If you haven’t already seen it, last week I reviewed my way-too-early guess at Notre Dame’s recruiting class of 2020. I promised another way-too-early guess for 2021 was on the way — and here it is. As with the 2019 cycle, the class of 2020 was all wrapped up in mid-December, giving the Notre Dame coaching staff the opportunity to get to work harder on the class of 2021. So far it’s worked out pretty well, as the Fighting Irish have started 2021 off with a bang. They currently sit with eight commits and the #4 recruiting class in the country per the 247Sports Composite, including an average commit grade of .9451.
Considering the smaller-than-expected haul in 2020, the Irish should have a little more wiggle room with regards to numbers this cycle. I could see a class size of anywhere from 21-24. Of course this will depend heavily on who the staff expects to transfer, who the staff does not expect to bring back for a fifth year, etc.
And without any further ado, let’s check out this best guess…
OFFENSE
Quarterback
Tyler Buchner — CA — 6’2″/200 — .9833
- Elite athlete, elite arm, elite first name. Arguably the best quarterback in the country. Would probably be rated even higher if not for an injury that caused him to miss almost all of his sophomore season. Put up video game numbers as a junior. Not much more needs to be said. Continues the Koreanaissance Notre Dame has been building these past few years.
2019 Official Final Stats for QB Tyler Buchner:
Passing: 267-for-402, 4,474 yards and 53 touchdowns
Rushing: 128 rushes, 1,610 yards and 28 touchdownsTotal Touchdowns: 81 Total Touchdowns
Total Yards: 6,084 @CoachD_Mitch pic.twitter.com/eQgJ9N394r— Matt Freeman (@mattfreemanISD) December 1, 2019
Other names to watch: None
Running Back
Will Shipley — NC — 6’0″/200 — .9874
- The absolute top target on Notre Dame’s board right now. Clemson is coming after him hard, but Lance Taylor and BK have been hitting all the right notes with him. He’s got an unofficial visit set for March, with an OV still in the cards as well. Very close with Notre Dame’s current group of commits. Not as fast as Chris Tyree, but who is? Still possesses elite speed and he’s more well-rounded than Tyree.
Prophet Brown — CA — 5’11″/180 — .8928
- This is admittedly a big projection. Brown hasn’t visited Notre Dame yet but he has a ton of early interest. Very fitting name for a Notre Dame student athlete. The Irish are definitely looking for two running backs this cycle. Brown seems like as good a guess as any.
Other names to watch: Treveyon Henderson (.9888), Donovan Edwards (.9809), Corey Kiner (.9336)
Wide Receiver
Deion Colzie — GA — 6’4″/195 — .9771
- Huge pick-up for Notre Dame out of Georgia’s back yard. Possibly the next big Notre Dame receiver to turn heads heads at the NFL combine. Already tests well with a 4.56 40/4.25 shuttle/36-inch vertical. Just imagine what a red-zone threat he’ll be after Balis gets his hands on him.
Andrel Anthony — MI — 6’2″/170 — .8739
- A bit of an underrated prospect at this point out of Michigan State’s back yard in Lansing. Lean, lanky prospect with great length. Has visited Notre Dame in the past and came away very impressed. Likely not a top-of-the-board target right now, but would be a pretty dang good pickup if the Irish aren’t able to make moves on some of the elite targets left on the board.
Other names to watch: Donte Thornton (.9765), Troy Stellato (.9387), Jayden Thomas (.9279)
Tight End
Cane Berrong — GA — 6’4″/225 — .9336
- The Irish are off to a great start at tight end with one of the top prospects in the country already in the fold. He’s got a visit coming up in March, during which he should have plenty of time to get acquainted with the new tight ends coach John McNulty. The Irish might try to land one more tight end this cycle, but they’ll be extremely picky if so.
Other names to watch: Thomas Fidone (.9583)
Offensive Line
Offensive line was a little hard to project this year. The Irish are in the Top 2 or 3 with a ton of elite OL prospects, and many of them are set to visit South Bend in late March. I suppose it would be too much to ask for Notre Dame to land four top 100 OL in one cycle, but they should be able to pull off two or three. Another thing to consider is that while the Irish technically have two commits along the offensive line right now, nobody’s really counting Greg Crippen. He’s been taking visits to other schools and has been notably absent from any of the graphics other commits have been posting on twitter.
