The new early signing period for college football which lands in mid-to-late December each year changed the way program’s close their recruiting classes. For Notre Dame like most team’s, it’s meant taking commits much earlier and nearly wrapping up each class before football season even begins.

There are exceptions of course, but that’s largely how the landscape has shifted over the last few years. With that in mind, I was curious to look back on how the Irish started building their recruiting classes and if we’ve seen a change in the types of athletes and the success rate of said players that the team brings in to start each cycle.

Chronicling the First 5 commits (Who Signed) for Brian Kelly

2011

DE Brad Carrico 0.854
PK Kyle Brindza 0.831
CB Matthias Farley 0.841
OG Connor Hanratty 0.845
DE Tony Springmann 0.864
LB Jarrett Grace 0.889

I’ve added 6 players here because Hanratty, Springmann, and Grace all committed on the same day, April 24, 2010 pushing the class to over 5 in less than 24 hours. This group included the bottom 3 rated players in the class, although Brindza became a very good kicker and Farley remains one of the best developmental stories of the Kelly era.

Otherwise, this group is a big woof. Grace showed promise early on but was too big and too injured to have a lengthy and successful career.

2012

CB Tee Shepard 0.977
ATH Nicky Baratti 0.877
LS Scott Daly 0.792
WR Justin Ferguson 0.893
OT Mark Harrell 0.879

Shepard was the 2nd best recruit of this class to sign, and well, it didn’t work out as he left shortly after arriving on campus in January. It’s pretty crazy to look back and see that he was the first commit of this class I honestly did not have a memory of that happening.

But again, a very modest batch of recruits that didn’t do much at Notre Dame. Brian Kelly was getting off to a very slow start early in his career with the Irish.

2013

OT Steve Elmer 0.946
DE Jacob Matuska 0.880
WR James Onwualu 0.895
OT Hunter Bivin 0.954
OT Colin McGovern 0.920

The top-ranked class of the Kelly era finally got his coaching tenure off on the right foot with some bigger names. Elmer got things started as a commit on September 18, 2011 plus the 5 names above were joined by Malik Zaire, Mike McGlinchey, Rashad Kinlaw, and Corey Robinson in late March 2012. Remember when spring period visits were massive?

Although, Elmer left football early and neither Bivin or McGovern really reached their potential at Notre Dame so this collection of 5 didn’t meet expectations. Onwualu was an early-found gem, though.

2014

LB Greer Martini 0.887
WR Justin Brent 0.955
DT Jay Hayes 0.906
OG Jimmy Byrne 0.892
DE Andrew Trumbetti 0.936

Ah, the birth of the ELITE Greer Martini meme from our old website days. A few years into Kelly’s tenure and they still weren’t knocking it out of the park early in the classes. That’s why some people were big mad online about taking Martini so early. He did end up making 190 career tackles, though.

Of course, Brent became one of the most disappointing recruits in recent memory, Hayes never made much of an impact before a bizarre final year transfer to Georgia, and Trumbetti had his moments but struggled for someone who played a lot.

2015

OT Jerry Tillery 0.932
OC Tristen Hoge 0.958
WR Jalen Guyton 0.883
S Nicco Fertitta 0.847
OG Trevor Ruhland 0.873

It seems like 20 years ago that we were worried about Tillery ultimately choosing LSU and debating whether he’d stick at offensive tackle. Turns out, he became the first of the First 5 non-special teams players from Kelly’s tenure to make our 18 Stripes Hall of Fame Pyramid after his career was finished.

Through 5 cycles, only 9 players total from the early commits were over 0.900 Composite scores. Hoge seemed like such a perfect fit at Notre Dame but transferred out and just finished a solid career at BYU.

Fertitta and Ruhland had their roles to play, while Guyton transferring was sneaky tough. He hauled in 511 yards last year for the Chargers!

2016

OT Tommy Kraemer 0.983
RB Tony Jones 0.892
CB Julian Love 0.871
LS John Shannon 0.814
DE Julian Okwara 0.897

Kraemer remains one of the highest rated recruits of the entire Kelly era which makes it no surprise that he’s the highest rated First 5 player over the same time period. All things considered, his career was a bit of a disappointment relative to his prep status and he went undrafted to boot.

