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ND Offense Recruiting Big Board- 9.24.13

Football season is in full swing and official visits are starting to be made.

Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

RECRUITING IS THE LIFE BLOOD OF ALL FOOTBALL PROGRAMS

Welcome to this week's Big Board for the offensive side of the ball.

DeShone Kizer remains the only Irish commit at quarterback while the rest of Notre Dame's offers at this position are committed to other schools. There does not appear to be any new offers on the horizon or the chance to flip another recruit.

Running Back
Score Player State Ht/Wt. Temperature 1* 2* 3* 4* 5*
.999 Leonard Fournette LA 6-1.5/226 Cold
.986 Joe Mixon CA 6-2/195 Cold
.942 Derrell Scott NC 5-11/180 Cold
.921 Donte Thomas-Williams NC 6-0/209 Mild

Not much news to report with the following players. Fournette is one of the jewels of this cycle and remains pretty quiet although most expect either an LSU or Alabama decision eventually. He just visited Baton Rouge this past weekend.

Mixon is fading with the Irish and has official visits coming up to Oklahoma and Wisconsin after seeing Florida and California in recent weeks.

Donte Thomas-Williams still has Notre Dame in his top group but hasn't scheduled a visit. The North Carolina tail back will be visiting Florida State in a couple weeks.

Wide Receiver
Score Player State Ht/Wt. Temperature 1* 2* 3* 4* 5*
.944 Johnnie Dixon FL 5-10/187 Cold
.990 Malachi Dupre LA 6-2/187 Cold
.973 Josh Malone TN 6-2/190 Mild
.855 Isaiah McKenzie FL 5-8/160 Hot
.986 Speedy Noil LA 5-10/176 Cold
.941 Trevion Thompson NC 6-2/177 Cold

All of the receivers above, with the exception of Thompson, moved up nicely in the rankings since a few weeks ago.

Look for Ohio State to make a move on Dixon as he's visiting Columbus soon. Dupre just came off a visit of LSU with Fournette, while Malone is visiting Georgia next weekend. Speedy Noil recently visited Texas A&M and Thompson's most recent visit was to Clemson where he's projected to sign.

Isaiah McKenzie continues to be a puzzling case. Depending on who you talk to the outlook could be great or troubling. The tiny Florida playmaker is still scheduled for an official visit for the USC game although he'll be pushing back his decision date for the second time in as many months. Apparently Notre Dame is still waiting for McKenzie to take his SAT's and once those tests come in he'll be cleared assuming he does well enough. Others think we're looking at another Alquadin Muhammad situation from last year. Time will tell.

Athlete
Score Player State Ht/Wt. Temperature 1* 2* 3* 4* 5*
.973 Budda Baker WA 5-9/174 Cold
.978 Michiah Quick CA 6-0/170 Mild
.990 Ju Ju Smith CA 6-1/200 Mild
.932 Nathan Starks CO 5-11/200 Cold

The last time we checked in Ohio State had nabbed Curtis Samuel out of Brooklyn and recently the Buckeyes grabbed Noah Brown out of New Jersey. Urban Meyer isn't playing around.

Baker has visited Washington a bunch of times and he's probably going to end up a Husky.

Quick was going to visit Oregon last weekend but ended up taking an official visit to California. He'll be in South Bend for an official along with Ju Ju Smith who has recently taken a couple visits to USC and will travel to Ohio State this upcoming weekend.

Starks remains on the blacklist with the door left open just a crack.

The big news recently has been current Alabama commit Bo Scarborough setting an official visit to Notre Dame for the USC game. He's probably still a long shot due to a handful of concerns (academics being the primary one) but the Irish have been in constant contact and are making progress getting Scarborough up to South Bend. That's about all you can ask for right now.

Tight End
Score Player State Ht/Wt. Temperature 1* 2* 3* 4* 5*
.949 Tyler Luatua CA 6-4/230 Mild
.948 Dalton Schultz UT 6-5/215 Cold

The Irish are still lingering in the background with Schultz but he'll likely end up at Stanford.

Luatua, who was once a top 50 player in the country, has slowly moved down the rankings over the months. Many still think the Irish lead. Luatua has three official visits set up to Alabama, Notre Dame and Ohio State. His visit to Columbus was this past weekend, it did not go well, and he's apparently eliminated the Buckeyes.

Offensive Line
Score Player State Ht/Wt. Temperature 1* 2* 3* 4* 5*
.892 Natrell Curtis AZ 6-3/285 Cold
.985 Damien Mama CA 6-4/370 Cold
.991 Damian Prince MD 6-6/300 Cold
.973 Braden Smith KS 6-6/290 Cold
.939 Donell Stanley SC 6-4/327 Cold
.960 Casey Tucker AZ 6-6/270 Cold

Things have been really super quiet witht the offensive linemen, a position the Irish haven't quite shut down but aren't actively pursuing any prospects. Damien Mama is still tentatively scheduled for a visit to the USC game but I wouldn't be surprised if that ends up not happening.

Elsewhere, former top target Braden Smith visited Texas A&M two weekends ago.

Irish Commits
Score Player State Ht/Wt. Position 1* 2* 3* 4* 5*
.907 DeShone Kizer OH 6-5/207 Quarterback
.941 Justin Brent IN 6-3/190 Wideout
.923 Corey Holmes FL 6-2/175 Wideout
.877 Nic Weishar IL 6-5/223 Tight End
.900 Jimmy Byrne OH 6-4/290 Offensive Line
.930 Sam Mustipher MD 6-3/285 Offensive Line
.969 Quenton Nelson NJ 6-5/295 Offensive Line
.952 Alex Bars TN 6-6/287 Offensive Line

Kizer isn't having a great statistical season in 2013 but his Central Catholic team moved to 4-0 with a 21-14 win over Whitmer. The Irish quarterback verbal passed for 185 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Brent---who has been playing running back during his senior season---ran for 176 yards to move his high school team to 3-2 on the season with a win over Monrovia. Brent already has notched 19 touchdowns in 2013.

Holmes caught 4 balls for 65 yards in Aquinas' first loss of the season to Miramar.

Weishar caught seven passes in Marist's 42-34 win over St. Patrick.

At offensive line both Alex Bars (4-0) and Quenton Nelson (2-0) are playing for undefeated teams while Jimmy Byrnes' school moved to 3-1 and Sam Mustipher's Good Councel squad lost to Gonzaga and are now 3-2.