Marcus Freeman and Al Washington earned a big W on the recruiting trail on Wednesday when edge-rusher Loghan Thomas verbally committed to the Fighting Irish. The 6’3″/210-pound Texan is the 16th recruit in Notre Dame’s recruiting class of 2024 — a class which currently ranks #4 in the country per the 247Sports Team Composite Rankings.
BREAKING: Four-Star EDGE Loghan Thomas has Committed to Notre Dame!
The 6’4 210 EDGE from Katy, TX chose the Fighting Irish over Oklahoma, Texas Tech, & others.
“Knowing I’m going to get a great education & meet great people while playing at a high level means a lot.”… pic.twitter.com/2GZruUM3MP
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) May 24, 2023
Loghan was a relatively under-the-radar prospect just six months ago, but he saw his recruitment surge after attending San Antonio’s All-American Bowl Underclassmen Combine in early January. 247Sports named him the Alpha Dog of the event after he dominated opposing offensive linemen in 1-on-1s. Dipping into the Houston area here for a blue-chip vyper prospect is a huge win on the trail for the Irish.
Recruiting Service Rankings
247Sports Composite — 4 star (.9307), #176 overall, #14 EDGE, #34 in TX
On3 Consensus — 4 star (91.84), #169 overall, #11 EDGE, #30 in TX
The 247 Composite and On3 Consensus both combine 247, On3, Rivals, and ESPN rankings.
247Sports — 4 star (90 rating), #182 overall, #10 EDGE, #33 in TX
On3 — 4 star (93 rating), #101 overall, #9 EDGE, #23 in TX
Rivals — 4 star (5.8 rating), #162 overall, #9 WDE, #30 in TX
ESPN — 3 star (79 rating), NR overall, #39 DE, #68 in TX
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (90 rating)
Cohort
Loghan chose the Irish over other offers from Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Georgia, Oklahoma, LSU, USC, Ole Miss, Arizona, Colorado, and others. His offer list includes 25 total schools across the country.
Highlights
It’s easy to see based on Loghan’s highlights why he’s seen his recruitment blow up over the last few months. He has an excellent athletic profile as an edge-rusher with burst, motor, quickness, and more strength than you would expect for someone playing at 210 pounds. He’s not a one-move pass-rusher like a lot of high school athletes out there. He often uses his burst to zoom past opposing offensive tackles, and he could rely solely on that at this level. But he also mixes it up with strength moves that seem to catch his opponent completely off guard at times. I particularly liked the punch he gave that right tackle at the 3:12 mark — that kid hit the ground so fast I couldn’t help but chuckle.
For a full film review, check out ISD’s Film Don’t Lie piece on Loghan Thomas.
Impact
Al Washington has been putting a huge focus on Vyper this cycle, and for good reason. Numbers at the position are not in an ideal spot at the moment, and guys who were originally recruited to play linebacker have been shifted over to cover up some of the depth issues. Luckily, this push by Washington has paid off so far with Cole Mullins and now Loghan Thomas currently in the fold for Notre Dame. The Irish are also still in pursuit of 4-star Mylachi Williams and 5-star Elijah Rushing (though he might fit better at the other defensive end spot).
For Loghan, he’s definitely going to need to bulk up a bit before seeing the field for Notre Dame. For this reason, he might end up redshirting in 2024. However, with his phsyical tools, I can’t imagine him staying off the field for too long if his physical development is on the right track.
Welcome to the Irish family, Loghan!
I know he’s still young and got a ways to go, but 210 is so light.
Great frame though, he looks like a kid who will be 240 in a snap of a finger once in college.
Owen Wafle decommits.
From what I have read, it seems more like a case of ND decommitting from him. Not quite sure how I feel about this.
Optimistic fan take – that better recruits are closer, therefore better performance on the field
Disturbed alum take – we are being enveloped by the currents and tides of modern day CFB. We aren’t moving quite fast enough to challenge the Top 3-4 teams on a regular basis, but just fast enough to help tarnish our own reputation.
Wafle took an unofficial visit to Michigan last month, I wouldn’t say there’s any tarnishing at all of Notre Dame’s reputation on their part. Sometimes kids just drift away, especially when they commit so early in the process. Often times it sounds like BS to say it’s “mutual” when there’s a decommit but this feels pretty mutual in being OK to move on for player and team. This is wasn’t the case from the RB or TE last year who committed early and got nudged out of the class by the school’s pure desire to add a better player at their spot.
Unless it’s a legacy or a kid from a huge ND family with posters on his walls, maybe they shouldn’t just accept any commitments 14-18 months before signing day. Too much can happen.
Notre Dame sources saying it wasn’t entirely Wafle’s decision and that ND prefers Sean Sevillano, Michigan sources saying they’re flipping a guy ND really wanted to sign. Truth is probably somewhere in between.
If I were to guess…
ND staff knows they can get Sevillano and at least has him on the same level of Wafle as a prospect. Then when Wafle started to waffle (heh) and his interest in Michigan became known to the ND staff, the prospect of losing him didn’t bother them that much. A talk between Freeman/Washington and Wafle probably happened, resulting in a mostly mutual split (or at least one that neither side is too beat up about).
Just a guess, though.
They must also feel good about Scott again. I am not sure why you wouldnt take three at that position though. Numbers now aren’t that good.
FWIW I don’t think the ND staff ever stopped feeling good about Scott, despite pushing back his commitment date
If they feel good about Scott, they are crazy.
Maybe I’m scarred by keon keeley, but I dont even want to think about the super high end prospects anymore. Too much heartache. That being said, hope we get this fella too
Sounds like he runs the 4×100. That’s cool for a vyper.
Not sure the correct phrasing for one who participates in his track team’s 4×100 relay. He’s on the 4×100 team?
Good phrasing either way.
Also can be called the “400m relay” although that can get confused with the 4×400 relay, aka the mile relay.
Nice to see him on the 4×100 though, it takes high acceleration and Ricky bobby speed for that one!
Didn’t Jaden Reddell book an OV to ND like 2 weeks ago, for 2 weeks from now? Seems strange to do that, then commit to UGA like a week later. Maybe it was an NIL bargaining chip?
He had 3 officials (ND, UT, UGA) lined up for June. The 247 guy had him Crystal Ball’d to Georgia in April, so I guess he was trending that way and decided to commit before playing out the process of the visits. I agree it was strange timing to announce now but the end result isn’t terribly surprising. Guess he didn’t want to hear other pitches and go through the stress of telling the other coaches no down the line.
Just as well for ND, can maybe switch focus to the kid from Nebraska that they’re in on anyways.