ND Offense Recruiting Big Board- 9.24.13

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.