The rich get richer… Notre Dame extended its scalding hot recruiting streak today when top 100 corner Christian Gray announced for the Irish. The 6’0”, 175 pound Missourian likely had Notre Dame in the lead since visiting with his mother in the fall, but the recruitment was not without some anxious moments. LSU tightened up the race considerably when they hired his former coach and mentor Robert Steeples – you may remember that Brian Kelly almost hired Steeples when the Irish were recruiting another of his protégés, Ohio State corner Jakailin Johnson. Ultimately that personnel move wasn’t enough to sway Gray from his first love though. USC and Ohio State were involved too, but when Gray canceled official visits to them after making his Notre Dame official the writing was on the wall.
Let’s step back for a macro view on this class, which continues to be one of the most remarkable of the internet recruiting era (2000 forward) for the Irish. It still holds the #1 spot in the cycle – we’re not sure when the last time is that a Notre Dame class ranked #1 this late, but it was a long time ago for sure. The class boasts six top 100 players, matching the Kelly era high set in 2011 and within realistic range of the internet era high of nine that Charlie Weis set in 2008.
The recent run of commitments very nearly guarantees that the class will finish with the highest average 247 Composite score of the internet era – only one or two more commits out of a dozen remaining blue chip targets would lock it in. The blue chip rate for the class now stands at a Bama-esque 89.5% and will very likely rise; the current roster is around 60%.
Gray is a big deal in his own right, but he also is an awfully nice cherry on the last week’s sundae in the bigger picture.
Recruiting Service Rankings
247Sports Composite — 4 star (.9543 rating), #94 overall, #10 CB, #12 in MO
On3 Consensus — 4 star (93.28 rating), #78 overall, #7 CB, #5 in MO
The 247 Composite and On3 Consensus both combine 247, On3, Rivals, and ESPN rankings.
247Sports — 4 star (92 rating), #159 overall, #14 CB, #6 in MO
On3 — 4 star (92 rating), #150 overall, #18 CB, #4 in MO
Rivals — 4 star (6.0 rating), #51 overall, #8 CB, #4 in MO
ESPN — 4 star (83 rating), #149 overall, #18 CB, #5 in MO
Friend of the Stripes Jamie Uyeyama does the recruit evaluations for ISD, and we trust his evals as much as anyone’s. So while the 247 Composite and the On3 Consensus don’t factor in ISD evals, we put a lot of weight on them ourselves.
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (92 rating)
Cohort
In addition to Notre Dame, Ohio State, USC, and LSU, Gray holds offers from Alabama, Florida, Miami, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, among others.
Highlights
Like fellow Irish commit Micah Bell, the first thing that jumps out on film here is that Gray can fly and he can get from zero to 60 very quickly. I think Bell probably has an edge in both, but no question Notre Dame is adding two very fast and explosive athletes at corner in this class. The next thing that caught my eye is how aggressive Gray is in all facets. He’s a very physical player who will only get better at that as he matures. His coverage technique is good but he definitely needs some polish there, and I would’ve liked to see a little more ball production – he had two interceptions last season. Maybe opponents try to stay away from him, but that’s a bit of an open question. Finally, I really like his recognition and ability to defeat blocks on screens. He sees them early and explodes from decisive angles to blow the play up repeatedly. Great stuff.
Impact
Much like at receiver, there’s a good chance that there will be an opportunity for early impact for a talented corner. I do think Gray needs to polish his game a bit, but if he takes those steps by the time he enrolls he has the potential to get in the rotation early. Down the road I think he has all the tools to become a high level starter on the boundary – his physicality is tailor made for that.
Welcome to the Irish family, Christian!
Looking forward soon to a Bell and Gray tandem at CB. Given the dearth of talent ahead of them it seems likely they see the field as freshmen and are starters at the latest as sophomores. I know we commented about this awhile ago but two of the best corners we’ve gotten in a long time (and we got them in the same class).
I think Bell can be in the nickel rotation right away. Gray is going to be on the boundary side and needs to add a little weight and polish to be there, but maybe he can eat up some snaps on the field side earlier. However it breaks out, I think they’re both going to be really good and it’ll be fun to watch it develop.
