Halloween has come and gone and now we’re at the point where the recruiting class of 2018 is really coming together. We’ll probably see a couple of new names pop up on the board here in the next couple of months, but right now the Irish have zeroed in on their top targets and are looking to finish strong on the defensive side of the ball.

247C Pos Name Temp
.998 DE Micah Parsons Cold
.989 DE KJ Henry Cold
.966 DE Tyreke Smith Cold
.915 DE Joseph Ossai Cold
.906 DE Elijah Wade Cold
.898 DE Andrew Chatfield Cold
.887 DE Andres Fox Cold
.931 DE Jayson Oweh Cold
.866 DE Daniel Carson Cold
.866 DE Kingsley Enagbare Cool
.853 DT Josh Walker Cold
.967 LB Solomon Tuliapupu Mild
.944 LB Dax Hollifield Cold
.963 LB Payton Wilson Cool
.946 LB Channing Tindall Cold
.891 LB Elijah Winston Cold
.999 CB Patrick Surtain Jr Cold
.992 CB Anthony Cook Cold
.983 CB Isaac Taylor-Stuart Cold
.973 CB Brendan Radley-Hiles Cold
.973 CB Kelvin Joseph Cold
.917 CB Kalon Gervin Cold
.916 CB Kyler Gordon Warm
.915 CB Christian Tutt Cold
.872 CB Noah Boykin Cool
.872 CB Tariq Bracy Warm
.839 CB Joe Wilkins Jr Mild
.978 S Tyreke Johnson Cold
.952 S Aashari Crosswell Cold
.903 S Julius Irvin Warm
.842 S BJ Crim Hot
.841 S Chris Mitchell Mild
.812 S Jeremiah Salaam Cold
.934 ATH Alontae Taylor Warm

Notes

The defensive end board is ice cold right now, except for Kingsley Enagbare, who was recently upgraded to cool. He’s currently committed to South Carolina, but he just recently set up his official visit to ND for the Navy game (November 18th).

It seemed for awhile as though ND was done recruiting linebackers, but that changed recently. Whether that means something the for the future of a current ND player or commit, I’m not sure. But the Irish got Solomon Tuliapupu on campus for the USC game. He had nothing but good things to say coming out of that domating win over what is probably still his top school. Those in the know swear ND put themselves in the mix here but this is still probably a longshot at best. Current North Carolina commit Payton Wilson also recently set up an official visit to ND for the Navy game, and the Irish are hoping to make a big move on him.

At corner, the Irish are mostly keyed in on Kyler Gordon, Tariq Bracy, and Alontae Taylor. Gordon has ND in his top 2 with his home state team, the Washington Huskies. Bracy has ND as his top school right now and it appears as though the Irish will earn his commitment in time, but it sounds like he’d give USC a hard look if they were to offer as well. Taylor is currently committed to Tennessee but I mean, c’mon. We all know it’s just a matter of time before Butch Jones is gone. Taylor also very recently visited for the NC State game, and some think that ND probably has the best shot to land him at this point in time. Long way to go, though.

At safety, the Irish are really only looking at two guys these days — Julius Irvin and BJ Crim. Irvin is a tough read. He appears to be struggling with a top 2 of ND and USC. It’s only a matter of time before Crim commits to ND, though. He’s supposedly just waiting for academic clearance.

The Irish also have a couple of fall-back options in case of an emergency with defensive back recruiting. Joe Wilkins Jr and Chris Mitchell are guys that ND would probably land if they pushed, but it looks like ND just has other guys higher on their board. Wilkins will be in town this weekend for the Wake Forest game, however.

Already in the Fold

Derrik Allen — S — .962

Shayne Simon — LB — .941

Jack Lamb — LB — .937

Jayson Ademilola — DT — .935

Bo Bauer — LB — .911

Ovie Oghoufo — LB — .882

Ja’Mion Franklin — DT — .864

Justin Ademilola — DE — .862

Paul Moala — S — .844