Notre Dame football recruiting continued its hot streak with the Class of 2018 tonight, as linebacker Matthew “Bo” Bauer has verbally committed to the Fighting Irish.
Bo was in South Bend for Irish Invasion a couple of months ago. Afterwards, he named Notre Dame his leader despite the fact that he had not yet received an offer. It took some waiting — and he needed to decide that he wanted to focus solely on football instead of playing baseball as well — but Bo finally received his offer today during another unofficial visit to campus. He committed on the spot.
The 247 Sports Composite ranks the 6-3/215-pounder out of Erie, PA as the #146 overall player and the #2 inside linebacker in the class of 2018.
Blessed Beyond Measure ☘☘☘ pic.twitter.com/GwQ79lP5am
— BO (@BoBauer27) August 3, 2016
Recruiting Service Rankings
247 — 4 star (92 rating), #96 overall, #2 ILB, #4 in PA
Rivals — 4 star (5.9 rating), NR overall, NR position, NR in PA
Scout — 4 star, #171 overall, #15 OLB, #6 in PA
ESPN — 4 star (80 rating), #188 overall, #6 ILB, #5 in PA
247 Composite — 4 star (.9395), #146 overall, #2 ILB, #5 in PA
Cohort
Bo chose the Irish over other offers from Penn State, Michigan State, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, and others. He was also garnering interest from Ohio State, Michigan, and UCLA.
Highlights
Bo’s highlights are really fun to watch. This is a really aggressive player who clearly relishes contact. On the very first play of this film, he knocked the lead blocker into the ball-carrier with enough force to put the carrier on his butt. Bo plays fast, knows how to attack his gaps, and seems to be able to diagnose the play really well. I get the sense that he has some really good football instincts. He excels in stopping the run and he does a pretty exceptional job as a blitzer as well. His tape doesn’t show him in coverage at all (probably because he’s so effective at getting after the quarterback), so he will most likely need to work on that before he suits up in an Irish uniform.
Impact
Notre Dame just continues to rack up blue-chip commits from the class of 2018. Bo is the sixth commit in the class, and all of them rate as 4-stars or higher on the 247 Composite. Bo is also the fourth commit for the defensive front seven. Jayson and Justin Ademilola will likely end up at DT and DE, respectively. Ovie Oghoufo and Bo make up the linebackers of this class. Who would have guessed the Irish would have gotten off to such a great start there?
I gotta say, I really like what I see from Bo’s film. He looks like he will be an excellent asset once he arrives on campus. There will be a lot of depth at linebacker once he arrives at Notre Dame, but his instincts and athleticism should make the transition from high school to college a little bit easier on him. I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if he ends up making an impact within his first couple of years of being in South Bend.
Welcome to the Irish family, Bo!
What a great pickup. An incredible run so far for the 2018 class. If we reel in Mustipher… oh boy
I believe this is the 6th major recruit from Western PA for 2017+2018. That’s really, really impressive. 20-30 years ago this kid (a LB!!!!) would have been automatically ticketed for Penn State. How times have changed.
Penn State fans are apoplectic over this. We’ve not only been eating Franklin’s lunch on the recruiting trail, we’ve also been rubbing his yogurt in his (lack of) hair, stomping on his little baggie of pretzels, and holding him upside down to shake all his lunch money out of his pockets. If we get Jahon Dotson in 2018 as well, we’ll have moved on to the atomic wedgie level.
Don’t forget about Zack Kuntz, the top TE in the class. He’s another guy we are fighting Penn State for.
Good call.
This got a nice muffled laugh out of me at work.
Well done you get a gold star today.
Anything that angers Penn State fans is fine with me.
You’re right Tyler, that film is a lot of fun. Man, is he light on his feet, and when he hits, he HITS. I love that even when his job is block destruction, he brings it – check out what he does to the fullback at the 3:26 mark. His tape reminds me a lot of Te’Von Coney’s; quick to diagnose, good at hitting the gaps, violent when he gets to his target. Which, come to think of it, is the same thing I said about David Adams. Hmm… Perhaps there’s a theme in linebacker recruiting.
Think he can make an early impact on special teams? The highlight video doesn’t really show him out in space for any extended period, but he really does hit hard and looks fluid.
Well, the staff definitely likes to do that – aside from OL, DL, and QB, they don’t generally seem all that concerned about preserving a guy’s redshirt. If they can, great, but otherwise they’re going to get guys’ feet wet. I think Morgan and Coney both got time on special teams as true freshmen, so it certainly is a possibility.
Most of that tape I think is from the state title game – that’s a 215 pound sophomore in what is presumably his team’s most challenging game of the year. Imagine this kid at 235 pounds and 18 years old. I say let him hit whoever he wants.
Not specifically related to Bo Bauer, but it looks like Swarbrick and Kelly nailed another big step to stay ahead of other teams in the same vein as the Showtime series:
Bleacher Report teams up with Notre Dame Football
I imagine this will help with recruiting, even a little bit.
Even if it doesn’t help in recruiting, it’s an awesome way to reach out to the younger generation and grow the #brand of ND and the program for the future. Really forward-thinking stuff, I’m quite impressed.
18S didn’t get the exclusive contract, for shame!
I’m excited to find out what the “Old Weird Trick to winning football games” is, and to see “12 Outrageous hats worn by Lou Holtz”.
Actually, taking a look at BR, it appears they have cleaned up their site quite a bit. It almost looks…professional. Gasp
I love seeing so many 4 star defenders already signing up for this class. Outside of a 5 star QB or OL, there is no offensive recruit I would care as much about as a top 150 defender.
In the “Absurdly Way Too Early” category… Bauer’s commitment puts us at #2 in the 247 Composite 2018 team rankings.
Wow this kid hits hard. He looks like he has plenty of speed and athleticism too. If this 2018 class hold up, we should see a bump on defense in the future.
I love the partnership with Bleacher Report. These guys are looking everywhere to even the playing field with the big boys.
Bo Knows
No baseball this time around…..yet
We better chill out for a while. Won’t have any room for the five stars in the 2018 class.