Fun indeed! The Athletic noted that in the entire Kelly era ND only recruited 4 total top 100 secondary players (all turned into safeties: Hamilton, Shumate, Griffith, Redfield).
When was the last time ND had two really good corners at the same time (not in a recruiting class – just on the field)? Who teamed up with Shane Walton? Was it Duff? Was it that far back or further?
If Freeman/Mickens continue to stack these kind of players at corner it seems very soon it’ll be a regular occurrence.
Where will Mickey play? From the little tidbits it seems like he is the most promising young player on the roster.
How quickly we forget Pride and Love…
But yeah, the larger point stands. Also Mickey could probably play anywhere eventually. Not 100% sure he’s strong enough yet to play the boundary but he could. Could definitely play field or nickel now.
Is Hart playing boundary this year? Who else is in line to play boundary this year and next?
Yes, Hart is expected to move to boundary. Not sure after he’s gone – I would imagine Barnes will get a good long look there though.
The U2 backfield
Yea my bad. I remembered Love – but didn’t think he had a high-end complement. But yea Pride was pretty talented if a bit inconsistent though(?).
Playing opposite Love in 2018 – meaning he was targeted – he gave up one TD, and it was on the last defensive snap of the regular season. He was very good that year.
A lot of Irish fans I think have a similar reaction to yours when his name comes up. IMO the job he did that season is underrated by a bunch of people.
Love was a good college corner, but it’s also sad having a 3rd and 4th round talent on the field at the same time at that position is the high water mark, surrounded by many years of not so great talent. And they’re always one injury away from being disastrous, as seen in the playoff that year.
But, looks in the past now as another Freeman fix, given the classes of ’22 and ’23 that he/Mickens have brought in. Heck, if they could get/develop Sauce Gardner and Coby Bryant at Cincy, imagine that level of player for Notre Dame’s corner situation!
Personally, I think I underrate the 2018 defense, which is weird to admit.
Granted this is all anecdotal, I havent looked at the numbers, but my gut impression was “yeah they solid but not the 2012 defense”
And maybe that’s the case, but also, maybe they were better??? Feels like there was way more speed on the field in 18 versus 12. That would be an interesting topic to explore: trying to rank the best objective and subjective defenses since 2010
2018 is pretty emblematic of Kelly era teams. Really good, but lacking depth. So when Love went down against Clemson in the semis, any chance we had was gone. (Granted we only put up 3 points on offense…)
Anyway, nice to see ND building up the depth of talent to where losing one guy won’t necessarily sink us.
Also emblematic of BK teams to look super out of their element against a really good defense (also see: any Alabama game).
Both of those are also the lack of elite playmakers. I think when you have those elite playmakers and someone else goes down it’s easier to cover up a slightly weaker player out there when someone else is making havoc someway.
And I think lack of elite players would be a reason why our offenses sputter against elite defenses.
I totally do agree that ala the LSU or Kiffin plan that to beat Bama you have to stretch them out and make plays down the field. But from 2012-20 Kelly tried to build both lines up in the mold of Alabama. And that was a resounding failure too.
That year, IIRC, the Tide were getting criticism for their rush defense and they quite easily held ND to 3.7 yards/carry and no big runs from Kyren, Book or Tyree. Meanwhile, Najee Harris was out there doing [redacted from memory] at-will to ND.
Statistically that game actually looked fairly even and wasn’t a huge rout, but Bama could have won by 40 if they wanted to keep throwing to Devonta. (Thankfully, they didn’t!)
I guess ND made progress from getting blown off the field in 2012 to at least being somewhat competitive by 2020, but even then, way behind in team strength to be even close to a level playing field.
Cutting bait on the younger guys already? Agree on the dearth among upperclassmen (Hart excepted), but Mickey and Morrison were also very well-regarded and had some big offers and the Barnes & Riley group has only been on campus for a year.
It’s not out of the question that one or both of the new commits will be starting as underclassmen, but I think the level of competition for those slots will be higher than some would assume. Same thing at receiver. Styles, Colzie and Merriweather aren’t just warm bodies waiting for the cavalry to arrive and take over.