What’s good!? @RoccoSpindler92 @landon_tengwall @nolanrucci @MilumWyatt @Leigh71Tristan ☘️👀 pic.twitter.com/Fo5YDgm1jM
— Big Blake☘️ (@bfisher54_) February 28, 2020
Blake Fisher — IN — 6’6″/330 — .9741
- Big-time prospect and elite recruiter. I’m not sure how this nickname came about, but you can call him The Mayor. He’s strong, physical, and moves extremely well for a guy of his size. Could play either guard or tackle. He also apparently has a great personality and is doing a great job of keeping tabs on some of Notre Dame’s top targets.
Garrett Dellinger — MI — 6’6″/280 — .9660
- Started off as a five-star, top 10 overall prospect but he’s had some injury troubles. For a bit, it seemed like Notre Dame might be unsure if they should take him after two separate shoulder injuries. But it looks like their concerns have been cleared up over the past few weeks and he should continue to be a major target moving forward. Good prospect for the interior OL.
Wyatt Milum — WV — 6’6″/275 — .9640
- This guy is a tackle all the way, and a dang good one at that. Really good athlete with quick feet and excellent mobility. Sounds like the Irish might have the early lead, but he keeps pretty quiet. Penn State, Alabama, Kentucky, and Virginia Tech will also be heavily involved.
Pat Coogan — IL — 6’5″/275 — .8739
- Landing the three guys above would give the Notre Dame staff the ability to take a project who has high upside as an offensive tackle. The Irish are currently evaluating Pat Coogan but aren’t likely to make a move until they figure out how things will shake out with the top-of-the-board targets.
Other names to watch: Nolan Rucci (.9905), Landon Tengwall (.9771), Rocco Spindler (.9761), Reuben Fatheree (.9405)
DEFENSE
Defensive End
David Abiara — TX — 6’4″/250 — .8867
- Almost certainly underrated at this point given his offer list which includes Alabama, LSU, Texas A&M, and others. He visited South Bend for the Junior Day event at the beginning of February and nearly committed that same week. He decided to hold off and not rush things, but the Irish are still probably heavy leaders. He’s also locked in an unofficial visit for later in March.
Jason Onye — RI — 6’5″/245 — .8728
- A raw prospect with a ton of potential. Has only been playing football for two years now. Elite frame and all the physical tools needed to develop into a very good defensive end. Pretty similar prospect to Ade Ogundeji coming out of high school, but Jason is probably a better player than Ade was at this stage.
Other names to watch: Kechaun Bennett (.8960), Cooper Jones (.8839), Will Schweitzer (.8789)
Defensive Tackle
Gabriel Rubio — MO — 6’5″/290 — .9499
- A fantastic start for Notre Dame along the defensive line. He’s already a big kid, but he’s going to be absolutely massive once he gets to his college playing weight. Has the technique and physical tools that should allow him to see the field early.
Aaron Armitage — NJ — 6’4″/245 — .9219
- He really wanted a Notre Dame offer, and it looks like the Irish jumped into the lead in this recruitment as soon as that offer came. Currently listed as a strong-side defensive end by the recruiting services, but there’s a good chance he grows into a tackle. He’s visiting South Bend later in March, and he might be on commit watch at that time.
Other names to watch: George Rooks (.9217)
Linebacker
This position group is very difficult to project at this point as the Irish have not sent out a ton of offers at linebacker yet. We really don’t know who any of the realistic tops targets are going to be moving forward.
Benjamin Perry — IL — 6’3/195 — .8678
- Currently listed as a safety by the recruiting services, but he has the length and frame to play linebacker. Clark Lea is evaluating him as a Rover prospect. He’s already taken a visit to Notre Dame and came away impressed. I think he eventually earns an offer due to his athleticism, and it ends up being one he can’t pass up.
