Notre Dame picked up its 26th commitment of the 2023 cycle on Thursday night as wide receiver Kaleb Smith gave his verbal to the Fighting Irish.

Smith was offered a little over a year ago by Texas Tech and ended up committing to the Red Raiders on February 2nd of this year. He comes out of the the north Dallas suburb of Frisco, Texas and had an extremely quiet recruitment until Smith set up an official visit to Notre Dame for the Clemson game.

He was offered by the Irish a couple days before the visit, decommitted from Texas Tech a couple days later, and the rest is history.

Recruiting Service Rankings

247Sports Composite — 3 star (.8544 rating), #1171 overall, #160 WR, #201 in TX

On3 Consensus — 3 star (85.67), #934 overall, #136 WR, #175 in TX

The 247 Composite and On3 Consensus both combine 247, On3, Rivals, and ESPN rankings.

247Sports — 3 star (88 rating), NR overall, #65 WR, #74 in TX

On3 — 3 star (89 rating), NR overall, #60 WR, #73 in TX

Rivals — 3 star (5.5 rating), NR overall, NR WR, NR in TX

ESPN — *currently not rated*

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 — 3 star (88 rating)

Smith is currently the lowest-rated commit in the Notre Dame class by a wide margin. However, as you can see he hasn’t been evaluated by ESPN and Rivals has barely taken the time to look at him, either.

Cohort

Officially, Smith only carries offers from Texas Tech and Notre Dame. That’s highly unusual for someone in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area who caught 59 passes for 832 yards and 7 touchdowns as a senior. It’s probably very likely he is carrying more offers but hasn’t publicized that to the recruiting websites.

Highlights

Smith is listed at 6’0″ and a lean 175 pounds. As you’d expect, he flashes very good speed and acceleration with the ball  in his hands. He doesn’t look like an absolute burner in his highlight video but he’s still making big plays, especially on special teams.

Although his frame brings back memories of Will Fuller, the game for Smith reminds me more of Lorenzo Styles coming out of high school. He’s quick and navigates well through traffic but also displays pretty good strength when surrounded by tacklers.

I’m assuming Notre Dame is thinking slot receiver here pending any weight gain for Smith early in his career. It’s possible he could grow into a more consistent outside receiver threat. Plus, there’s the likelihood of him playing special teams right away.

Impact

Recently with the commit of Chris Terek I questioned the need for yet another 3-star offensive lineman in Notre Dame’s recruiting class. However, we can reasonably expect some decent turnover in the roster this off-season and room for some new blood.

At receiver, the Irish need a lot of new players. With 3 highly touted wideouts already in the class it makes sense to take a bit of a flier on Kaleb Smith and hope he blossoms as one of the more lightly regarded prospects for the 2023 class.

Welcome to the Irish family, Kaleb!