It’s officially spring and we are finally ready to unleash our review of the 2023 Notre Dame recruiting class. This was technically the first full recruiting cycle for Marcus Freeman (although with the early signing day and general accelerated nature of recruiting these days some may argue 2024 is the real first full cycle with players almost exclusively recruited by Freeman) and while there were some bright spots it certainly wasn’t the progress many had hoped for from a new coaching regime.

Now, a crucial 2024 looms large.

Irish Eyes Are…Frustrated?

I remember back when the transition from Brian Kelly to Marcus Freeman happened and continuity was such a major talking point. Whether that was important or not there was a hope that maybe Freeman could take the ball from his predecessor and bring things up a level through recruiting, while he ended up getting his feet more wet on the field.

Maybe it’s oversimplistic but it felt like a chance to take a shot at a high recruiting ceiling even if it meant some bumps in the road on the Saturday scoreboard.

Over a year later, Freeman’s acumen on the field has shown some cracks (I’m trying my best to forget Marshall and Stanford) although he’s shown himself to be a very good steward of the program with a still high ceiling as a football coach. Welcome to modern Notre Dame my friend, because the recruiting side of things has not been very easy.

However, I think it’s important not to color our frustration (some of it going back decades!) on this particular group of incoming student-athletes. We may think this class doesn’t move Notre Dame closer to a National Championship or playoff wins, but there’s still an awful lot to like.

Class Rankings by Service

247 Composite: 11th (19 four-stars, 4 three-stars, .9178 average rating)

247: 11th (22 four-stars, 5 three-stars, 1 two-star, 91.21 average rating) *

Rivals: 10th (19 four-stars, 4 three-stars, 3.83 average stars)

ESPN: Honestly, who cares at this point?

On3: 9th (18 four-stars, 5 three-stars, 92.23 average rating)

*247 includes transfers in their rankings now, which I don’t approve. 

Let’s not sugar coat things. Although we knew Notre Dame wasn’t going to hold on forever, spending so much time as the No. 1 class (or really close to the top) only to fall all out of the top 10 in the Composite really stings. This program really seems incredibly allergic to finishing strong every recruiting cycle.

At least On3 kept the Irish in the single digits! They still have 2024 quarterback commit CJ Carr 150+ spots lower in their national rankings than any other service, though.

Class Composition

Here are the number of signees by position.

QB – 1
RB – 1
WR – 4
TE – 1
OL – 5
DE – 2
DT – 2
LB – 3
CB – 2
S – 2

Running backs Jayden Limar (Oregon), Dylan Edwards (Colorado), and Sedrick Irvin (Stanford), plus offensive tackle Elijah Paige (USC), defensive end Keon Keeley (Alabama), corner Justyn Rhett (Georgia), and safeties Peyton Bowen (Oklahoma) and Brandyn Hillman (Michigan) were all of the decommits from Notre Dame this cycle.

There was also the much-publicized silent verbal from quarterback Dante Moore (Oregon –> UCLA) who officially landed in Westwood, for now.

Quarterback Kenny Minchey (Pitt), wide receiver Kaleb Smith (Texas Tech), offensive lineman Christopher Terek (Wisconsin), and defensive linemen Boubacar Traore (Boston College) and Armel Mukam (Stanford) were flips in favor of the Irish.

Notre Dame had been doing really well in this trade-off in recent cycles and just got hammered the wrong way here for 2023. It’s something you really wouldn’t have expected under Marcus Freeman in terms of his recruiting prowess and likability, although shooting for the stars always comes with extra peril.

To say nothing of losing the no. 2 player nationally (Keeley) and no. 16 player nationally (Bowen) just a look at the schools listed above and you can see it was a tough draw for the Irish.

The Super Official 18 Stripes Class Grades

As a reminder, here’s our standard grading scale for this exercise:

95-100: Truly elite prospect with All-American potential
90-94: Multi-year starter with All-conference level potential
85-89: Eventual starter with chance to play as underclassman
80-84: Raw prospect with decent potential but a couple years away from impact
75-79: Likely a backup
70-74: Reach by the coaching staff

Staff Offense Grade Defense Grade Overall Grade
Brendan 88.0 88.4 88.2
Eric 87.4 87.5 87.4
Tyler 87.0 88.0 87.5
Overall 87.5 87.9 87.7

 

Last year was the first recruiting cycle since we’ve been doing these grades that I wasn’t the curmudgeon with the lowest overall score. All aboard the Freeman hype train! This year, me and Tyler tied for the low-mark, until the late loss of Brandyn Hillman moved my average grade one-tenth below him.

