Perk up, Irish fans – come tomorrow, you’ll see some top recruiting visitors for Stanford weekend. Michigan State weekend was the first big recruiting event of the season; despite the narrow, frustrating loss to the Spartans, the weekend was very productive. On the strength of their visits, Notre Dame picked up a commitment from top 300 defensive lineman Donovan Jeter and made significant progress with top 50 cornerback Thomas Graham and top 200 offensive lineman Aaron Banks. We won’t see the same volume of recruiting visitors for Stanford weekend, but given the quality of the guys we’ll see and the positions they play, the Irish staff would no doubt be elated by similar results.

Players who have already committed to ND are in italics; rankings are 247 Composite overall/position.

UPDATES:

Greg Johnson is a late scratch. He’s trying to visit before the end of the month.

Grant Delpit, who the Irish offered way back in April, just told Tom Loy at 247 that he’ll be here on an official this weekend (free). He’ll make the trek with IMG Academy teammate and Irish commit Robert Hainsey. Delpit transferred to IMG for this season, but Hainsey has been there since 2015 and had one year there together with current Irish players Tony Jones Jr. and Spencer Perry. This will be a very interesting story to follow from this weekend.

I also added in 2018 five-star Derrik Allen – only Scout includes him on their visitor list for this weekend, so it’s worth checking if he actually makes it into town. If he does, though, it’ll be his third visit this year, following his visits in March and for Irish Invasion. You know those five-stars I keep saying we need to land every once in a while? He’s that kind of kid, a day 1 contributor for any program.

Official Visitors

Foster Sarell, OT, #2/#1

Robert Hainsey, OG, #70/#4

Grant Delpit, S, #81/#9 (LSU commit)

Greg Johnson, ATH, #95/#1 (Arizona commit)

Paulson Adebo, CB, #216/#27

Michael Young, WR, #510/#72

Amari Carter, S, #530/#36

Jordan Pouncey, WR, #672/#96

Elijah Hicks, CB, #780/#81

Notes:

Notre Dame needs to add one more tackle in this class to keep numbers, and there’s nobody they’d rather add than Foster Sarell. Sarell was already a composite five-star, but after he looked like a man among boys at The Opening he was bumped up to the #1 tackle and the #2 player overall in the nation this year. Not too shabby… The major problem with pulling Sarell looks to be distance, as both the Washington native and his family would have to come to terms with the difference between the distance from their home to South Bend (about 2,100 miles) versus that to Washington (about 50 miles) or Stanford (about 800 miles). Stanford is widely considered the leader, and they may well be, but it’s worth noting that the Sarells visited Notre Dame for Irish Invasion with the intention of checking the Irish off the list and that obviously didn’t happen. I think Notre Dame could have a real shot here with a great visit.

Greg Johnson was a very recent add, scheduling his official visit about a week ago and reappearing on the radar despite committing to Arizona back in March. The Irish love the do-everything athlete and would be willing to put him anywhere on the field, similar to how Michigan uses Jabrill Peppers. If you want to see why the staff is so enamored of him, take a look at Johnson’s Hudl highlights; I hope those defenders’ health insurance covers broken ankles and burn marks. Johnson will bring both parents with him – and his younger brother Marcus, who is one of the top cornerbacks on the Irish staff’s 2018 board. Hmm. Arizona is a pretty different environment than Notre Dame – about as different as it gets, actually – so it’ll be very interesting to watch how this situation progresses.

Floridian Amari Carter will be in town with his mother also. While Notre Dame looked like his leader for a long time, momentum seems to have shifted considerably towards Miami; in fact, rumor has it that his mother would prefer him to be closer to home. Helpfully, his mother will be with him on this visit, so if the Irish can make a move back into the lead it’s going to happen now. If they can’t, forget it, especially since Carter is announcing next Saturday. No doubt the staff will try to get him around former high school teammates Devin Studstill and Te’Von Coney.

Toddy Lyght has been after Elijah Hicks for a while, and it paid off last month when Hicks scheduled his official visit for this weekend. Don’t pay any mind to Hicks’s ranking; he’s having a huge senior year and no doubt his ranking will reflect that by the end of the year. The 247 Composite right now only factors in three out of four services’ rankings for him, although all four do have him rated. Scout, in fact, ranks him as the #269 player nationally, and Rivals has him as a four-star with a 5.8 rating, which is a pretty similar grade to Scout. Anyway, he’s good. I’m not sold that a commitment will come immediately out of this weekend, but if it does Hicks is a good bet to be the guy.

Unofficial Visitors

2017:

Isaiah Robertson, S, #266/#22

2018:

Derrik Allen, CB, #21/#3

Jaelen Gill, APB, #25/#2

Houston Griffith, CB, #42/#7

Zack Kuntz, TE, #50/#1

Tommy Brown, OT, #57/#7

Dallas Gant, OLB, #124/#6

Marcus Johnson, CB, #128/#20

Micah Jones, WR, #281/#45

Aeneas Hawkins, DT, #330/#30

Cameron McGrone, OLB, #386/#33

Daniel Parker, SDE, #373/#11

Alex Reigelsperger, WDE, #404/#32

Jack Cravaack, TE, #802/#29

2019:

David Bell, WR, #55/9 (247 only, no Composite rankings for 2019 yet)

Notes:

Five-star Ohio back Jaelen Gill recently suffered a season-ending ankle injury – given his talent, though, don’t expect anyone to back off. The Irish are head-to-head with, of course, Ohio State here, but Gill has real interest in Notre Dame. You may remember Houston Griffith as he has made appearances in our recruiting coverage for quite some time now. The Chicago native transferred to IMG for his junior season. He’ll make his fourth visit to South Bend, after visiting each of the last two springs and for Irish Invasion this year. Zack Kuntz has Penn State and Notre Dame in front as of right now, with Notre Dame likely in the driver’s seat. Take that, Happy Valley cultists Penn State fans… Tommy Brown will visit campus for the first time and could secure an offer. Dallas Gant will visit for the fourth time; he took in the bludgeoning of UMass last year, stopped by for the junior day in March, hit Irish Invasion (where he got his offer), and was at the Michigan State game this year. This is another Irish-Buckeye battle.

Marcus Johnson, as noted above, will be in town with his brother Greg and their parents. This is not a package deal – the Notre Dame staff wants Marcus in his own right. Micah Jones is another 2016 Irish Invasion attendee; if the Irish push for him, they’ll probably wrap it up pretty quickly. Aeneas Hawkins visited back in April and is back to take in his first game day. His ranking is okay, but his cohort is much better – the Ohioan holds offers from Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Ohio State, and Tennessee, among others. Chicagoland linebacker Cameron McGrone will visit for the first time in the hopes of securing an offer. Daniel Parker decommitted from Missouri last month and has started a round of unofficial visits, stopping by Iowa, Mizzou, and Arkansas over the last few weeks. He does not yet have an offer. Speaking of kids making the rounds… Ohioan Alex Reigelspieger has been racking up the frequent flyer miles, or S&P stamps, or something. Since camping at Penn State on July 15th, he has visited Ohio State, Kentucky, Pitt, and Michigan. After this weekend, he also has visits scheduled for Michigan State and Ohio State. Kid’s busy.

Finally, tight end Jack Cravaack is yet another Irish Invasion participant who will be back in town. I’m not sure how serious his interest is or how seriously he’s being pursued, for that matter. But, much like Mac Hippenhammer before him, I couldn’t see this name and leave him out. I’m a big fan of football names that demonstrate onomatopoeia, and/or could serve as animated action call-outs in Batman shows (the Adam West version – I’m not aware of any others).