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!