Aidan Hubbard — OH — 6’4″/220 — .8588
- Another guy that is currently in the evaluation stage with Notre Dame. Ideal size, he plays fast and with a lot of intensity. He’s also visited Notre Dame already, and it sounds like it went really well. I’m not certain that the Irish will end up offering, but I think it’s pretty likely he’d jump on the opportunity.
Other names to watch: Brock Bowers (.9568), Morice Blackwell (.8567), Cole Bishop (.8416)
Cornerback
Daylan Carnell — IN — 6’2″/190 — .8800
- In-state kid with great size and good athleticism. Goes to the same high school that Asmar Bilal attended. Notre Dame has been in the lead with this recruitment for a long time, but he’s taking things slow. I expect Notre Dame to land him if they continue to push.
Deuce Harmon — TX — 5’9/185 — .9058
- I’m going out on a limb and trusting the gut (and crystal ball) of my close personal friend, Tom Loy*. Deuce is a top target for the Notre Dame staff and they will be coming after him hard. He has a visit set up for early April, and the Irish will look to make a big move. He doesn’t have ideal height but he is a heck of an athlete, plays big, and would likely be much higher rated if he were a couple inches taller. The biggest competition at this point looks like it will be Texas A&M.
Other names to watch: Ceyair Wright (.9637), Devin Kirkwood (.8667), Devonta Smith (.8739), DJ Harvey (.9021), Jamareeh Jones (.8516), Dyson McCutcheon (.8900)
*I’m not actually friends with Tom Loy. Not that I wouldn’t be friends with him, because he seems like a cool enough guy. It’s just that we haven’t actually met.
Safety
Justin Walters – IL — 6’2″/175 — .8739
- Good start for the Irish at safety. Walters is the most recent verbal commit for Notre Dame, committing directly after the Junior Day event in the beginning of February. He’s a physical, hard hitting player that will immediately add much-needed depth at strong safety for the Irish.
Jaden Slocum — GA — 6’2″/180 — .8739
- This one is another projection as he has not visited South Bend just yet, and there will be some stiff competition. He plans on visiting this summer, but it has not been locked in as of this point. His recruitment is still pretty wide open, and he’s a high-academic type kid who sounds like he would fit in well at Notre Dame. Also definitely underrated at this point. He has an elite offer list including Alabama, Georgia, USC, and Florida.
Other names to watch: JD Coffey (.9273), Derrick Davis (.9780)
ATHLETE
I don’t typically do this, but there are a few guys I think Notre Dame will sign who have some positional flexibility and could end up at a couple of different spots.
Lorenzo Styles — WR/CB — OH — 6’1″/170 — .9516
- Big time pickup for the Irish. Styles was picked up right out of Ohio State’s back yard. He has elite potential at both wide receiver and cornerback. I think his position at Notre Dame depends on how things shake out with other receiver and corner prospects.
Titus Mokiao-Atimalala — WR/S — HI — 6’1″/170 — .8900
- Notre Dame has been doing pretty well for themselves in Hawaii lately. In this case, it helps that TMA is related to a current Notre Dame football player. He is the cousin of Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa. The 2019 Hawaii player of the year has a ton of upside at both receiver and safety and, much like Styles, his position at Notre Dame probably depends on how things shake out with other targets.
Donovan McMillon — LB/S — PA — 6’2″/185 — .8466
- McMillon has absolutely blown up over the past few weeks, adding some big-time offers from schools like Notre Dame, Penn State, and Michigan in recent weeks. Extremely underrated at this point. Notre Dame seems split on whether they like him more at safety or rover. With a player like this, I say take him and figure it out once he gets on campus.
Other names to watch: LB/S Xamarion Gordon (.8909)
OVERVIEW/THOUGHTS
Total Signees: 23
Easiest position to project: I think I’d have to go with defensive end at this point. The Irish appear to be the clear leader for Abiara right now and one visit is likely to put them over the top for Onye. I’d be interested to see if the staff might like to land one more pure pass-rusher in addition to these two, though.
Hardest position to project: Definitely linebacker. Oddly, very few offers have been sent out to linebackers so far. Things have got to start picking up here in the next few weeks, right?
