there’s a solid chance he’ll visit the following weekend. Our guess is that the timing mystery wouldn’t survive much beyond that hypothetical visit.

There really isn’t much going on beyond Moore at this point. Avery Johnson is barely still on the radar; it’s hard to have a sense of how much the staff is still recruiting him, which is a statement in its own right. Arch Manning is almost certainly staying in the South, with Texas and Alabama the most likely destinations at the moment; Peyton and Eli being on campus to film a Ghostbusters skit with Jerome Bettis a few weeks ago is probably about as close as Arch will get to the Golden Dome. Running Back

Running Back

Commits: None
Slots: 2-3

This is going to be an interesting position to watch.  Sedrick Irvin committed way back in September and had been solid since, but it almost seems like he’s an afterthought for the staff now just tweeted that he has decided to decommit. Timely… It’s unfortunate for a kid who by all accounts was all in on Notre Dame, but at the end of the day it’s a harsh reality of the recruiting world and both sides have plenty of time to go in different directions.

In that vein, Jayden Limar is announcing next week and Notre Dame is the favorite to land him. He’ll take his official visit on June 10th… The staff is also still heavily pursuing – and would take regardless of Limar’s decision  – Jeremiyah Love, who recently posted a 4.38 40 and is taking his official on June 17th. Love has some positional flexibility, as he could potentially land at slot WR or CB, so that adds a dimension to this as well…

But wait, there’s more! Five-star back Richard Young, #19 overall in the class, just tweeted that he’ll take a midweek official visit on June 13th. He’s been in the “don’t even bother” bucket almost since the beginning of the cycle – in public perception, at least, although clearly not in Freeman’s assessment. Getting Young to visit is an enormous win for Deland McCullough, who swung through Florida recently expressly for this purpose. This is very much a long shot still, and we’d still be a little surprised if Young ends up anywhere but Alabama (think back to Tony Alford convincing Bo Scarbrough to visit), but… Man. Clearly Young is a guy you’d take no matter what.

Wide Receiver

Commits: Braylon James, 0.9714, #67/#11 position
Slots: 4-5

More intrigue here! Braylon James was a huge start to the class – not only is adding that kind of talent, and that kind of talent from Texas, a big deal in and of itself, but he’s the second highest ranked receiver commit since Michael Floyd (behind #37 Jordan Johnson in the 2020 cycle).

There are all kinds of variations in play for how the staff will round out the class from here. They’re still in the running for #39 overall Carnell Tate, although most likely trailing Ohio State and Tennessee. While Tate can be tough to read, it would surprise us slightly if Notre Dame comes back in this one, but Stuckey, Rees, and Freeman will keep swinging… Top 100 prospect Rodney Gallagher just visited and loved it, and as of today is scheduled to be back for an official visit on June 10th. He’s from Pennsylvania but he’s only about 30 minutes from West Virginia, who is the likely leader right now. That June visit will be enormous, if the Irish can make sure it happens… There are also some rumblings that one or two of the committed-elsewhere top 100 receivers may not be solid, so keep an eye on that…

Jaden Greathouse, who sits just outside the top 100, is another Texan that has high interest in Notre Dame. He also just visited and will also be back on an official on June 17th.  National 247 stalwart Steve Wiltfong recently predicted Greathouse to the Irish… Four star Oklahoman Micah Tease is an interesting prospect. He prefers offense but is open to and could end up at cornerback. We think the staff would take him on either side of the ball. He will also take an official on June 10th. (See? We weren’t kidding.)

You know who else will official on June 10th? Four star Californian Rico Flores, one of the smoothest receiver prospects in the country. Notre Dame is likely his second choice behind Ohio State, but Ohio State may not have room for him. Hey, we’re fine with that… Tyler Williams, Malik Elzy, and Joshua Manning are all on the radar to varying degrees, but it’s hard to know how hard the staff is pushing for them or whether they would have to wait for other decisions. None have officials scheduled at this point…

Finally, Ronan Hanafin is another intriguing two-way prospect. He could end up at receiver, or maybe safety, or maybe even linebacker. The staff absolutely loves him as a football player, and his offer list trend this spring suggests lots of other staffs do too. Despite his somewhat middling ranking, since the calendar turned to 2022 he has picked up offers from Michigan, Ohio State, Miami, Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, LSU, and USC, among many others. He’ll take an official to Notre Dame on June 10th, sandwiched between officials to Clemson, Nebraska, and Alabama.

