Notre Dame added another piece to its offensive line haul Tuesday afternoon when interior prospect Joe Otting verbally committed to the Fighting Irish. The 6’4″/275-pounder out of Topeka, Kansas is the 14th commit for Notre Dame’s class of 2023 and third along the offensive line.
— Joe Otting (@JoeOtting) June 7, 2022
Joe is one of only a few 2023 offensive linemen to receive an offer after the (re)hiring of Harry Hiestand, picking up his offer about a month ago in early May. He was in South Bend just this past weekend for the Linemen Camp. He worked out for the Notre Dame staff and reportedly looked terrific. He was given the green light to commit and took Marcus Freeman up on that offer before leaving campus.
Recruiting Service Rankings
Just a little heads up before I go over his rankings: the 247sports Composite was recently updated to include rankings from On3.
Rivals — 3 star (5.6 rating), NR overall, NR OG, #6 in KS
ESPN — 3 star (78 rating), NR overall, #27 OG, #5 in KS
On3 — 3 star (88 rating), NR overall, #43 IOL, #5 in KS
247Sports — 3 star (87 rating), NR overall, #44 IOL, #7 in KS
247Sports Composite — 3 star (.8750), #547 overall, #40 IOL, #6 in KS
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (90 rating)
Cohort
In addition to Notre Dame, Joe currently holds offers from Iowa, Kansas State, Iowa State, Baylor, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas State, and New Mexico. He holds 11 total offers.
Highlights
After watching Otting’s film, I am of the opinion that he’s rated a bit low right now. He’s a superb athlete for an offensive lineman, and that makes his potential sky-high. He’s deadly for defenders on pulls and is adept at getting to the second level. He actually reminds me a bit of Ashton Craig from Notre Dame’s 2022 recruiting class. Both athletic interior prospects who need to put on some weight before arriving on campus. Jamie over at ISD has his Film Don’t Lie piece up on Otting right now (you can read it by following this link here) and compares him to/views his potential as former Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum, the Ravens’ other first-round draft pick this year.
Impact
I feel like I say this every time Notre Dame lands an offensive lineman, but it hasn’t stopped being true — the Irish have a ton of young talent in the offensive line room right now. With five signees in both the 2021 and 2022 classes, and the Irish expected to sign another five in 2023, anyone who sees the field over the next few years will have earned it. I expect Joe to take some time working with Balis to add the necessary bulk, but if he can do that and get stronger without losing his athleticism he’ll make his way onto the field and eventually into the NFL.
Welcome to the Irish family, Joe!
Most likely a center in 2-3 years ?
Yea center seems to be exactly the position he’ll be at.
What’s going on with the OL recruiting if we are still in the lead for a couple of elite tackle prospects and seem to be taking a 3 star tackle soon too? Does HH expect some additional transfers that we really might take 6(!?!?) OL? That can’t be, so what gives?
What’s going on is that Hiestand at least, and probably the coaching staff as a whole, disagree with the rankings that the recruiting services have for Otting and Paige. Consider that ISD has a considerably better rating for Otting than the other services – I’d imagine the coaching staff is in the same boat.
I also don’t think we lead for multiple elite tackle propects. Okunlola elimated us a week or 2 ago and it sounds like we’re fading with Freeling. That just leaves Jagusah, who we’ll still have room for even if/when Paige commits.
This is likely to be Harry’s last 2 classes for OL at Notre Dame:
Jagusah 0.9757
Asbher 0.9185
Patterson 0.8912
Pendleton 0.8889
Paige 0.8873
Dirksen 0.8776
Jones 0.8776
Otting 0.8750
Mabry 0.8655
They must like some of the ’23 guys a lot more than the services but it’s going to be a lot of development. On the other hand, with Fisher/Alt having the tackle spots on supreme lock down until 2024, now is a good time to take some chances on interior prospects who they like a lot and feel they’ve scouted well.
You add in some highly ranked guys from 2022 too and the risk of taking a couple “chances” lessens even more.
HH has been a great OL coach, but he hasn’t exactly turned a bunch of 3 stars into draft picks (he turned 1 three star into a draft pick, Nick Martin, who he didn’t evaluate in HS).
He excelled at turning high 4 star athletic tackles into first round picks, and generally developed other highly ranked players well.
3 stars HH coached – Harrell, Ruhland, Boudreaux, Gibbons, Carrico, Hanratty, Nick Martin
As to evaluation. His hit rate has been good with highly rated OL, but poor with anyone outside the top 200 (just like every other coach). He does not seem better at evaluating than the recruiting sites.
All Hiestand’s recruits (2013-2018 classes):
Hits: Elmer (#112), McGlinchey (#161), Nelson (#62), Bars (#106), Mustipher (#216), Kraemer (#27), Eichenberg (#80), Hainsey (#81), Lugg (#121), Banks (#171), Patterson (#369, composite 4 star).
Misses: Bivin (#97), Montelus (#141), McGovern (#192), Byrne (#299), Hoge (#89), Ruhland (#502), Boudreaux (#393), Gibbons (#378), Dirksen (#516), Jones (#517), Mabry (#718)
Consider me concerned about the future state of the OL (let’s say 2025+). It seems like OL ‘crootin’ is trending in the wrong direction, similar to HH’s last few years at ND. He hit the ground running, as should be expected, but doesn’t seem to be maintaining that.
I have no doubt that Fisher and Alt will become first round picks under him, and there is a lot of highly rated talent that he will develop well (Wagner fits his mold to a T). But outside of the studs already on campus, Jagusah, not even in the class yet, is the only one that looks like the past prospects HH has succeeded in developing.