Another slightly sobering fact to discuss is that this 2023 overall class grade is 1.5 points lower than the 2022 cycle that experienced an upheaval at head coach during its final days. Not that our grades really mean that much,  predict the future all that well, or that we’re doing deep comparisons to previous cycles during the process, but it’s interesting to note the difference.

I think the 2022 class had a higher floor in comparison. For example, Benjamin Morrison (86.3 grade from 18 Stripes) was the 5th lowest Composite non-specialist from last year’s class and he was a freshman All-American. The 5th lowest Composite for this 2023 class is Sam Pendleton.

Offense Signees

247C 18S Player City/State Ht/Wt Position
0.9715 93.3 Charles Jagusah Rock Island, IL 6-6, 308 OT
0.9634 92.3 Jeremiyah Love St. Louis, MO 6-0, 190 RB
0.9420 92.7 Braylon James* Del Valle, TX 6-2 1/8, 180 WR
0.9407 93.0 Jaden Greathouse* Austin, TX 6-1, 208 WR
0.9323 91.7 Kenny Minchey* Hendersonville, TN 6-1 5/8, 215 QB
0.9170 85.7 Rico Flores* Folsom, CA 6-0 1/8, 197 WR
0.9076 83.3 Cooper Flanagan Concord, CA 6-5, 228 TE
0.9039 85.7 Sullivan Absher Belmont, NC 6-5, 309 OT
0.8967 80.3 Joe Otting Topeka, KS 6-4, 275 IOL
0.8933 85.7 Sam Pendleton* Pfafftown, NC 6-4 1/8, 300 IOL
0.8872 80.3 Christopher Terek Glen Ellyn, IL 6-5, 310 IOL
0.8836 85.7 Kaleb Smith Frisco, TX 6-0, 175 WR

Defense Signees

247C 18S Player City/State Ht/Wt Position
0.9510 93.7 Christian Gray* St. Louis, MO 5-11 3/4, 182 CB
0.9495 92.3 Drayk Bowen* Merrillville, IN 6-2, 225 LB
0.9236 91.0 Brenan Vernon Mentor, OH 6-5, 275 DL
0.9339 85.3 Jaiden Ausberry* Baton Rouge, LA 6-0 1/8, 200 LB
0.9112 89.7 Micah Bell Houston, TX 5-10, 170 CB
0.9183 86.3 Boubacar Traore West Roxbury, MA 6-5, 245 DL
0.9186 83.3 Devan Houstan* Sharpsburg, MD 6-4, 282 DL
0.9023 89.3 Adon Shuler* Irvington, NJ 5-11 1/2, 190 S
0.8991 88.0 Ben Minich* West Chester, OH 5-11 7/8, 180 S
0.8844 84.0 Preston Zinter* Lawrence, MA 6-2, 200 LB
0.8839 84.3 Armel Mukam Woodberry Forest, VA 6-3 1/2, 255 DL

 

*Starred player heights and weights are from early enrolled freshmen and their und.com roster page, all others are listed from their 247 Sports profiles.

The players that we are a little higher on than the recruiting community would be Kaleb Smith, Adon Shuler, and Ben Minich. The players that we are a little lower on than the consensus include Rico Flores (although he’s looking sharp in spring practice already, but our grades were a function of so many great receivers in this class), Cooper Flanagan, Joe Otting, Christopher Terek, Jaiden Ausberry, and Devan Houstan.

I would like to point out that Harry Hiestand’s last 2 recruiting cycles before leaving Notre Dame (so the 2018 and 2023 classes) included 9 offensive linemen with an average Composite ranking of 415th nationally. That includes the highly touted Jagusah! Hopefully more than 1 player from the 2023 class makes an impact (unlike the 2018 class) but if you’re wondering why it feels like this offensive class as a whole is better than its average you can point the finger at the lower-rated offensive linemen.

