Welcome back to the 18 Stripes Big Board for Fighting Irish Football. Today we’re taking a look at Notre Dame’s the defensive secondary — an area that has been flipped completely upside down over the past couple of weeks.
Cornerback
The past week or so has been rough for the Irish at this position.
First, on January 9th, Under Armour All American Paulson Adebo decommitted from Notre Dame. Basically, his dream school has always been Stanford, but the Cardinal hadn’t been recruiting him as it was thought that he couldn’t pass admissions. Unfortunately for Notre Dame, he did pass admissions. And then promptly decommitted after Stanford came back after him with renewed vigor.
The very next day, news broke that Notre Dame and Elijah Hicks were parting ways. It’s not totally clear how all this went down, but the reports are that it was a mutual parting of ways. Anyway, Elijah promptly committed to Cal shortly thereafter, where he is enrolling early.
As you can imagine, this puts Notre Dame in a less than ideal position this late in the recruiting cycle as they now have zero corners committed. The Irish have since sent out a flurry of new offers, hoping to make up some of the ground lost this week.
| Score | Name | State | Ht./Wt. | Temperature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| .953 | Deommodore Lenoir | CA | 5-11/190 | Cool |
| .951 | Greg Johnson | CA | 5-10/185 | Cold |
| .945 | Chevin Calloway | TX | 5-10/180 | Cold |
| .921 | Paulson Adebo | TX | 6-2/180 | Cold |
| .902 | Elijah Gates | CA | 5-10/170 | Cold |
| .895 | Latavious Brini | FL | 6-2/200 | Cool |
| .869 | Ameer Speed | FL | 6-3/195 | Cold |
| .869 | Terrell Bailey | LA | 6-0/175 | Cool |
| .839 | Tre Norwood | AR | 5-11/170 | Hot |
New Offers Out
Current Tennessee commit Terrell Bailey received an offer from the Irish on the 11th. It’s unclear what kind of chances Notre Dame has here, but he has expressed interest. He will need to set up an official visit to South Bend for the Irish to have a real shot. He has not done so yet.
Tre Norwood was a Louisville commit at the time of receiving his Irish offer on the 10th. Two days later Todd Lyght made a visit to his school, and Tre took to Twitter to announce his decommitment later that same day. Tre took an official visit to Wake Forest this weekend, and he’ll be in South Bend next weekend for his official visit to Notre Dame. Not sure when exactly he will finalize his decision, but all signs right now point to him ending up Irish on signing day.
The Irish also sent out a couple of offers to TCU commit Noah Daniels (.856) and former Oregon commit Demetrius Douglas (.853). Daniels has made it clear he will stick with TCU and won’t be visiting Notre Dame. The Irish might have gotten somewhere with Douglas, but PJ Fleck got to him first, flipping him just yesterday. Due to the circumstances, I decided not to add either to the Big Board.
Safety
The Irish still do have one DB commit in this class, and he’s a good one. Isaiah Robertson (.899) has been a long time Irish commit, and he should be on campus right now as he’s an early enrollee. I guess at this point it’s good that he has no time to re-think his commitment. (I kid, of course. He’s been pretty open about his excitement to be enrolling early.)
Notre Dame will be looking to add one or two more safeties to this class.
| Score | Name | State | Ht./Wt. | Temperature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| .978 | Devon Hunter | VA | 6-1/205 | Cold |
| .961 | Todd Harris | LA | 6-0/180 | Cold |
| .948 | Isaiah Pola-Mao | AZ | 6-4/190 | Cold |
| .934 | Chaz Ah You | UT | 6-2/200 | Cool |
| .917 | Connor Wedington | WA | 6-0/190 | Mild |
| .892 | KJ Jarrell | AZ | 6-3/175 | Cold |
| .891 | RJ Potts | IN | 6-2/200 | Cold |
| .873 | Tank Robinson | SC | 5-11/190 | Cold |
| .865 | Jordan Genmark-Heath | CA | 6-2/205 | Cool |
| .856 | Evan Fields | OK | 6-2/195 | Warm |
New Offer
Notre Dame sent out an offer to Cal commit Jordan Genmark-Heath on the 11th. This is a really good athlete who is still pretty new to the game of football since he grew up in Sweden. With Sonny Dykes being out at Cal, the Irish may have an opportunity to work their way into his recruitment. I’m not sure what he thinks of the hiring of Justin Wilcox, but before that news broke he had some comments that made it seem he was pretty unsure about his commitment. Jordan is expected to visit Notre Dame later this month, but that visit is not set up yet.
In Play
Former Washington commit Conor Wedington is another guy who is expected to visit South Bend within the next couple of weeks, but that visit is also not set in stone. He could play anywhere in the secondary and has legit interest in Notre Dame, but Stanford is the favorite here. The Irish would have to blow him away on his visit to have a real chance.
