Just a week ago, Notre Dame offered Kalon Gervin, a cornerback from Cass Tech in Detroit, MI. The crystal ball was 100% for Michigan already at the time, and it was assumed that Gervin — like so many before him at Cass Tech — would be an automatic Wolverine. However, just a week after his offer and a day after concluding a weekend trip to South Bend, Kalon Gervin committed to Notre Dame.
Gervin, listed at 5’11 180 lbs, becomes the first cornerback commit of the 2018 class for Notre Dame. After striking out at cornerback last cycle, it became a remarkably important position for this cycle. Gervin’s commitment not only gets the ball rolling, but it does so with legit talent.
Recruitment Service Rankings
247 Composite: 4-star (.9302), #162 overall, #10 ATH, #3 in MI
247 Sports: 4-star, 92 ranking, #158 overall, #9 ATH, #4 in MI
Rivals: 4-star, #90 overall, #11 CB, #2 in MI
Scout: 4-star, #296 overall, #28 CB, #1 CB in MI
ESPN: 4-star, 80 rating, #201 overall, #27 CB, #2 in MI
Cohort
Gervin chose Notre Dame over offers from Michigan, Michigan State, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Arkansas, Cal, Colorado, Florida, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Indiana, Louisville, LSU, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oregon, Penn State, Pitt, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and others.
Highlights
From film, Gervin displays terrific feet. His technique is really advanced, and he displays fluid hips with quick burst. His acceleration allows him to break on balls quite well, and he looks like a savvy, natural cornerback in all of his movements.
Gervin is likely closer to 5’9 rather than 5’11, and size could be a hindrance for him in the future. However, he tends to play bigger than his size, and tackles pretty well in his highlights. Because of his speed and sound technique, Gervin should excel in the Notre Dame secondary.
Impact
The Notre Dame had a pretty straightforward message for Gervin this weekend: “We signed zero corners last cycle and are looking for guys who are ready to come in and play.” That message obviously paid dividends with Gervin ( I wish this pitch worked better for the WDE position).
Gervin will, indeed, likely have the opportunity to come in and push for some playing time as a true freshman. Credit the coaching staff for pulling in a kid from a Michigan breeding ground and getting the cornerback position off to a great start.
Welcome to the Irish family, Kalon!
Fantastic news! To start off 2018 CB recruiting not just with a really talented kid, but a Cass Tech kid… I’m sure Michigan et al. aren’t going to just throw up their hands and walk away from him, but I think the staff learned their lesson about easing off on committed prospects. And Gervin’s family is big time in ND’s corner, which helps.
So… Can we start calling him the Little Iceman? Pleeeease?
Also, love this from our new DC:
He did more recruiting work in that tweet than BVG did in 2.5 years.
This naturally should be a hyperbolic statement, but it sadly isn’t.
(Elko does 73x as much recruiting on Feb. 13, 2017 as BVG does in entire career)
Great! Who was the last Cass Tech player to come to ND?
Not sure we’ve ever had one, actually; some Google research turned up nothing. As you might expect, we haven’t done particularly well in Detroit ever. I don’t know the Detroit suburbs well enough to know what’s in the metro area, but in terms of the city proper we’ve only had 19 players ever, and only six since Ara. David Grimes is the most recent.
Jonas Gray is from Country Day, which I consider Metro Detroit.
Edit: Ahh i see you were going strictly for just Detroit. My bad.
Certainly not a lot from Detroit or the Metro Detroit area in terms of football. The Catholic League is the premier athletic conference in Michigan, but a lot of those athletes stay in-state (Shane Morris, Alex Malzone, Mike Martin back in ’08). Those Catholic schools send plenty of good students to ND, just not usually on athletic scholarship.
Probably going to get a lesson in geography, but isn’t Daelin from Detroit?
Pretty sure he’s from Ann Arbor.
Which, if you’re looking for a geography lesson, is about a 30-45 minute drive from Detroit.
Fun facts — Daelin Hayes started off @ Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, North of Detroit, before moving to CA for part of his junior year. He came back to MI for his senior year & was originally enrolled at …drumroll, please… Cass Tech before moving to AA and spending his senior year @ Skyline.
http://highschoolsports.mlive.com/news/article/1523978077883838655/states-no1-2016-football-recruit-daelin-hayes-transfers-from-cass-tech-to-ann-arbor-skyline/
I had completely forgotten about how wild his high school days were.
Woooo. Makes for a good Monday.
I’m just sitting over here being guardedly excited.
The awesome Rodney Culver was a great guy from Detroit and Morrissey Manor. He left us way too soon.
Derrick Allen commits. Would be nice to wrap up DB recruiting before the night’s out.
We will have a commit post in the a.m. Huge, huge pickup for Mike Elko and Co.
Been a nice 24 hours. What is this feeling….optimism?
The real question is why did Kelly wait so long to actually give a crap about the defense? Can we hang onto Elko if it’s too little, too late for BK?