2022 Football Recruiting Big Board: Offense Launch

Around this time last year we published the first Big Board update for the 2021 class. It was also the last update for the class, because, well…

In a triumph of hope over experience, we will venture once more into the fray to track developments in the 2022 class. The class is off to a solid start, with eight commitments – six four-stars and two promising three-stars – and has recently developed a lot of momentum. I know, I know, but really this time… In all seriousness, the Irish look to be in excellent shape to ultimately sign a very good quarterback, two blue-chip running backs, a pair of athletic tight ends, another great offensive line haul, and maybe the best front seven class top to bottom in the entire time I’ve followed the program. Receiver and defensive back are a little cloudier but there’s a good bit of positive buzz there too, so we’ll see what develops.

Will Brian Kelly sign a top-five class for the first time since 2013? In all honesty, I doubt it. But I do think landing just outside there, maybe in the 6th-8th range, is very much within play. Keep stacking classes like 2021 and 2022 (potentially) together, and you’re going to have a lot of fun on fall Saturdays.

The Offense Board

A reminder on how we do this – we’ll include the entire big board table but only review prospects who are above “Cold” status. Speaking of which, the temperature scale:

• Hot means the prospect is on commit watch.
• Warm means the prospect has Notre Dame in a small final group and/or is a possible Irish lean.
• Mild/Mild+ means the prospect is in regular contact with the staff and has visited or has firm visit plans.
• Cool means the prospect has some level of contact with the staff and/or vague visit plans; also the default temperature for most new offers.
• Cold is a known (or reasonably safely assumed) lack of contact with the staff and/or an elimination.

Also, on the 247 Composite ratings, roughly speaking above .9830 is a five star, above .9500 is a top 100 prospect, above .9200 is a top 200 prospect, and above .8900 is a four star. Those slide around a little within a cycle and from one cycle to the next, but they’re pretty solid ballpark numbers.

Remember that of course we don’t have perfect information on all prospects – we don’t know for sure whether a prospect has or hasn’t talked to the staff outside of what’s reported elsewhere. We don’t know for sure how high prospects are on the staff’s board. We try to make highly-educated guesses at all of it, but we don’t know.

Quarterback

Commits: Steve Angeli, 0.8900 rating, #375 overall/#16 position
Slots: 1

Angeli jumped in the boat last Thursday, effectively ending Notre Dame’s 2022 quarterback recruiting. The staff had pushed for Ty Simpson (Alabama), Gavin Wimsatt (likely going to stay in Kentucky), and Drew Allar (just committed to Penn State) while keeping Angeli warm for months; we don’t know this for sure, but a recent Stanford offer for Angeli combined with fading for Allar probably pushed them to lock Angeli up. If you read the commit post, you may have inferred that my guess is he’ll finish higher rated than he is now if camps can happen. He has the potential to be a quality starter.

Running Back

Commits: JD Price, 0.9201, #212 overall/#23 position
Slots: 2

Five-star Gavin Sawchuk was Notre Dame’s first offer at RB in this cycle, but despite the early attention it seems more likely he’ll stay west. Or west-ish, anyway – Oklahoma has a lot of buzz now, despite recently landing a commitment from another 2022 five-star RB, Raleek Brown. Go figure… Nicholas Singleton isn’t quite as fast as Sawchuk but he’s much bigger, making him more of an every-down back. The Irish are very much in this one but have stiff competition from Ohio State and Penn State, the hometown team. Alabama just offered last week, which could shake things up…

There’s not much separating Singleton and Dallan Hayden, with the Irish also in good shape here. The main competition for Hayden is hometown Tennessee, Ohio State, and… wait for it… Penn State, who just offered. Quite the little Mexican standoff between the Irish, Buckeyes, and Nittany Lions here… Three-star Zach Evans is a solid prospect but likely a backup plan. His continued presence on the board may be more related to how much interest he’s allowed to have.