Notre Dame’s best shot at landing another safety is definitely Evan Fields right now. Arizona State has the edge at this point as they recently hosted him for a visit. He also made an official visit to UCLA this weekend. But he will be in South Bend next weekend for his official visit with the Fighting Irish, a visit that could affect his recruitment in a big way. Evan is scheduled to make an announcement on January 30th.
So there you have it. The Irish staff is sort of scrambling at this point to fill up some of the holes in this class with a little more than 2 weeks left until signing day. The good news is that new DC Mike Elko has already been more active on the recruiting trail in his short time at Notre Dame than Brian VanGorder was in all of his 3 years or so. So far Elko has been more than I had hoped for on the recruiting trail after so many years of mediocrity, and I have a feeling he will be a highly valuable recruiter for the Fighting Irish.
So was Van Gorder a bad recruiter or just not interested in doing it ? Did he think the staff could make up for his being deficient in the area? Did BK think the same? It would seem, a coach is in the wrong business if he doesn’t understand recruiting’s importance.
BTW, LB – Antjuan Simmons to Sparty.
Sounds like BVG didn’t like recruiting. Wasn’t very active in it. Basically kept it to official in-home visits and talks while on campus, as well as I think giving the green light to offer defensive recruits.
Elko, meanwhile, has been working his butt off contacting kids, establishing connections, evaluating, and offering. Definitely seems like an upgrade.
A note on Simmons, btw. Apparently Elko wasn’t high on him. We basically stopped recruiting him. I think the same can be said for Ellis Brooks. Sounds like we’re sticking with 2 LBs in this class.
Interesting stuff on Simmons and Brooks. Thanks
Great job Tyler. They’re definitely in scramble mode. I’m thinking this is about right for finishing 4 and 8. Could have been better and could have been worse, in regards to recruiting.
Yep, definitely could be either better or worse.
Adebo de-committing is definitely the biggest blow to this class, though, aside from Beal. He would have been special.
Good for him that he could get into Stanford, but I find myself selfishly wishing he hadn’t.
It makes me feel better that at least the rationale for making a switch seems to be more about unexpectedly getting admitted to Stanford (the school it sounded like that he always wanted to go to), and not so much ND coming off of a 4-8 season.
That said, maybe it’s good that all the now sophomores look like they should be the core of the CB’s for the next 3 years. Maybe, hopefully, a weak CB class won’t be killer if they sign better in 2018.
BVG ran our defense like he was still coaching in the NFL. In the NFL all the coach has to do is look at film and perform for the next game. That’s exactly what he did at ND. He just wasn’t very good at that either.
To be a good college coach you have to spend 15% of your time looking at film for your next opponent. You then have to spent 35% of your time coaching all your players the playbook for the upcoming opponent.
That leaves 50% of his life. A good 30% of that is looking at film of recruits he hopes to sign. 10% more of that is flying and then find whatever time is left to eat and sleep.
He then pulls together an additional 25% he obviously doesn’t have to do his best to sell these high school kids on the benefits of going to ND. Both on the field and in the classroom.
That’s what a good coach / recruiter does. His job becomes his life.
BVG wasn’t that way. He’d sit and watch game film with his players. He’d then move on expecting his players to get it no questions asked. He’d go cash his paycheck and expect recruits would come to him just based on Notre Dame’s reputation.
He may have had good intentions. He just wasn’t very good at the job required of him.
You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who disagrees with this statement.
This is why it was totally inexplicable that BK kept him after two years of that.
Here is a list of lower ranked players (some they’d have to flip) but getting them would help for multiple reasons. They’d fill a hole and:
Roman Kafentzis – He has ideal size and speed. On top of that he’d get us back in MAtre Dei. A very important program to have friends at.
Javelin Guidry – He has good size and Texas is our only real competition.
Deommodre Lenoir – He’d be a steal as he is a stud that looks like he’ll be choosing between USC and Oregon. There would be no harm in putting the full court press on him.
Jermani Brown – He’s a solid commit to Boise State and I have mixed feelings about wanting to poach from the school I attended. This kid has legit ability but he has no ties to the West Coast. He may be vulnerable to being homesick.
Langi Tuifua – If he can be talked into leaving the state of Utah then he could be a 4 year starter for a major problem. The “problem” with him if he is probably staying in state.
In addition, all of these guys have tremendous names.
Thought ND also has a visit set up with BC verbal CB Jason Pinnock?
He actually de-committed, so he’s back on the market.
And he does have an official visit set up for the 27th. He has not been offered yet, though. If he does get an offer, it will likely be during that visit.
