On Saturday night, Notre Dame continued its hot start on the 2018 recruiting trail with the commitment of OL John Dirksen from Maria Stein, OH. Dirksen becomes the 12th overall commit and the 2nd OL commit, joining Cole Mabry.
Dirksen gave his verbal to the Irish at the conclusion of his unofficial visit this weekend in South Bend. Checking in at 6’5 305 lbs, he came to town looking terrific physically. In what turned out to be a big recruiting weekend for Notre Dame, Dirksen was one of three OL recruits on campus, along with Ryan Hayes and Nicholas Petit-Frere.
Recruiting Service Rankings
247 Composite: 4-star (.8974), #294 overall, #23 OT, #14 in Ohio
247Sports: 3-star, 87 ranking, #495 overall, #35 OT, #20 in Ohio
Rivals: 3-star, #35 in Ohio
Scout: 4-star, #190 overall, #9 OG, #1 OG in Ohio
ESPN: NR
Cohort
Dirksen holds offers from Notre Dame, Iowa State, Kentucky, Michigan State, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt.
Highlights
Dirksen plays in a smaller division in Ohio, and it is easy to see in his competition. Many of the opposing defensive linemen are, well, really small. With that being said, Dirksen dominates like he should. He is a giant body who plays big and takes care of his business. On multiple plays, he also gets downfield pretty well and shows some athleticism in staying out in front as a lead blocker.
Granted the film is from his sophomore year, Dirksen looks a little stiff in his stance and pass protection. There is not a ton of footage to go off of, but it would be interesting to compare this film to last year’s work.
At this point, Dirksen is still a possibility for either guard or tackle.
Impact
The ongoing trend for Coach Hiestand is to redshirt his freshmen linemen. It would be surprising to see anything different for John Dirksen. As a testament to past recruiting at OL, Dirksen should simply not be needed as a freshman and will have the opportunity to develop physically and mentally for a year or two before stepping into real action.
With Mabry and Dirksen now on board, the Irish are sitting in an advantageous position for their 2018 OL recruiting. Notre Dame would like to add Ryan Hayes and then catch a big fish to close the cycle.
Great job by HH and BK to land another high quality recruit early in the 2018 class.
Welcome to the Irish family, Mr. Dirksen!
I’ll take OL commits all day long! I wouldn’t mind some DL commits too.
Dirksen should be a good one. DL Ja’Mion Franklin was also offered this weekend on his visit, and ND seems to hold a lead. PJ Mustipher is planning on visiting for the spring game. We are well-positioned early on for our big boys on the defensive side.
I’ll take it all day long.
Very, very early but still pretty cool. Seems like ND does best getting early commits from the kids who fit the program, just need to close better on some more of the ones who have a couple top choices. Via Pete Sampson:
Definitely a nice start, but one striking difference between ND and the other teams on that list is in theTop 100 column. We have great depth, but we need some game-changers.
We should really have 2, as Derrik Allen is undoubtedly a top-100 player. And if Phil is out of the top 100 then Scout is just absurd and their opinion doesn’t matter.
An OL named “Nicholas Petit-Frere” is ironic, right?
(No, I’m seriously asking. I don’t think I even know what irony is anymore and I don’t speak much French.)
For a guy who could just flop on top of these pipsqueaks (i.e. average sized high school kids) he looks to use his hands quite well. Most of his pancakes are him driving guys into the ground with his arms, especially when he gets multiple pancakes on one play.