The few bodies at WR are far more talented than the many bodies at CB so I don’t think the comparison is fair. At WR the new guys will have a chance to start simply because of clear openings. Maybe Colzie and/or Thomas will step up and be legit starters (they certainly have the talent). But it’s also relatively normal that not quite everyone works out at that level. But I’m all for getting 100% hit rate with the young WR prospects currently on the roster and since they are more talented than the CB prospects I think they have a better shot at working out.
While Mickey and Morrison could start, that would still leave basically the starting nickel position open. It also again requires 100% hit rate on those two well-regarded prospects. But even if we hit on them, top 100 level talent will likely be a step up (over low-ish 4 star) and so these two guys could still make a leap – even as sophomores – over them even if Mickey/Morrison turn out to be pretty good players.
50 shades of absolutely loving to see it.
So for the 2023 class, over the last week, we have commitments from:
Micah Bell
Charles Jagusah
Rico Flores
and Christian Gray
The one miss that I know of that I think we were one of the top leaders for at some point was Ath. Micah Tease who went to Arkansas. 80% on your targeted players is phenomenal. I can hardly believe the job the staff has done in selling ND this cycle.
I am excited to see if ND under Freeman can match some of the other coaches we’ve seen hit a year 2 or 3 Championship like Saban, Meyer, Orgeron, etc… the culture is in place to do so, now we just need the talent, and it appears to be happening.
Looks like Jason Moore is trending to OSU. So this might be another “miss” but your point stands.
Not only have we closed on a lot more elite prospects but we’ve been in it with far more too so missing out on some has still led to the best class in the last decade. The current average is 93.20 when we have struggled to sniff 92 (I think we’ve done it once, maybe twice, in the last decade) and we have a 89% blue-chip rate when we are typically more like in the 50-65% range.
So while it’s a bummer to lose out on another elite prospect we should be thrilled if this became the regular occurrence. And I think that while we probably need a couple more top 100 level players on average everyday (more like 8 rather than the 6 we currently have – though we could end up with 7 or more), if we kept the blue-chip rate regularly above 85% that would go a long way to making up for the less than ideal top 100 level players.
Bama (57) and Georgia (51) have had over 50 top 100 players from 2018-2022, OSU was at 45, A&M at 37, and Clemson at 31. So it would seem to jump into this upper-tier we’d have to average 8 top 100 players a year.
Hopefully for Freeman though this is just the beginning. One would imagine with his dedication that while this may not quite be the floor for his recruiting, it may be much closer to his floor than his ceiling.
This is wild. In the last 4 recruiting cycles, those five programs took 211 of the 400 players that would have been top 100 in their classes? For Bama that is almost 15 top 100 per cycle. Hard to keep up with that.
Is it just me or is Jimbo getting paid a lot more money that his coaching wins dictate that he should. With that talent and an ‘elite’ coach, I’m thinking he should finish better than 2nd or 3rd in the West division. Well, of course, unless Alabama is the team in front of you.
It is truly ridiculous just how much the top-5 programs have consolidated so much of the power and talent in the sport, especially when you say it laid out like that.
Yea, it seems one needs to average 6 top 100 players to crack into the bottom-end of that elite tier, 8 to crack into the top 3-4, and darn well double-digits only to be 2nd to bama!
So it’s actually the last 5 recruiting cycles so it’s not quite as bad as it seems. Bama’s average then is 11.4
Though from 2019-2022 – Bama had 53 for an average of 13.25. (They only had 4 top 100 players in the 2018 class!)
One could add LSU during the 2018-2022 (5 cycles) at 29. That would mean those 6 schools accounted for 50% of the top 100 players over that time period.
To put it in perspective we had 15 during that same time-frame and would rank 13th.
To round out the top 10:
(7) Texas – 22
(8) USC – 20
(9) Oklahoma – 18
(10) Penn st – 18
With Florida (17) and Oregon (16) coming before ND’s 13th.
This article is nearly 24 hours old. Where is the next commit post?