The final of three weekend commitments in the 2025 class occurred for Notre Dame on Sunday when defensive end Joseph Reiff gave his pledge to the Fighting Irish. The 6’5″/235-pounder out of Illinois is the sixth player to join Notre Dame’s recruiting class of 2025, which currently ranks third in the nation per the 247 Composite team rankings behind Georgia and Alabama.
Home. #committed #goirish☘️ pic.twitter.com/W3IwGl8Urh
— Joseph Reiff (@JosephReiff) September 24, 2023
Recruiting Service Rankings
247Sports Composite — 3 star (.8800), #393 overall, #40 DL, #11 in IL
On3 Consensus — 3 star (88.00), #391 overall, #40 DL, #11 in IL
The 247 Composite and On3 Consensus both combine 247, On3, Rivals, and ESPN rankings.
247Sports — 3 star (88 rating), NR overall, #40 DL, #10 in IL
On3 — 3 star (88 rating), NR overall, #39 DL, #10 in IL
Rivals — Not Yet Rated
ESPN — Not Yet 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 — 4 star (91 rating)
Cohort
Joseph chose the Irish over other offers from Iowa, Northwestern, Cincinnati, Purdue, and Louisville.
Highlights
I usually prefer to use a prospect’s full season highlights in these sections, but in Reiff’s case it seemed like a better idea to use the film he just recently shared from the first four games of his junior season. Forget the site rankings for a moment (not that they mean THAT much 15 months before early signing day anyway) because they’re most likely based on his sophomore film. He made quite a leap over the offseason, and it’s probably why he received his offer from Notre Dame immediately after the Irish got to see him camp. His length is obvious on film and will be a great attribute to him in the coming years. After seeing the 3-star ranking, I kind of assumed he’d mostly be a high effort/high motor kind of player. And while he does have a high motor, he’s also much quicker than I expected to see.
As always, take a look at ISD’s Film Don’t Lie piece on Joseph Reiff for a professional’s perspective. Jamie Uyeyama is pretty high on Reiff as well.
Impact
At this point it seems likely that Reiff’s position at Notre Dame will be strong-side end. Depending on how he fills out, he could grow into a DT, but I’d lean more towards him sticking at end.
Getting in on a (somewhat) local guy like Reiff and landing his commitment before some of the other heavy-hitters get involved is a good move, in my opinion. Al Washington has been adding some good talent along the defensive line between the 2023-2025 cycles. You can say what you want about him as a coach, but he looks like an improvement over his predecessor on the recruiting trail.
Welcome to the Irish family, Joseph!
Is Washington actually doing an impressive job in recruiting? He hasn’t landed a composite Top 100 prospect yet, right? What about Top 150?
We’ve had to move linebackers to Vyper the last two years because Elston couldn’t recruit the position.
Tyson Ford would be at OU right now if not for Freeman personally taking over his recruitment after accepting the DC job. Elston literally stopped recruiting him a year before signing day thinking he was a lost cause.
Michigan only signed one Top 300 defensive lineman in the 2023 class (to be fair, actually a Top 150 guy) and doesn’t have any committed in 2024.
Washington is the better recruiter.
Let’s look at the ’20,’21,’22 vs ’23,’24, ’25. These are On3 composites because 247s are no longer easy to see. I don’t really care if Elston did or didn’t recruit Ford, because I’m not comparing Washington to Elston, I am seeing if Washington is improving the trajectory of ND DL recruiting.
20-22:
Ford #98, Rubio #120, Botelho #128, Gobaria #177, Mills #216, Keanaaina #419, Hinish #565, Aupiu #661, Schweitzer #520, Onye #674, Ehrensberger #1109.
23-25:
Thomas #178, Vernon #180, Traore #208, May #232, Houstan #249, Young #270, Dixon #371, Reiff #391, Mukam #469, Sevillano #551, Mullins #621.
The scoreboard (each round is cumulative)
Top 100: AW – 0, Pre-AW – 1
Top 150: AW – 0, Pre-AW – 3
Top 200: AW – 2, Pre-AW – 4
Top 250: AW – 5, Pre-AW – 5
Top 300: AW – 6, Pre-AW – 5
Top 400: AW – 8, Pre-AW – 5
Top 500: AW – 9, Pre-AW – 6
Total: AW – 11, Pre-AW – 11
My conclusion: Washington is not recruiting as many top players, but is filling out the DL as a whole better. By the end of 2025 class, with fully updated rankings, he will probably have a few more in the top 300 and maybe even top 200, but still seems unlikely to break the top 100. The Edge recruiting has gotten better. The interior DL recruiting has gotten worse.
Overall, I would saying adding more low 4 stars isn’t really moving the needle for me, unless we land some top 100 guys. The way for him to make an improvement is in evals and development.
Early returns on the 2023 guys are extremely positive, so I don’t think there’s an issue with his evals.
The thing is, our low 4-stars previously included too many guys too close to their ceilings. Our low 4-stars now include multiple guys who are just scratching the surface of their potential.
Bryce Young had never played defensive line until a year ago. Houstan, Mukam, Sevillano — all guys who don’t have a ton of experience playing football. What they have is raw athleticism and potential. That’s what is being upgraded along the defensive line right now.
Obviously you want more of the sure-fire elite guys. But we weren’t really landing many of those in the first place. And in the absence of that, you need to add more of those guys with high-end potential.
But is he doing enough to make up for being, from many outward appearances (getting fired at OSU, our d-line play the last couple years, 10 men on the field, etc.), a not-good coach?