Guy from the “other names to watch” category I’d most like to see in this class: This is a tough one, but I think I’ll have to go with cornerback Ceyair Wright out of California. The Irish have numbers at corner, but nobody with the upside of Wright. Also, just a fun fact, Ceyair will be in the upcoming Space Jam movie playing the part of LeBron James’ son. So that’s pretty cool.
One final thing to consider is the possibility of the Irish going after a specialist this cycle. Doerer is out of eligibility following the 2020 season. The Irish do have 2019 PWO Harrison Leonard on the team right now, and they felt pretty good about him coming out of high school. He could earn a scholarship once Doerer leaves. There have also been reports that Notre Dame might be in the market for a transfer kicker. It will be interesting to see how everything shakes out, but for now I’ve decided not to add a specialist to my best guess.
That would be a disappointing defensive class. On another article I recently bemoaned defensive recruiting and this would reinforce that/ the defense has been so good the last couple years too and unless there is a Kyle Hamilton type underrated prospect lurking in there, kind of underwhelming.
That offensive class though, that’s a different story
Aside from lacking a blue-chip linebacker, I think it’d be hard to be too disappointed.
One of TMA or Styles is likely to end up on defense and they’re both Top 200 talents IMO.
Slocum will be a big riser in the next few months, as will McMillon. Abiara could see a bit of a bump as well given his offer list.
Definitely lacks the star-power of the past couple offensive hauls, but switch in a name like Ceyair Wright to go with Gabe Rubio and we’d have some of that as well.
True. At the risk of being simplistic it looked like Mickens punched above his weight class a bit at Cincy, hopefully he can land Wright. Or at least players of that ilk that are 4* and have offers from high-end schools. Improving talent on the back end is definitely a step that has to be taken in Notre Dame wants to push their rankings.
Tyler’s outlook is very reasonable for where things are now, hopefully what changes is Mickens can ratchet it up and do a better than expected job of landing talent, much like the way it seems Taylor is well on the way to doing at RB.
Not sure I completely agree. A few of those guys have recently earned the types of offers that should find them eventually making big jumps in the rankings.
The biggest issue is LB, which is sort of bizarre given that Lea coaches them personally. He really should be killing it there given his success and personality. These guys know they don’t have unlimited redshirts to hand out to people like Bo Bauer, right? I find the apparent lack of urgency a bit odd, although it’s tough to complain too much given the success he’s having with kids like JOK, White and Moala who were not .9000 level prospects. Still, top linebackers should be jumping into the boat just to play for Clark Lea.
“Still, top linebackers should be jumping into the boat just to play for Clark Lea.”
I wonder if they figure he’s gone in another year or so.
Probably so. Still, in 2018 Notre Dame signed two top 100 linebackers. 2019 they had a four star walk on in Bertrand. The talent and interest is there to attract a lot of LB high end players (more so than CB). It’s just for some reason their efforts and strategy seem to be to ignore the position for a year or two then load up on a few commits the following year. Not sure why it’s an uneven strategy like that but seems to be intentional.
What I like about these projections is that they are entirely reasonable, not just picking the best guys. This would result in (based on current rankings) 1 five star, 11 four stars, and 11 three stars.
It feels like it’s a bit underwhelming in certain places, but it would give an overall class rating of 282.64 (247 Composite) which would have been good enough for 7th this past year. That said, if one gives any credence to the Blue Chip Ratio theory, knowing that some top players will transfer or leave for other reasons, the recruitment of blue chip players needs to be not just at, but above, 50%. So here’s to hoping we surpass Tyler’s projections!
Tyler in light of your “interview” questions at the end of the article can I ask: Guy from the “other names to watch” category you think is most likely to end up in this class?
That’s a good question and a very difficult pick to make considering many of the guys in that section either haven’t yet visited South Bend or there’s really stiff competition.
I’d be inclined to pick one of the OL, because those guys (aside from Fatheree) will be visiting for the big March recruiting weekend and they’ll be around just about all of the current commits. BUT instead I’m going to have fun with it and make a couple of projection picks:
On offense, WR Jayden Thomas out of Atlanta Pace Academy. He’s taking things pretty slow with his recruitment right now and probably won’t take many visits until the summer. But communication with the ND staff and commits has been positive so far. I think the Irish could make a big move once he visits. Mick Assaf’s dad is the head of his school as well, so the Irish have that going for them too.