Tight End

Commits: Cooper Flanagan, 0.9179, #206 overall/#11 position
Slots: 1

We think Notre Dame is done here? They’re very happy with Cooper Flanagan, and have made sure to continue to recruit him as Alabama has tried to pry him away… Georgia tight end commit Luckie Lawson, who is not on the Big Board because he doesn’t have an offer, visited for the spring game, but nobody really knows what to make of that. Our guess is it doesn’t mean anything… For both Duce Robinson and Jaxon Howard, we don’t believe either side is that interested in pursuit at this time.

Offensive Line

Commits: OT Sullivan Absher, 0.9021, #280 overall/#23 position; IOL Sam Pendleton, 0.8885, #376 overall/#23 position
Slots: 4-5

Big game hunting the rest of the way for Harry Hiestand and the Irish offensive line. Five star Samson Okunlola has never really reciprocated Hiestand’s interest, despite noting NFL development as a key part of his process. Go figure. The staff will keep swinging, but anything happening here would be surprising… The Irish have been in a great spot for a long time with top 100 tackle Charles Jagusah. He’ll official on June 17th and we suspect won’t be uncommitted past that weekend – maybe even before that weekend… Top 100 South Carolinian Monroe Freeling is perhaps more in play for others than Jagusah, but we believe in the end that Notre Dame will win an offensive line battle with Clemson for the third time this cycle. He will take an official on June 10th…

We think that Elijah Paige, who will take an official on June 3rd (subversive!), and Joe Otting, who has drawn from interest from Hiestand and will camp in hopes of an offer this summer, may have to wait on other guys.

Defensive Line

Commits: EDGE Keon Keeley, 0.9948, #9 overall/#1 position; DL Brenan Vernon, 0.9587, #84 overall/#10 position; DL Boubacar Traore, 0.9350, #150 overall/#22 position; DL Devan Houstan, 0.9221, #194 overall/#26 position
Slots: 4-5

That the staff would have the group committed that they do and still be searching for another commit reeks of greediness, and we absolutely love it. Keon Keeley is the top edge prospect in the cycle, and Notre Dame’s fifth highest ranked commit of the internet era regardless of position. He’ll official on June 10th… Brenan Vernon is just the fifth top 100 defensive lineman commit since 2010. He’ll also official on June 10th… The staff flipped Boubacar Traore, who has roughly the same ranking as 2017 defensive headliner Darnell Ewell, from Boston College. He projects as a 3-tech tackle or big end. He will also official on June 10th…

Devan Houstan, from Maryland by way of Canada, is a 3-tech/nose guard prospect whose brother is a D1 basketball player (Caleb plays at Michigan, which makes Devan’s commitment even better). He will also official on… well, I’ll let you guess… Finally, top 50 prospect Jason Moore, who is also from Maryland and who also has a brother playing D1 basketball (Justin stars at Villanova – he’s the guy whose torn Achilles in the tournament scuttled their bid).  The Irish are the heavy favorite to land him. He’ll take an official on, yes, June 10th with all the other linemen. Draw your own conclusions.

Linebackers

Commits: Drayk Bowen, 0.9762, #53 overall/#5 position; Preston Zinter, 0.8930, #340 overall/#28 position
Slots: 4-5

Drayk Bowen got the linebacker group started off with a bang last fall and has been as active a recruiter as Blake Fisher was in the 2021 cycle. He even placed the ND monogram prominently in his first tattoo recently. He’s an elite talent on the gridiron (and the diamond!) and he’s about as solid as they come. The Indianan has been to campus many times as a recruiting assistant and, of course, will also be at the June 10th weekend. Probably the June 17th weekend as well…

Preston Zinter followed a few months later after getting the push from the Irish staff that never came for older brother Zak, who currently starts at guard for Michigan. Like Hanafin, Zinter’s ranking belied his offer list – he holds offers from Auburn, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, USC, and Wisconsin, among many others. The staff loves his athleticism and potential…

As happy as they are with the guys they have, the staff also rightly views five star Samuel M’Pemba as a unicorn. He has drawn whispered comparisons to Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and Jaylon Smith from some corners of the Notre Dame beat. M’Pemba, who plays for IMG but hails from the St. Louis area, has been to Notre Dame multiple times and will return on June 17th for an official. He and his family is also Catholic, for what that’s worth. He could go all the way to the February signing day and every heavy hitter is after him, but there are reasons for optimism for Notre Dame here…

Top 50 prospect Jaiden Ausberry is another kid who has more interest in Notre Dame than you might expect. He goes to University Lab High School, which is on LSU’s campus, and his father works in LSU’s athletic department. Signed, sealed, and delivered for the Tigers, right? Not so fast – as evidenced by his brother Austin, who signed with Auburn last cycle. He likes the Irish and Al Golden in particular, and will also be in for an official on June 10th. Seriously, it’s a huge weekend…

Finally, the staff is pursuing Derion Gullette very hard. He doesn’t have any visits set up yet, so keep an eye on that – if we get through summer without him visiting it’s likely not going to happen.

