Welcome back to the 18 Stripes Big Board for Fighting Irish Football. Today we are taking a look at Notre Dame’s targets at safety.

Score Name State Ht./Wt. Temperature
.978 Devon Hunter VA 6-1/205 Cool
.962 Todd Harris LA 6-0/180 Cold
.943 Xavier McKinney GA 6-1/190 Cold
.937 Isaiah Pola-Mao AZ 6-4/190 Mild
.936 Chaz Ah You UT 6-1/200 Mild
.918 CJ Avery MS 6-1/195 Cool
.904 Jaylen Kelly-Powell MI 6-0/175 Mild
.892 RJ Potts IN 6-2/200 Cold
.892 KJ Jarrell AZ 6-3/175 Wool
.885 Tank Robinson SC 5-11/190 Cold
.864 Amari Carter FL 6-2/170 Warm
.859 Jaiden Cole LA 6-1/195 Cool

Entering the Field

Jaiden Cole is the newest uncommitted offer that has gone out. He has a pretty solid offer list so far, and he’s probably leaning towards Arkansas at this point in time. But his comments upon receiving the offer made it seem like he’s open to hearing more from the Irish staff. We’ll see how his recruitment progresses.

In Play

Devon Hunter has had Virginia Tech as his leader for a while now. Blacksburg is like a second home to him, and he has a high comfort level with the Tech campus and team.

Todd Harris will probably commit to the in-state LSU at some point — which means the Tigers will probably have three Top 100 safeties commit from the class of 2017 (assuming no decommitments occur).

Xavier McKinney decommitted from Alabama about a month ago (I thought that kind of thing only happened mysteriously a few weeks before signing day). He seems to be pretty open at this point, but Clemson does hold all six of his Crystal Ball picks on 247.

The good news over the past few weeks is that Isaiah Pola-Mao‘s mother is really pushing him to give Notre Dame a hard look. Washington has the edge in his recruitment right now, but getting mom on board is usually the first step for the Irish staff in making a move. Getting Isaiah and his mother on campus will be the next step. If his mother has her way, Isaiah will take an official to Notre Dame in the fall.

For those of you who aren’t aware, Chaz Ah You is a Mormon (pretty common for a kid from Utah). For a while we weren’t sure if he was going to take time off for his Mormon mission trip or not. However, it has become apparent that he does intend to take a couple of years for his mission. Considering Notre Dame is probably looking for guys who can contribute within a couple of years of being on campus, I wouldn’t be surprised if the staff backs off on this recruitment.

CJ Avery came out with a Top 5 a couple of weeks ago that did not include Notre Dame. Odds are that he will end up picking one of the in-state SEC schools.

Jaylen Kelly-Powell still hasn’t committed to Michigan yet, even though everyone is about 95% sure it will happen eventually.

Notre Dame was the favorite to land RJ Potts for a while, but the staff mysteriously backed off their recruitment of him earlier in the year. Probably just because the staff had some other targets they wanted to focus on. RJ will probably end up joining the Indiana Hoosiers’ recruiting class eventually.

KJ Jarrell‘s recruitment is pretty quiet. He seems to like Arizona State and USC, but it’s hard to figure out much beyond that.

Tank Robinson seems to be leaning towards the in-state schools — South Carolina and Clemson. No timetable yet on a decision for him.

It’s still a tight battle for Amari Carter between Notre Dame and Miami. Miami has the edge right now because of proximity and comfort level with the school. We’ll see if things change if Amari can get his mother to join him on his official visit to South Bend.

In the Fold

Isaiah Robertson (.900) committed to Notre Dame back in April). At 6-3/190 pounds, he’s a kid with really good size and he plays the position like a ball-hawking center-fielder.

Committed Elsewhere

Germane Crowell is one of the recent offers that the staff sent out. He’s currently committed to Virginia, where his father played. Germane recently signed his Grant in Aid paperwork with UVa as well, so he’s probably a good bet to stick with his commitment.

Richard LeCounte III is committed to Georgia. Shame. He would have been an excellent addition to the Finer Things Clubā„¢.

Jacoby Stevens is committed to LSU.

Isaiah Pryor is committed to Ohio State.

Maleik Gray is committed to Tennessee.

Grant Delpit is committed to LSU.

Paris Ford is committed to Pitt.

Robert Barnes is committed to Oklahoma.

Daniel Wright is committed to Florida State.

Stuart Head is committed to Stanford.

Brendon White is committed to Ohio State.