On defense, I think DE Kechaun Bennett out of Suffield Academy in Connecticut seems like another guy that will really enjoy ND once he visits later in March. It’s early with him, too. But he profiles as an ND-type of kid, and it looks like it’ll probably come down to ND and Michigan for him.
there seems to be a lot of Rocco Spindler optimism lately, but would it be fair to say it has a faint hint of Braiden McGregor potential?
Yeah there is scuttlebutt that ND might be leading for him, but I won’t count out Michigan for a kid who grew up a Michigan fan in eastern Michigan.
I get the same feeling MB.
My prediction is that Mickens makes a big splash and lands Wright, similar to Lance Taylor earning his keep early in the last cycle by pulling Tyree. Wright + Harmon would be a superb and much-needed haul.
I’d like that.
So we;re looking at a mediocre D class with the probability that the rankings will go down to the usual 10-15 range.
This class (assuming the rankings stay as they are, which is obviously not happening) would rank in the Top 8 each of the last 5 years, actually
It’s a slight improvement but he really needs to get in the top 5 to compete with the Bamas and Clemsons.
Clemson was not a recruiting juggernaut before winning their first title. They were routinely pulling in 10-15 ranked classes. However, they were also landing elite offensive skill position players and elite defensive linemen.
We’ve started to do that over the past couple of cycles, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.
That word you use — “mediocre” — it does not mean what you think it means.
Yeah, I mean I wonder if the way ND operates, they just can’t and aren’t going to regularly have classes of 25 (or more) anytime soon the way more factory-ish type programs will churn and burn through a ton of recruits*. Which means no top 5 in recruiting. But that’s not mediocre.
*Out of curiosity I summed up Bama’s commits in the five year 2016-20 span, they had 128 (25, 27, 22, 29, 25). And I looked at Georgia too, since they’re the most recent to break into the recruiting elite, they had 125 commits from 2016-20 (25, 25, 26, 26, 23). Notre Dame had 110 (17, 22, 27, 21, 23). That’s what is always going to hold the recruiting ranks down, when they have a 27 commit class, it puts pressure into the future. That doesn’t happen at other elite schools who pretty commonly can handle 25-26 commits each and every year.
Not sure if the answer is to be more cut-throat at encouraging sophomores buried on the depth chart to transfer or just to seek higher quality prospects to commit in the first place, but ND won’t have the luxury of quantity. They’ll need to be smarter about how to develop and get there.
But just because ND is likely to stay outside of the top 5 in recruiting doesn’t mean they can’t A) improve on the quality of the players they do bring in (big key, especially for RB and CB) and B) actually build on what’s already a floor 10 win program. I’m kind of surprised Kelly put a specific target out there of breaking into the top-5, but that is a good enough goal to work towards. Even if they fall short (likely) progress is possible should be the takeaway!
There are a couple crystal ball predictions for Cristian Dixon 6’2″,#33WR-0.928, from Mater Dei to ND.
Yeah there was a bunch of early interest with him but things have since significantly dropped off, I’m not sure he’s even a target moving forward.
Your buddy Tom Loy’s crystal ball prediction to ND seems to have been made 2/25/20.
That was Loy changing his from ND to cloudy.
Dixon has two picks in right now — one cloudy and one for ND. The ND prediction was made last April
I guess it helps to be make believe friends.
Who is your top “wish list” offensive recruit at this point? What guy who isn’t leaning our way at all right now, but could realistically maybe swing our way with a lot of work, would you most hope we could pull in?
My most wanted on offense are RB Will Shipley, OL Nolan Rucci, and WR Donte Thornton.
On defense I’d love for ND to land CB Ceyair Wright and LB/TE Brock Bowers.
FYI…
OG Greg Crippen finally de-committed tonight. This has been expected for the better part of a year now.
OL Wyatt Milum committed to WVU. It seems ND is in on a bunch of OL but, I don’t know how many they actually lead for.
Seems WR Donte Thornton, is showing serious interest.