Maybe this is crazy – please feel free to say so, but would it ever get to the point where you may stop recruiting for the year and not just take a kid to fill a “spot”? Perhaps offering the scholarship to an extra 5th year senior or a walk-on in hopes that you could use that spot for a better kid the following year. Obviously there are many reasons why we are down to some mid to low 3 star recruits for certain positions (4-8, coaching changes, etc.).
If we know a low 3 star – say like Tre Norwood – is never really going to start for us or even be a contributor (sort of thinking like Pete M. at DT for us), wouldn’t it be better to save it for next year where we could trade – so to speak – this spot for a high 3 star/4 star player – banking on the fact that our DC will have been there and we won’t go 4-8 again (let’s be honest if we were bad again, then it doesn’t matter who we recruit; the presumption by staff needs to be that they will do well enough to come back and as a result would be in a better place to get the better recruit).
The downside of course comes when this class becomes upperclassmen – but it may not be that much of a downside if these low 3 stars wouldn’t be playing anyway (like Mokwuah).
I think that strategy might make sense if we had 20 guys, but right now we need bodies. Especially if BK gets fired this year and recruiting lags again next year.
I see your point, but Norwood was at least an ACC recruit for Louisville, it’s not like his only option was to go to a D3 school or something…Individuals have started lower and made it higher for college careers.
Granted, generally the better long-term might not be to commit to a 3-star for four years when you could potentially get something better to take his place in the future.
That said, a guy like Norwood is a safety net when the 2 CB’s decommit. Maybe he grows and exceeds expectations. Under this strategy maybe you don’t sign Will Fuller because he was just a 3 star on some services and maybe you save his spot to try to recruit the next Floyd/Tate the following year, you know? Not sure about the CB 5th year market if there’s a guy to plug in for a year. Quality-wise is any available 5th year CB really going to be any good? Anyone that’s starting caliber is already going to the NFL, not sticking around for graduate studies.
Having to scramble to recruit 3 stars certainly isn’t ideal, but I’d rather have a 3-star than a walk on.
I was just using Norwood as an example. It could be some other recruit perhaps. But the point is – does it really help to have the numbers if they aren’t going to contribute? (though of course it may be hard to predict whether they will contribute or not). E.g. did it help us to have Pete – to have that extra body?
I would guess the magic is trying to project at age 16/17/18 which kids can progress and be big-time, big-program college football players 3, 4, 5 years down the line. Some can develop (didn’t BK recruit and sign JJ Watt to Central Michigan as a 2*? Though admittedly as a TE and not DE).
But obviously the sheer data says that the majority of commits won’t end up being multi-year starters no matter their recruiting ranking. I can see the point not to just sign a guy for 4 years simply to have a body there, but at the same time I guess you gotta trust why they recruit them and hope the development can boost guys to be the best they can. Not everyone will pan out, for one reason or another, but that seems like cost of doing business in a way.
With ND’s current CB situation, it seems they have they space and scholarship room to gamble on a guy like Norwood to hope he can develop. (And if not, that sucks but hopefully Love/Pride/Vaughn/Crawford/Coleman can cover up for next 2-3 years, then it puts them in a tougher spot to recruit a better, younger player to surpass him).
I guess when you say “does it really help to have the numbers if they aren’t going to contribute?” that it’s too difficult to say now in 2017 that a kid like Norwood won’t contribute by 2019, 20, 21. Perhaps he won’t, but they need to sign players and he’s seemingly the best interested option. Gotta roll the dice and hope for the best, and even if he doesn’t develop, I don’t think it hamstrings the team and is seemingly worth the risk with his good qualities.
While Pete M. didn’t really help us, he also didn’t hurt us – we were never in a serious number crunch, and after the last few recruiting classes and how this class is shaping up a number crunch in the near future seems unlikely as well. So Pete was worth a (long-)shot with no real downside.
I agree. If ND signs 4 borderline guys this year and only one hits. It will be unlikely that 2-3 yrs. down the road we are bemoaning that there is a numbers crunch. Rarely has ND had a problem getting down to 85 players.
The real questions are, can the new staff can do a better job at identifying more lower rated players with talent? Then, can they coach that talent better?
@I don’t understand. We’re Notre Dame, why are we settling for anything other than 5-stars? We should be getting 125 stars per class!@
FYI Jordan Genmark-Heath is visiting ND this weekend. We’ve got a pretty good shot at flipping him.
There’s been a development with Chris Miller, who some of you may remember from the WR big board.
He’s visiting ND this weekend, and the staff apparently offered him as an athlete, and he supposedly prefers DB. I’m betting that means he’ll likely be slotted as a corner if he were to flip from Colorado to ND.