Not so much for Julian Love (another Hall of Fame Pyramid member) who had much higher expectations than his recruiting grade and still blew those out of the water. Tony Jones and Julian Okwara also overachieved, while Shannon was a quality long-snapper. Funny, given their first year on campus was such a disaster for the team, but this was the first really solid and productive set of early commits of the Kelly era.

2017

TE Brock Wright 0.966
OT Josh Lugg 0.944
TE Cole Kmet 0.960
LB David Adams 0.912
QB Avery Davis 0.907

Our first First 5 of all blue-chips! It’s been an okay group so far, right? Wright was definitely a disappointment relative to his ranking but a solid player from his freshman season. Lugg could potentially turn into a good starter if he can stay healthy. Obviously, Kmet was a sensational talent in his brief career before leaving for the NFL.

Adams sadly had to medically retire while Davis’ career has seen some insane ups and downs but he’s likely to be a big overachiever once he finishes 2021 and another year in the slot as a receiver.

2018

QB Phil Jurkovec 0.959
DT Jayson Ademilola 0.945
DE Justin Ademilola 0.870
LB Ovie Oghoufo 0.875
LB Bo Bauer 0.901

Things definitely didn’t work at quarterback for this class. I’m not sure Jayson Ademilola has reached lofty expectations yet but there’s still time. His brother Justin has definitely overachieved and been an important part of this class.

Notre Dame lost Oghoufo to transfer this off-season and that stings. He seemed ready to make a much bigger impact this fall but alas. Bauer seemed destined for special teams duty his entire career then changed the trajectory of what he’s capable of doing last season. He potentially plays a big role at linebacker for the next 2 seasons.

2019

DT Jacob Lacey 0.930
CB KJ Wallace 0.901
DT Hunter Spears 0.896
OT John Olmstead 0.924
S Litchfield Ajavon 0.912

This First 5 definitely looks like a step back so far. Lacey has been solid as a youngster but injuries hurt his 2020 season. We’ll see if he’ll rise up in a big way for 2021. Wallace is still in the mix at safety but likely not a starter, we’ll wait for more information this August.

Spears has flipped from the defensive line to the offensive line and likely never sees the field, it seems. Olmstead transferred out already and Ajavon (despite a frisky spring game a couple months ago!) has been on the outside looking in at safety and remains one of the more bizarre players in recent memory relative to his recruiting ranking.

2020

QB Drew Pyne 0.916
TE Kevin Bauman 0.912
TE Michael Mayer 0.983
DE Alexander Ehrensberger 0.841
DT Aidan Keanaaina 0.887

You could probably say Notre Dame likes this group a lot, although outside of Mayer I’m not sure there’s a ton to be excited about to date. The 2 defensive linemen are developmental prospects so far and it remains to be seen what we’ll get out of Bauman in the same class as superstar Mayer.

Pyne emerging a little bit this off-season definitely helps the cause, especially as they targeted him so early in the 2020 class. But if he never rises to a starter it’s not great.

2021

QB Tyler Buchner 0.968
OT Blake Fisher 0.973
DT Gabriel Rubio 0.947
TE Cane Berrong 0.913
WR Lorenzo Styles 0.947

Without playing in their first official games yet can you hit a larger homerun for the first 2 commits in a class than Buchner and Fisher? And they are backed up by some really solid blue-chips too! Time will tell but in the modern era Notre Dame hasn’t recruited a much better First 5 than this group.

2022

OT Joey Tanona 0.933
LB Nolan Ziegler 0.895
OT Ty Chan 0.919
DE Tyson Ford 0.945
Aiden Gobaira 0.907

To be fair, Ziegler felt like a bit of an early reach when he committed although he’s risen a little bit up the rankings and the staff feels comfortable taking him while some more highly sought after linebackers could be turned away.

Gobaira at one point did not have a good ranking but has been zooming up the rankings after a spring football season of dominance and will likely be easily inside the Composite Top 200 rankings by the end of this cycle. As of this writing he’s the No. 254 overall player in the Composite while 247Sports rates him as the No. 148 player in the nation.