Notre Dame’s run of recruiting in early August continues with their 3rd commit in 3 days as suburban Wichita, Kansas running back Dylan Edwards gave a verbal to the Fighting Irish on Saturday. He committed to Kansas State back on June 23rd and spent just 36 days in the Wildcats class before leaving it in late July.
Edwards camped at Notre Dame just a week before giving that verbal to Kansas State. In mid-July he turned a lot of heads at the Under Armour Future 50 camp at IMG Academy and picked up a scholarship offer from Notre Dame 10 days later. After picking up that Irish offer, Edwards came immediately back for a visit and here we are today with him joining the Notre Dame class.
Recruiting Service Rankings
247Sports Composite — 4 star (.9000 rating), #324 overall, #19 RB, #2 in KS
On3 Consensus — 4 star (89.92 rating), #292 overall, #17 RB, #2 in KS
The 247 Composite and On3 Consensus both combine 247, On3, Rivals, and ESPN rankings.
247Sports — 4 star (90 rating), NR overall, #16 RB, #3 in KS
On3 — 4 star (90 rating), NR overall, #20 RB, #2 in KS
Rivals — 3 star (5.7 rating), NR overall, #10 RB, #3 in KS
ESPN — 4 star (81 rating), #234 overall, #14 RB, #2 in KS
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (90 rating)
It’s been a big year for the state of Kansas and Notre Dame football. The Irish have the state’s top offensive lineman in Joel Otting committed, just snatched Edwards up this month, and while it looks he’ll stick to Kansas State, quarterback Avery Johnson was in the mix with Notre Dame, too.
Edwards’ size is holding him back in the rankings but you have to assume with his big summer and commit to Notre Dame there will be a nice boost coming.
Cohort
In addition to Notre Dame and Kansas State, Edwards was being pursued heavily by Oklahoma, Oregon, and Nebraska. He also carried top offers from both Arizona and Arizona State, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa State, Kentucky, Michigan State, Minnesota, Miss State, Missouri, Purdue, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and TCU.
Highlights
Sweet baby Jesus this kid is fast! Edwards’ short-area explosiveness is otherworldly, and as he won the fastest man at the Future 50 camp with a 4.39 40-yard dash and nearly clocking in at 23 miles per hour peak speed, this is clearly someone with elite quickness in this 2023 class. He might be the fastest overall runner I’ve scouted in a Notre Dame commit, too.
With the ball in his hands, Edwards is 100% a 5-star prospect. He has great vision and footwork combining excellent shiftiness with an ability to make one cut and get up-field to exploit his speed. He’s just so hard to tackle because his speed makes everyone take terrible angles to the ball. He also shows pretty good toughness and balance for his size with a willingness to block, too.
Impact
Everyone is wondering about Edwards’ size and where he’ll fit in with the Irish offense. The high school uniform helps with the comparison to Oregon’s De’Anthony Thomas who was listed out of Crenshaw High School at 5’9″ and 160 pounds, listed at 5’9″ and 169 pounds with the Ducks, and eventually 5’8″ and 176 pounds in the NFL. Edwards has a very similar muscular 5’8″ to 5’9″ type of frame that very well could keep him under 180 pounds in college.
In college, Thomas only averaged a little under 10 touches from scrimmage per game with 6.5 rushing attempts. It’s believed Notre Dame is looking at Dylan Edwards in more of a slot receiver role but in order to get the ball in his hands he’s likely to be someone who motions a lot and gets more rushing attempts than receptions.
He’s an extremely exciting prospect with a very high ceiling hidden by his modest recruiting rankings. While he may not flourish as a true slot receiver (God knows Notre Dame has struggled developing these smaller receivers) and isn’t someone who is going to be making contested catches down field, his versatility and speed could really open up the Notre Dame playbook and punish opponents using his blazing fast speed. If he can stay healthy, I think he’ll have a terrific college career.
Welcome to the Irish family, Dylan!
When was the last small-but-insanely-fast skill player on the roster?
This one has me super jacked; it feel like we’re filling the roster with so much talent a guy like this can truly fulfill a niche but important role of that slippery game breaker. I could have seen this like circa 2013 being a borderline bell-cow RB for us.
So stoked to get that tutu atwell firecracker type!!!!
the kick returner. #3. during 2015 and 2016. Forger his name. Had a couple kick returns and punts he took to the house. He fumbled once at clemson and then Kelly hated him for some reason. Chris something. Idk. But i LIked him.
#3 was Amir Carlisle, I don’t think it was him?
I was checking the roster, possible candidates: #9 CJ Sanders, #15 Corey Holmes, I remember vaguely those names returning kicks. I think CJ played on the 2016 team then transferred to Houston
You must be confused. #3 was Amir Car-LYLE
CJ Sanders wore #3, maybe him?
Yes it was Sanders.
Who are the guys with elite speed that we’ve had in the last decade or so at the skill positions on offense?
It seems it’s been too little and too far apart.
Braden lenzy, will fuller are two that come to mind.
Hmmm… george Atkinson III may he rest in peace.
Was CJ prosise known as a burner?
Josh Adam’s had some strong straight line speed. Outside of fuller and lenzy, they were fast guys, but I wouldnt call the others elite speedsters.
And of those, we only really ever had fuller and prosise on the field simultaneously. Yikes
No one outside of Fuller. And Lenzy and Fuller aren’t nearly as small as Edwards, who may be as short as 5’6″. I think Joey Getherall is probably the best semi-recent comp. But this dude is more dynamic than that. Very exciting pickup.
Man, it feels really exciting to read about a commit without the “he’s not a burner but” qualifier!
Everyone in the comments forgetting Chris Tyree exists and ran a 4.38 at The Opening in 2019
Everyone else forgetting Micah Bell committed like last month and ran a 10.41 100m and a 20.89 200m
I think the point here was more on the offensive side of the ball (guys with the ball in their hands) – not D.
A Wisconsin fan would remember!
This seems like a really good take. I recall doing a quick check a year or two back and determining that basically a recruit above .92 on the composite is somebody who you can reasonably think should be a multi-year starter and a recruit below .92 is much more likely to wash out or never play than be a multi-year starter. But, if a guy is below .92, it seems to me you want him to do one thing really well or have some obvious reason he’s not there – which is clearly applicable to Edwards.
I think we can realistically hope to get him ~5 touches a game in a few years, and that’s probably worth it.
I can’t think of a better flier to take than a prospect like Edwards. He could be a serious weapon on offense and/or special teams.
The clip at 1:28 makes me laugh. Speedsters can create some ridiculous highlights in high school.
Fastest running back recruit in the country for the second time in four years. Sounds pretty good to me.
Peter Jones
Can’t help but think we stole the K-states next Darren Sproles.