Wide Receiver

Commits: None
Slots: 3

Lots of prospects and little clarity. We don’t have a good sense of whether the staff wants two or three receivers, but based on history we’re going with three; based on who their attention seems to be on, they’re focusing on speed with this group… #44 overall CJ Williams recently discussed a top 16 with Notre Dame, his plans to cut the list in half soon, and cut it again to five and start visiting after that. As it stands now we very much like the Irish’s chances of making that final group, but it will be a battle. CJ’s father went to Alabama and his former Mater Dei teammate Bryce Young is the Next Big Thing at QB for the Tide. USC, as always for Mater Dei kids, looms large. Ohio State and Oregon are very much in the picture too. In fact I would guess that’s your top five…

Kaleb Brown, Tyler Morris, and Kaden Saunders provide an interesting storyline as they’re all similar players. Taking more than one of them seems somewhat redundant, but I don’t know how you could turn any of them away either. Just to be clear, the Irish are a long way off from being in that situation, but it’s an interesting question to ponder. Ohio State probably leads for Brown, with Michigan in the picture also. Notre Dame has accelerated its pursuit of Brown recently after falling off a bit in the fall, despite no change in his athletic ability. Make of that what you will. Morris is the former teammate of 2021 Michigan QB JJ McCarthy, who has been an ardent recruiter despite the Skunkbears being his third choice. Weird… Saunders is a Penn State commit, but he’s very much looking around. We’re most bullish on the staff’s chances of landing Saunders out of the three speedsters…

Tobias Merriweather is a high-academic kid who has Notre Dame and Stanford atop his list, although it will likely be a while before he makes a decision. Other Pac 12 schools, most notably Oregon and Washington, are definitely in it for the Portland-area prospect. As a borderline top 100 player, he represents exactly the kind of battle we’ve been saying Notre Dame has to win against Stanford… There aren’t many tea leaves to read on Andre Greene yet, but it’s worth noting that his current head coach is Lance Clelland, brother of former Weis/Kelly OL Lane Clelland. Maybe something, maybe nothing. Greene hit it off with Del Alexander earlier in the cycle; it feels like there’s still a long way to go in his recruitment, but if numbers allow I expect the Irish to stay in it…

Addison Copeland picked up a Notre Dame offer about a month ago and decommitted from Rutgers the same day. He added a Penn State offer two days later, and Clemson has started nibbling around too. I really want this kid in the class – he’s 6’3″/190, ran a 10.9 100M as a sophomore, has outstanding acceleration and agility, and is a monster for his prep team on all three units. He’s an elite producer as a receiver, safety, linebacker, and returner, and he even punts. In youth football he played fullback and both lines, which gave him a very physical mentality. I just think he’s going to be a tremendous player at the next level, one of Bill Parcells’s “parking lot guys”…

The Irish are keeping tabs on Amorion Walker as well, who is similar to Copeland but a little behind for me; he’s a little bigger but I think Copeland is a little more athletic. Terry Joseph was the lead recruiter for the Lousianan; it’ll be interesting to track the effect of his departure.

Tight End

Commits: Jack Nickel, 0.8856, #409 overall/#18 position
Slots: 2

Holden Staes shares more than just a position and home state with Tommy Tremble – their build, athleticism, and game are also very similar. Staes decommitted from Penn State about a month ago and has a Who’s Who of an offer list; he recently mentioned Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Texas, Ole Miss, and North Carolina as other schools he communicates with. Nonetheless, the consensus seems to be that Notre Dame leads. He’ll likely try to take some visits soon and may decide (again) after that…

Eli Raridon was a more off-the-radar prospect but has gained a lot of steam lately, getting a ratings bump from 247 based on his basketball film. Since the start of February he has picked up offers from, in order, Illinois, Notre Dame, Minnesota, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Duke, and Auburn. His father Scott played OL for Willingham and Weis, and his uncle and grandfather both played OL at Nebraska. So he has buzz and bloodlines…

The TE position is another interesting situation. The staff is recruiting Staes and Raridon equally hard, despite having Nickel in the class already. I don’t think Nickel is going anywhere, either of his own or the staff’s volition, I don’t think any of the three of them are DCE candidates, and I can’t see the staff taking three tight ends in this class. So it’s likely a first-in-the-boat scenario, but that’s not entirely certain either. Will the staff turn anyone away? My gut says Staes will decide first and that will be it,Stay tuned!

