Nike’s elite prospect camp, The Opening, just wrapped up last night. The event went out over the course of five days, from Wednesday of last week to Sunday night. A total of 166 of the country’s top high school prospects were in attendance of the event, and the Fighting Irish did not have a single commit in attendance — at first.

That may sound like a travesty. But honestly, over half of Notre Dame’s commits heading into last week just didn’t have an interest in attending. Brock Wright, Cole Kmet, David Adams, Pete Werner,  Isaiah Robertson,  Jonathon MacCollister, and Drew White didn’t bother attending regional events.

Josh Lugg, Dillan Gibbons, Avery Davis, Kurt Hinish, Jordan Pouncey, and Paulson Adebo all attended regional events, but did not earn invitations to The Opening.

The Irish did end up landing a couple of verbals by the end of Sunday night, however. We’ll touch base on those guys, as well as a few other competing recruits here.

New Commits!

On Friday, the Irish landed 4-star running back CJ Holmes. You can go back and read his commitment article here. CJ did not end up having a great week, but that likely had a lot to do with him injuring his hand on the first day of workouts. He struggled in the passing drills after that first day. He also opted out of releasing the results of his combine workouts, which is somewhat disappointing. We all expected him to put up some pretty big numbers.

Notre Dame also snagged one of the last commitments of the event last night, as 4-star offensive lineman Robert Hainsey made his verbal to the Irish on ESPNU. You can read his commitment article here. Robert ended up having a pretty good week. He struggled a bit early on, as he clearly wasn’t accustomed to facing off against such physically imposing guys. But he ended up holding his own, showing off his impressive run-blocking skills, and even surprised some of the evaluators with his technique. Oh, and he also got into a little scuffle with 4-star defensive end Malik Herring.

Top Targets

The Irish are in good position with 4-star offensive lineman Jedrick Wills. He’s going to narrow his Top 8 down to a Top 5 soon, and Notre Dame will definitely be on it. He was definitely one of the most impressive offensive linemen at the event. He had a really, really good week and rarely lost a rep.

Another of Notre Dame’s top OL targets, 5-star Foster Sarell, showed why he’s a Top 10 prospect. Really impressive kid. He’s got 1st-round draft pick written all over him.

Five-star defensive end Joshua Kaindoh may be committed to Maryland right now, but he’s still interested in the Irish and expressed that sentiment to 247’s Tom Loy this weekend. Of course, he was one of the best defensive linemen in attendance. He was one of the few guys who could get the better of Jedrick Wills.

Five-star Baron Browning was a guy that many were beginning to peg as a defensive end, but he showed this week that he has the athleticism and ability in coverage necessary to play linebacker at the next level as well.

Four-star defensive end Joshua Paschal had a good, but not great week. He showed some good qualities, but had a tendency to get overpowered at times — which is somewhat concerning for a guy who projects to the strong-side position or defensive tackle.

The Irish have been going hard after elite DB Thomas Graham, and he showed why this week. He made some really impressive plays and showed advanced athleticism and footwork.

Jalen Hall was one of the few 2018 prospects to receive an invite, and he sure made the most of it. He was open all week during the 7-on-7 drills, and was one of the most impressive receivers at the event, regardless of age.

Moving On

I’m sure you’ve all heard by now, former Irish commit Robert Beal committed to Georgia via Bleacher Report. The Irish were briefly back in the picture, but his sister recently received a track scholarship from the Bulldogs. At that point, it was basically over.

A second Irish target committed to Georgia this weekend when 4-star OL Andrew Thomas selected the Bulldogs yesterday. He really liked the Irish, but they were always sitting at number 2 for him.

 

That’ll put a wrap on what I’ve got for you guys today. It definitely would have been nice to see some more guys representing the IRISH EL17E. That would have made this week much more interesting to follow and I probably would have had a lot more for you guys. But if the guys aren’t interested, they just aren’t interested.

Just a heads up — we will be starting up the 18S Big Board updates next week, so keep your eyes peeled for that.