Oh, for sure anyone should be skeptical of that development. Any 3-star is unlikely to make a big impact as you’ve outlined. That’s just the way it goes at ND, but for this class specifically I understand (somewhat) taking some chances.
I’m not really worried. Either one or two of these guys develop or they will get recruited over and younger players will start in their place.
Not sure I have as high hopes here based on HH’s recent track record. When he planned to be around he was a decent recruiter, so hopefully we end up back to that level (very possible with Freeman helping).
I’m sure he’s not planning on coaching until he’s 70, so he’s unlikely to be around when someone like Schrauth has to be replaced in the starting lineup anyway.
Either way, I’d be shocked if we see the next 3 classes with only a 40% blue-chip rate or worse.
But that’s what makes me worried. He knows the cupboard is absolutely stocked right now and that he won’t be around when it’s time for these recruits to take over. I don’t see a ton of incentive for him to recruit his butt off the next 2 years. Then he leaves and we have the 2021 OL all over again.
I think if it looks like he’s not putting enough effort or time into recruiting, he’ll be in the bosses office with some explaining to do.
I don’t think HCMF is going to tolerate it.
I definitely agree with this. I think BK gave guys plenty of leeway with recruiting, I don’t see that happening any more.
I think there was a discussion where HH and MF came to an agreement on recruiting. HH was a great hire for this point in time, but I doubt anyone, including him, thinks he is the long term solution.
Trending in the wrong direction? I guess I don’t get that at all. Wagner, Schrauth and Absher — at a minimum — are studs. Others like Chan and Pendleton may turn out to be great in college. I am in complete agreement that HH is not peerless in terms of scouting. But I think the notion that he can only work with highly-rated clay is an overstatement.
Also, Patterson was a Quinn recruit, fwiw. He only came on at the very end of that campaign after Harry quit. All of Harry’s kids that year were duds. Then again, I doubt any of them had Iowa or Wisconsin offers.
None of those studs you mentioned were Hiestand’s recruits. His recruiting is headed in the wrong direction. If you compare the current outlook to that of a month ago, it’s clearly worse.
My notion of him only turning good recruits into great players isn’t a notion. I listed all the 3 stars he worked with and he simply hasn’t worked magic on any of them.
The OL is loaded right now. This class won’t sink it. But just look at E’s list of recent HH recruits. If that continues the cupboard will be fairly bare in 3-4 years.
And I’m not saying we are definitely doomed. I’m just concerned that we are seeing reversion to the recruiting levels of HH’s last year at ND.
Even still, a class of Jags, Absher, Pendleton, Paige, and Otting is clearly way, way better than Harry’s previous class when he left for the Bears.
So, if we’re talking about direction from 2017, it’s not the wrong way.
And Hiestand was out on the road all of May just as much as all the other coaches. Been impressed with his buy in and work level on the trail, for that being his knock it seemed like he put in enough to keep up with the new standard Freeman has set/expects.
I guess you could quibble with his talent evaluations on why he may have pushed for Paige/Otting types more than higher rated players…But as mentioned, OL stars and rankings can be the easiest place to find or develop “hidden gems” and tough to project which HS linemen will become good college players.
Of all the worries in the world of Notre Dame football, recruiting direction of the OL can’t make many lists.
I thought Jamie U also made a comment on their podcast saying something like that he likes Paige right up there with Freeling and Otting’s biggest concern is size but is *super* athletic. So he may be ranked low based on size and ND thinks he can put on the weight he’ll need. So let’s also see where these guys end up ranked too.
I wonder if they see another “dancing bear” Aaron Banks type, who was a Hiestand guy, no? Seems like body types on Banks/Paige are similar, with Paige being unbelievably even bigger at the same age.
Both these guys may also end up ranked much higher than they are now. Maybe HH is actually a great evaluator and many of his other players started low and moved up.
I only have the data of where the past ones finished ranked and where the OL in this class are currently ranked.
Based on the available data. OL is looking like it will be our weakest ‘23 position group. HH has not shown he can develop 3 stars or low 4 stars into NFL caliber linemen. These are not vague feelings or vibes. These are logical interpretations of data as it stands today.
ND will take 5 OL this year. Likely Absher, Pendleton, Otting, Elijah Paige, and Charles Jagusah.
ND’s up there with Freeling, 1B at worst, but he supposedly has people close to him that want him closer to home. I’m guessing the ND staff doesn’t see a huge drop-off from Freeling to Paige. We’ll see what everyone’s ranked in 6 months.
Makes sense. Tough to slot the OL with rankings if Paige and/or Pendleton can be similar to Patterson as far as being under-rated in HS, that would go a long way to making this a great OL class with Jagusah seen as a can’t miss likely starter.
I believe the scuttlebutt about Freeling, a while back, was that he had moved around often and therefore wouldn’t feel tied down to a region, thus giving ND a shot. Who knows how stuff like that is going to affect an individual ? He’d be a good get though, and NDs not out of it.
I just watched film of Paige. I’m all in on that kid. If he’s really 6’7″ and 300lbs. …WOW can he move.
Yep. Word is that he measured slightly above both of those marks while visiting.
On Freeling, his actual quotes in an update the other day sounded promising for ND and one of the On3 national guys believes the Irish lead. Regardless, we should have a better idea about him after the weekend. Any two of him, Jagusah and Paige would be fantastic.
I look forward to hearing and reading the name Joe Otting for the next five or six years. Especially great name for a center.