Welcome back to the 18 Stripes Big Board for Fighting Irish football. Today we are looking at Notre Dame’s targets along the defensive front seven, and I’m going to be doing things a little differently today. Rather than briefly going over each target left on the board, I’m going to focus in on a few of the more notable names left on the board and hit those guys in greater detail.

Defensive End

Score Name State Ht./Wt. Temperature
.973 Josh Kaindoh MD 6-6/235 Cold
.971 Jarez Parks FL 6-5/260 Cold
.978 LaBryan Ray AL 6-4/255 Cold
.915 Ryan Johnson AL 6-3/255 Cold
.897 Josh Paschal MD 6-4/255 Warm
.879 Brad Johnson SC 6-3/230 Cold
.848 Cortez Alston GA 6-3/250 Cool
In the Fold

The Irish have just one defensive end commit in the class right now in Jonathon MacCollister (.846) out of Orlando, Florida. Jonathon is in South Bend right now for The Echoes banquet with a slew of other ND commits and targets. He has been an Irish commit since mid-June, and there have been no news of him looking around since then. Most expect him to pack on a few pounds and play big end for the Irish. At 6-4/240 pounds, he certainly has the frame to do so.

In Play

Surprise, surprise. Josh Kaindoh de-committed from Maryland. You may remember from the summer that Josh tweeted out a “Top 4” of Notre Dame, Michigan, Penn State, and Ohio State. But that was all just some kind of masterful ruse/publicity stunt (whichever way you want to view it). He committed to the Terps a few days later. While we all saw this de-commitment coming, and the Irish were probably at #2 behind Maryland at the time of his commitment, the Irish will not be a player for Kaindoh’s services from here on out. It sounds like the staff took offense to his fake Top 4, and they cut off contact with Josh not long after he made his original commitment. Penn State was looking like the benefactor of Josh’s change of heart at first, but now it looks like Florida State has taken the lead.

The big target left on the board for the Irish is Josh Paschal. Though listed as a strong-side end on 247, Notre Dame sees him as a guy that can get after the passer. Some of you may already be aware of this, but Josh actually tried to commit to Notre Dame over the summer. Unfortunately, he needed to get some things squared away in the classroom at the time, so the ND staff told him he needed to take care of that before they would accept a commitment from him (they didn’t want another Prentice McKinney/Bo Wallace situation happening). The good news is that Josh has worked his butt off since then, and the Irish are now ready to accept his commitment if he so chooses. There will be some competition from Kentucky here, but Josh is visiting campus right now. Hopefully this visit reminds him of why he wanted to commit to Notre Dame in the first place.

A month or two ago, there was some scuttlebutt that Brad Johnson would take an official visit to Notre Dame. That visit never happened, and it is not expected to happen in the future. So I won’t go into more detail on him.

Defensive Tackle

Score Name State Ht./Wt. Temperature
.969 Jay Tufele UT 6-3/300 Cold
.909 Jerron Cage OH 6-2/275 Mild
.890 Breyon Gaddy VA 6-5/335 Cold
.886 Martin Andrus CA 6-1/280 Cold
.884 Noah Elliss CO 6-4/330 Cold
.881 Dalyn Wade-Perry NJ 6-3/340 Cold
.832 Brandon Pili OR 6-4/310 Cool
In the Fold

The Irish currently have two defensive tackle commits in Norfolk, Virginia’s Darnell Ewell (.933) and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s Kurt Hinish (.867). Ewell is a raw but physically developed and strong athlete. Depending on how quickly he learns, he could see the field very early for Notre Dame. He is also on campus this weekend for The Echoes. Hinish is a high-motor guy who plays relentlessly. Assuming he can develop properly physically, he should be a solid contributor along the defensive line.

In Play

Jerron Cage remains committed to Ohio State, but it’s possible that changes in the future. The Buckeyes are expecting a big haul of elite commitments in the coming months, including Jay Tufele, and there is a chance that Jerron possibly gets gently pushed out of the class. It’s also possible that Jerron takes a look at the depth chart of both Ohio State and Notre Dame and likes his odds better in South Bend. The Irish staff has remained in constant contact with Jerron, he’s taken quite a few visits to South Bend over the past few months, and the staff would make room for him if he wanted aboard. I don’t know what the odds are him ending up in this class, but I would not be surprised if Notre Dame added a second Cage brother to its 2017 roster.

Notre Dame’s newest offer went out to Brandon Pili on Thursday after evaluating his senior film. Don’t let the modest ratings fool you, Brandon holds a legit offer list that includes the likes of USC, Washington, Ole Miss, Colorado, and Oregon State. Of course, the distance may play a significant factor here with Brandon being from the Northwest. We’re still waiting on some news about what this offer means to him as well. The pay sites have been pretty busy with the Aaron banks commitment and The Echoes banquet all occurring this weekend. I do have some interesting information on Brandon, though. He’s actually from Anchorage, Alaska! He moved to Portland, Oregon for his senior season to improve his recruiting visibility, and it looks like that move has paid off.

Linebacker

Score Name State Ht./Wt. Temperature
.964 Drew Singleton NJ 6-2/215 Cold
.959 Nate McBride GA 6-2/220 Cold
.934 Nathan Proctor MD 6-2/205 Cold
.924 Leonard Warner GA 6-4/225 Cold
.897 Pete Werner IN 6-3/220 Cold
.892 Antjuan Simmons MI 6-1/215 Warm
.891 Ellis Brooks VA 6-2/230 Cold
In the Fold

The Irish are down to two linebacker commits since the de-commitment of Pete Werner (more on that below). Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s David Adams (.936) and Fort Lauderdale, Florida’s Drew White (.845) are a decent haul as-is, but the Irish are looking to make up for the loss of Werner and they’ve got their sights set on another 4-star.

In Play

 As I mentioned above, Pete Werner recently de-committed from Notre Dame. Now, I’m going to address a rumor that has been going around regarding his recruitment (it’s even being passed off as fact by a couple of the “experts”), because we here at 18 Stripes like to set the record straight. I may be over-stepping my bounds here, but this needs to be addressed. The rumor is that Pete hadn’t received so much as a phone-call from Notre Dame for as long as TWO MONTHS before de-committing. I’m just gonna come out and say it: this is a load of crap and literally makes no sense. First of all, because Pete took numerous visits to Notre Dame over the fall. It’s pretty logical to assume that some kind of interaction resulted from either setting up those visits and being on campus for those visits. And second of all, because the vast majority of the guys who are supposed to be experts have continued to report that Notre Dame maintains constant contact with all current commits and priority targets — making sure to call everybody at least once a week, if not more. There are also other sources close to the situation that maintain this was the case with Pete. The other story that has come out on this (and the one that is immensely more likely) is that he took a visit to Ohio State, during which Urban Meyer was able to put it in his head that Brian Kelly would not be the coach of Notre Dame in 2017. That uncertainty led to his de-commitment.

I also mentioned above that the Irish are hoping to close out this class with one more linebacker to make up for the recent loss, and the Irish have their sights set on former Ohio State commit Antjuan Simmons. Antjuan de-committed from the Buckeyes the day after Werner backed off of his pledge to the Irish, and Notre Dame immediately made themselves a major player for his services. He’s on a visit to Arizona right now, but the signs are pointing to Notre Dame holding the lead for him at this point in time. Look for Antjuan to take a visit to South Bend in January. When that happens, I imagine he will likely be on commit-watch.