Grading Out

Addressing Needs: B-

Heading into this cycle it was wide receiver that received the most headlines as the neediest position on the roster with the staff coming through in a big way for 2023.

Defensive line, safety, and since it’s always a need let’s throw quarterback in there too as the other big needs from this cycle.

The Irish did a good job flipping Minchey from Pitt and that deserves some credit. The defensive line and safety spots have some nice pieces but the lack of high impact young players at both positions leaves a lot to be desired.

Home Run Factor: C

This wide receiver class has a chance to be something truly special. There are people who really like Kaleb Smith as the least heralded guy of the bunch and I could accept an argument from anyone that this whole class will end up getting drafted in 3-5 years.

A lot of these players made very small to not-so-small drops in their rankings throughout the cycle. In fact, I can’t remember a class that dropped so hard on an individual basis. I’m not sure there’s another position where you can say Notre Dame hit a homerun but Bowen and Vernon are 2 players I’m betting will have tremendous careers in South Bend and be foundational pieces to this class.

Immediate Impact: B

This is always a hard one because the better the depth chart the harder it is to see the field, and that’s not necessarily a knock on the young freshmen and their talent. As mentioned, we should see some exciting things from the freshmen wideouts this year.

I thought Shuler was going to be someone to watch out for at safety in 2023 but his shoulder surgery complicates that bet.

Bell has blazing speed and could be involved on special teams this year.

As mentioned, Bowen and Vernon could be in the mix. Both are seemingly all-in type of Notre Dame leaders with the size and athleticism to see the field a little bit in 2023.

Class Comments

Recruiting can be such a fickle mistress and I know first hand how easy it can be to become apathetic to Notre Dame’s struggle to climb the mountain in this sport with some of its disadvantages holding itself back, which now includes the new world of NIL.

This has largely been a disappointing endeavor to follow for the Irish since the 1990’s and it appears Marcus Freeman and staff aren’t going to be able to magically turn things around in the world of recruiting in such a short time.

Here’s a blurb from Brendan in this section from last year’s 2022 recruiting review:

I know, we say all the time that next year is the big year. (At heart, we’re apparently all Cubs fans.) This time it feels different though, because of who is running the program and how he has already shown us he intends to run it. Of course having four top 50 level talents in it already inspires confidence too – #22 Keon Keeley, #37 Drayk Bowen, #58 Peyton Bowen, and #101 Justyn Rhett (I’ll eat a shoe if he’s not top 50 by the end of the cycle). Funny how that works.

I mean, it hurts to read it. Keeley, Peyton Bowen, and Rhett aren’t in the class, and Drayk Bowen dropped 68 spots in the national rankings. Also, perhaps Brendan should have to eat 2 shoes because Rhett dropped 272(!) spots in the national rankings. Ha, take that Georgia!

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Notre Dame trying to land and/or hold on to top 50 talent.

There isn’t much else to say. This class isn’t what we hoped it would be or that it could be. And still, there will be important players and student-athletes who make an impressive mark in their careers with the Fighting Irish. And while this isn’t the top 3-5 class of our dreams, you never know how many of these recruits are going to play a pivotal role in some fantastic wins for this program.

Prop Bets

Because there’s nothing we can’t connect to gambling, we’ll leave you with the staff’s prop bets on a few key questions about this class.

Who will see the field the soonest?

  • Brendan: Jeremiyah Love
  • Eric: Jaden Greathouse
  • Tyler: Jaden Greathouse

Who has the highest upside?

  • Brendan: Kenny Minchey
  • Eric: Braylon James
  • Tyler: Kenny Minchey

Who’s your favorite offensive player?

  • Brendan: Braylon James
  • Eric: Jaden Greathouse
  • Tyler: Jeremiyah Love

Who’s your favorite defensive player?

  • Brendan: Drayk Bowen
  • Eric: Brandyn Hillman Christian Gray
  • Tyler: Christian Gray

Over the next couple weeks, we’ll publish our individual evaluations for each 2023 recruit so be sure to check that out and offer your opinions on the players in the comment section.