Defensive Backs

Commits: S Peyton Bowen, 0.9739, #63 overall/#4 position; S Adon Shuler, 0.9287, #170 overall/#12 position

Peyton Bowen is arguably the greatest flight risk in the class, with Oklahoma constantly lurking, but to date he has stayed solid. The Irish staff is very much staying on top of his recruitment regardless of his commitment status, which hasn’t always been the case in the past… Adon Shuler looks more and more like a steal, most recently when his father tweeted a picture of him looking like a full grown man. Yeesh. Both Shuler and Bowen will take officials on June 10th…

The big fish on the board is five star Georgian safety Caleb Downs, who has maintained consistent interest in the Irish. I have a hard time believing the staff can pry him away from Alabama and Georgia, but Chris O’Leary is doing yeoman’s work to keep Notre Dame in the picture here. And, of course, Downs will take his official on June 10th… As much as they’ve tried, the staff never really got the ball rolling with top 100 corner Caleb Presley. He’s still on the radar but just barely; we get the sense that the Washington native will prefer staying out west…

Notre Dame has been in great shape with borderline top 100 corner Christian Gray for a long time. LSU tossed a wrench in the works recently when they hired his former high school coach, Robert Steeples, as their new cornerbacks coach; you may remember Steeples from the Jakailin Johnson recruitment, when some Irish fans wanted Kelly to hire Steeples as Todd Lyght’s replacement to land Johnson. Apparently DeSmet cranks out D1 corner prospects? Anyway… Gray recently tweeted that he’ll announce on July 4th. We still like the Irish here but it’s going to be a fight. Gray will take his official on June 10th…

The staff moved quickly on four-star Texan Micah Bell after Justyn Rhett decommitted, and by all accounts that increased interest has been mutual. Bell ran a wind-aided 10.46 and a wind-legal 10.62 100M as a sophomore, as well as posting several sub-22.0 200M times and a 23’6″ long jump. He also just posted an offer from Harvard, so no question he profiles well to Notre Dame. Bell will take his official on June 17th – we think the staff will try to close on that trip if they can…

Jasiah Wagoner just picked up a Notre Dame offer a couple of weeks ago. It’s a little early in the game, from Notre Dame’s perspective anyway, for us to feel comfortable guessing how this will go. He was interested enough to set up an official for June 17th, at least, so we’ll see what happens there.

Big Time Weekends

Circling back to those huge recruiting weekends… June is going to be a very, very busy month. In addition to running a few camps where they’ll put eyes on fringe ’23 prospects and, hopefully, elite underclassman prospects, the staff has arranged one big official visit weekend and one stupendously gigantically enormous official visit weekend.

The June 17th weekend is a smaller affair but a very impactful one. The staff will host #16 overall Samuel M’Pemba, #71 Charles Jagusah, #110 Jaden Greathouse, #140 Micah Bell, #167 Jasiah Wagoner, and #191 Jeremiyah Love. As noted above, there’s a possibility that #5 Dante Moore will be there, and we would imagine there will be at least a few current commits as well. It wouldn’t surprise us at all to see, for example, Drayk Bowen and/or Brenan Vernon there, even if they also come out for the June 10th weekend.

And that June 10th weekend… Wow. It’s a USC-game quality visit list. As of today, the visitor list includes (current commits in italics):

  • #9 Keon Keeley
  • #11 Caleb Downs
  • #47 Jaiden Ausberry
  • #50 Jason Moore
  • #53 Drayk Bowen
  • #63 Peyton Bowen
  • #67 Braylon James
  • #79 Monroe Freeling
  • #101 Rodney Gallagher
  • #114 Christian Gray
  • #150 Boubacar Traore
  • #170 Adon Shuler
  • #183 Micah Tease
  • #192 Rico Flores
  • #194 Devan Houstan
  • #206 Cooper Flanagan
  • #254 Jayden Limar
  • #280 Sullivan Absher
  • #340 Preston Zinter
  • #376 Sam Pendleton
  • #410 Ronan Hanafin

Almost a tenth of the top 100 prospects in the country are visiting that weekend. Insane. Remember also that #19 Richard Young will stop by between the two big weekends. Party times, folks. Party times.

If you’re curious – and I’m guessing you are – our “reasonable” closing projection includes the addition of both Moores, Ausberry, Jagusah, Freeling, Greathouse, Gray, Bell, Wagoner, Tease, Love, Flores, Limar, and Hanafin. You could do some shuffling in there between those guys and a few other prospects but the overall picture would be roughly the same.

P.S. If anyone was wondering whether the NCAA lacrosse postseason selection committee still sucks, the answer is yes.