Offensive Line

Commits: OT Joey Tanona, 0.9385, #155 overall/#18 position; OT Ty Chan, 0.9235, #199 overall/#26 position
Slots: 4

Jeff Quinn is off to an outstanding start here with two top 200 commits already. Tanona profiles more as an inside guy while Chan is a pure tackle prospect; with a good mix of tackles and guards last cycle, I would expect the staff to focus on tackles and swing guys the rest of the way in this cycle. Enter five-star Virginian Zach Rice, a potential instant impact prospect on the edge. Notre Dame has been on Rice for a long time and he says all the right things about being interested, but this feels like a North Carolina/Clemson battle with Notre Dame and Ohio State on the outside looking in…

Carson Hinzman is somewhat similar in that Notre Dame and another blueblood, in this case Alabama, likely trail the hometown team, in this case Wisconsin (Rice lives just over a two hour drive from North Carolina). There are others in the picture as well, but in the end I expect Hinzman to stay home… The Irish are in better shape with top 150 Ohio tackle Aamil Wagner, a four-star prospect with five-star upside. Wagner definitely needs to add some bulk, but if he can do that while maintaining his athletic profile the sky’s the limit. He’s an extremely high academic prospect who, not surprisingly, also lists Stanford among his top schools. See: Merriweather, Tobias. He doesn’t have an offer from Ohio State yet, which could be something to monitor…

Like Hinzman, Billy Schrauth hails from Wisconsin and has a top group that includes Notre Dame and a tier 1 program, in this case Ohio State again. Unlike Hinzman, it looks here like Notre Dame is in the driver’s seat over the local team. I like Schrauth as an interior guy or possibly a right tackle. He’s a decent bet to announce a commitment this spring… Finally, Bishop Gorman product Jake Taylor has had Notre Dame in his top group for a while but the consensus is that Oklahoma is the clear leader. Taylor visited Oklahoma last fall and hasn’t visited Notre Dame or Alabama, his other top school. As they say, follow the visits.

Board Thoughts

It’s a little bit unusual to take your first quarterback commitment so late in a cycle, but Notre Dame was hardly alone in that. In fact, only 12 of the top 20 and 22 of the top 50 quarterbacks in the class have committed anywhere. A bunch of those were pretty recent, too; Simpson, Allar, Angeli, and Cade Klubnik are all in the top 20 QBs and all committed within the last couple of weeks. That’s a bit of a cycle in its own right; as you might imagine, programs recruit quarterbacks differently than they do other positions. They typically will have one guy at the top of their board, then move to the next guy when they have clarity on that guy, and so on. Fewer QB dominoes falling early has created a cascade effect down the QB rankings, where player X can’t commit to his school of choice until player Y makes up his mind. Notre Dame is set now, though, and Angeli has big plans on recruiting other prospects for the Irish.

At running back, we feel very good about Notre Dame’s chances of landing Singleton or Hayden – probably a little more bullish on Hayden, but regardless, they’re likely to get a very good back to pair with the very good one they already have. If the staff does miss out on both, I’m not sure if they’ll just move on to Evans or if they’ll reset the board. If they do reset, Payne and Alston might be names to watch.

An offensive line haul of Tanona, Chan, Schrauth, and Wagner seems highly likely at this point; even without a five-star, that’s a stupid good group. Taken with last year’s class of Blake Fisher, Rocco Spindler, Caleb Johnson, Joe Alt, and Joe Coogan, it gives Quinn a true embarrassment of riches to work with. And let’s not forget Tosh Baker and Michael Carmody from the 2020 class. Cadillac problems, folks.

The receiver class is interesting. The Irish are in on some very good players, but it’s more or less impossible to handicap where everything stands right now. I would love to get a class of, say, CJ Williams, Kaden Saunders, and Addison Copeland (who I think is very underrated). I think Notre Dame is in good shape to a varying degree with each of them, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable laying money on landing any particular one of them let alone all three. I think they have a shot at landing all three, or three similar players, but it’s all too fuzzy to have any level of confidence at the moment. I think visits could be very big here.

Tyler posted his 2022 best-guess thoughts yesterday; we’ve been discussing it in the writers’ room for a while and we’re very much on the same page. I won’t rehash that here, go read Tyler’s piece if you’re interested, but I will say that I think Irish fans will be pretty happy with the offensive class by the time all is said and done. Well, for the most part, anyway. We all know Irish fans can never be too happy.