Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Notre Dame just landed a commitment from a blue chip linebacker. Continuing their absurd roll of the last two recruiting cycles, the Irish added four-star prospect Jaiden Ausberry to the second level fold today. The 6’2″, 215 pound Bayou State prospect had talked recently about a potential fall announcement, but apparently decided the wait was unnecessary. What makes this commitment particularly notable is that Jaiden goes to University Lab High School, which is quite literally on LSU’s campus, and his father is a senior figure in the LSU athletic department and four-year letter winner for LSU football. Jaiden’s brother Austin, who Notre Dame briefly targeted last cycle as a corner/safety prospect, also left the shadow of the Red Stick to sign with division rival Auburn last year; if nothing else, we can be fairly confident that Ausberry boys are intent on blazing their own trail.

Despite the willingness to leave home Ausberry was no easy win; substantial credit goes to Marcus Freeman, who started recruiting Ausberry for the Irish when he was defensive coordinator, and Al Washington, who was recruiting Ausberry hard at Ohio State and never let up when he came to Notre Dame. Ausberry cited his relationship with both men a few times throughout the process as key reasons for his interest in the Irish.

Speaking of reasons… For other reasons that entirely escape us, 247 just dropped Ausberry from #94 overall to #198 overall, which led him to tumble from #69 (nice) in the 247 Composite to #103 (we’re calling him top 100 anyway, because that fall is dumb). The only camp appearance he’s made this season was at last week’s Under Armour Future 5o event; his work there earned him this glowing write-up from Sam Spiegelman, one of On3’s regional analysts, in a summary of the event (free):

Ausberry leads the linebackers

The 2023 cycle is shaping up to have a strong group of outside linebackers and while we’re still getting a feel for the off-the-ball linebackers, Jaiden Ausberry is a player that continued to make plays underneath and patrol sideline to sideline in coverage. Ausberry, whose dad played linebacker for LSU and older brother Austin will compete for playing time in Auburn’s secondary this season, blends athleticism and a safety’s skill-set in a linebacker’s frame. Ausberry checked in at Future 50 at 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds, moves naturally in coverage and flies to the football. He closed strong in the flats on a handful of passes thrown in his direction.

It should be noted that among the linebackers in attendance was recent Georgia commit Troy Bowles, who is #46 overall as of the same rankings update. Go figure. Of course in the end it has no effect on what kind of player Ausberry is or will be, but at some level it has to be frustrating for a talented kid to work hard and see, I don’t know what to call it, reverse recognition? for his efforts. Oh for the return of Barton Simmons.

Recruiting Service Rankings

247Sports Composite — 4 star (.9515 rating), #103 overall, #7 LB, #7 in LA

On3 Consensus — 4 star (92.42 rating), #115 overall, #9 LB, #7 in LA

The 247 Composite and On3 Consensus both combine 247, On3, Rivals, and ESPN rankings.

247Sports — 4 star (91 rating), #198 overall, #17 LB, #10 in LA

On3 — 4 star (91 rating), #219 overall, #19 LB, #12 in LA

Rivals — 4 star (5.9 rating), #80 overall, #4 LB, #7 in LA

ESPN — 4 star (86 rating), #32 overall, #4 LB, #3 in LA

Friend of the Stripes Jamie Uyeyama does the recruit evaluations for ISD, and we trust his evals as much as anyone’s. So while the 247 Composite and the On3 Consensus don’t factor in ISD evals, we put a lot of weight on them ourselves.

Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (94 rating, nearing top 50 status)

Cohort

In addition to Notre Dame and of course LSU, Ausberry holds offers from Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Miami, Michigan (lol), Ohio State, Oregon, Texas, Texas A&M, and USC, among several others.

Highlights

Ausberry didn’t post a junior season highlight reel to Hudl but he has a bunch of single-game highlights up, so we took the longest one. You can check out the rest of them here. You can also check out his sophomore season highlights here.

Woooo-eeee, he can move. In both his 2020 and 2021 highlights, the most prominent feature of Ausberry’s game is speed, speed, speed. He closes frighteningly fast and delivers a more powerful blow than you’d expect given his build. The first play on this brief reel is a great example of his burst and something he did repeatedly in both seasons, which is why I think he has very good potential on blitzes up the middle at the next level – he has a good feel for finding the hole in protection and he gets on guys so fast that they can’t handle him when he arrives. As you would expect given all of that, he moves very well in coverage and he switches from coverage to attack effortlessly. He does a decent job of picking his way through traffic in the run game; I’d like to see more from him in terms of taking blocks on and defeating them quickly, but keep in mind we’re looking at sophomore and junior film here so it could just be a question of time.

Impact

No position group on the team is as well stocked as linebacker has become; 2021 signee Prince Kollie claimed that year’s Butkus Award and last year’s entire linebacker haul – Jaylen Sneed, Junior Tuihalamaka, Josh Burnham, and Nolan Ziegler – made the 16-player semifinalist list, with Sneed and Burnham also making the six-player final group (the award eventually went to Alabama signee Shawn Murphy). Ausberry joins another top 100 prospect in Drayk Bowen in the 2023 linebacker class, and we wouldn’t be remotely surprised to see both of them at least make the Butkus watch list. There’s a stupid amount of talent on the roster right now and that will make it hard for anyone to have an immediate impact. That will probably work out well for Ausberry, who I think will need a little time to add some size before becoming a full-time contributor. He looks tailor-made for the rover role, where I think he could become a high-level starter, but I could see him growing into a role on the inside at Will also. Either way, you can’t teach speed and it’s going to be fun to see what he can do on the field.

Welcome to the Irish family, Jaiden!