The post-spring game recruiting good vibes continued on Thursday as wide receiver Isiah Canion committed to Notre Dame. The athlete from Warner Robins, Georgia had visited Notre Dame twice in recent weeks, including for the Blue-Gold Game, and was tabbed as someone most likely to commit to the Irish among those visitors.
In just a little over a week, Canion’s Composite score jumped considerably and he’s now a top 200 overall recruit in this 2024 recruiting cycle.
I’m Home !!☘️#Committed #GoIrish pic.twitter.com/Shb5tyb2jB
— Isiah Canion (@CanionIsiah) April 27, 2023
Recruiting Service Rankings
247Sports Composite — 4 star (.9263), #194 overall, #29 WR, #29 in GA
On3 Consensus — 4 star (91.45 rating), #192 overall, #34 WR, #29 in GA
The 247 Composite and On3 Consensus both combine 247, On3, Rivals, and ESPN rankings.
247Sports — 3 star (89 rating), NR overall, #56 WR, #42 in GA
On3 — 4 star (93 rating), #94 overall, #15 WR, #14 GA
Rivals — 3 star (5.6 rating)
ESPN — 4 star (81 rating), #240 overall, #26 WR, #34 in GA
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (90 rating)
Check out On3 with a big, big update on Canion in their recent rankings making him a top 100 overall player. Also, in terms of the Composite it’s crazy how almost 1 in 6 of the players in the top 200 are either wide receivers or from the state of Georgia.
Cohort
Canion was offered by Notre Dame on March 5th and committed just over 50 days later. He is also carrying offers from Florida State, Stanford, Duke, Georgia Tech, NC State, Miss State, Cincinnati, Indiana, Vanderbilt, and several other smaller schools.
Highlights
I think there’s the expectation that Canion will play wide receiver exclusively during his senior season of high school and that’s where Notre Dame is recruiting him for in his college career. However, he’s played a bit of quarterback and defensive back for Warner Robins, as well.
In that light, he can’t be much more than an “athlete” in terms of my evaluation right now.
Listed at 6’3″ he looks plenty tall and doesn’t lack for wingspan, either. Although he’s wiry and carries a lot of muscle tone, Canion is really thin and has narrow hips. To me, he has more of a basketball player type of frame that probably isn’t going to add a ton of weight. If he’s realistically 182-185 pounds right now, I would think he stays under 200 pounds as a receiver.
He shows some quickness off the line as a receiver, although it seems inconsistent. I really like his short area quickness. Both when the ball is in the air or he’s making a move with the ball in his hands, he’s able to get that extra separation.
Impact
Canion fits in as a fun ‘high ceiling’ recruit for Notre Dame to bet on coming out of the spring evaluation period. As a wide receiver recruit, I’m not sure I see something borderline elite like On3 does right now but top 200 overall feels fair especially if Canion continues to gain strength while testing well and flashing good speed.
We just need to see more at wide receiver for a fuller picture on his potential. In 24 games with Warner Robins over the last 2 years, Canion has caught 31 passes for 446 yards and 6 touchdowns. He flashed some big-play potential in 2022 (15.2 yards per catch) and hopefully he’ll build on that during his senior year.
Welcome to the Irish family, Isiah!
He’s run a “legit” 4.5 – 40 as a junior in HS. (ISD) That’s fast.
After the 2023 class, taking some high ceiling guys is a good risk, especially with Cam already committed. Give me a couple more guys with NFL potential, even if they are a ways off right now.
With the way the transfer portal is evolving, it’s getting pretty hard to get excited about “commitments”. Here’s hoping he plays more than one season for ND….