Notre Dame Recruiting Big Board- 1.20.14

SEEKING APPLICATIONS FOR ANY AND ALL DEFENSIVE TACKLES.

Welcome to the newest update to the recruiting Big Board. Notre Dame continues to target recruits and is especially looking for more defensive tackles. Only 16 more days until National Signing Day, ya'll.

Nothing new at quarterback where Notre Dame only sent out 6 offers for the 2014 class. Incoming freshman DeShone Kizer won't be in South Bend until the summer sessions begin but here's a great article on the Toledo product from a couple weeks ago.

Running Back
Score	Player	State	Ht/Wt.	Temperature	1*	2*	3*	4*	5*
.942	Derrell Scott	NC	5-11/180	Cold
.908	Donte Thomas-Williams	NC	6-0/220	Cold

Scott has been a South Carolina lean for some time but was offered by Florida recently and is taking an official visit to Gainesville. The consensus is that DTW is going to West Virginia.

Notre Dame is not focused on running backs.

Wide Receiver
Score	Player	State	Ht/Wt.	Temperature	1*	2*	3*	4*	5*
.991	Malachi Dupre	LA	6-2/187	Cold
.886	Isaiah McKenzie	FL	5-9/172	Mild
.855	Kameron Uter	GA	6-4/205	Cold

Clemson got a big pick up on Sunday in (NC) Trevion Thompson .937 who becomes the Tigers third highest rated recruit.

Dupre is being courted by a number of schools. He just visited LSU, will be at Alabama today, and heads to Florida State and UCLA later in the month.

Not much of an update with Uter after he left Vanderbilt's class and was offered by the Irish. He visits Wake Forest and the Commodores in the next two weeks.

There's been some positive news with McKenzie since our last update. Notre Dame will get his last official visit on the 31st of this month. He'll apparently have a crucial meeting with the Admissions folks and if things go well there Notre Dame will have a great shot. He visited Florida this past weekend and will host Brian Kelly for an in-home visit tomorrow.

Athlete
Score	Player	State	Ht/Wt.	Temperature	1*	2*	3*	4*	5*
.972	Budda Baker	WA	5-9/174	Cold
.870	Charles Nelson	FL	5-8/170	Mild
.969	Michiah Quick	CA	6-0/170	Mild
.990	Ju Ju Smith	CA	6-1/200	Mild

As noted during the last update (IL) Tommy Mister .856 left Iowa State's class and was looking hard at Indiana. He joined the Hoosiers class on Saturday.

The Irish offered (IN) Austin Roberts .928 but he has no intention of leaving UCLA's class for South Bend.

Baker recently left Oregon's class and is coming off a visit to Washington this past weekend. He'll likely choose between the Huskies or UCLA where he visits this weekend.

Nelson recently eliminated all Florida schools from contention and he's now down to Notre Dame, USC, West Virginia, and Oregon. He's coming off a visit from USC this past weekend.

Quick's high school assistant coach recently stated Michiah is down to Notre Dame, Oklahoma, and UCLA. Tony Alford, Scott Booker, and his primary recruiter Mike Denbrock will visit him today.

Notre Dame is hoping to still be in it with Ju Ju Smith but he'll be tough to pry away from USC where he visits this weekend.

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With (UT) Dalton Schultz .951 giving his verbal to Stanford there are no more uncommitted tight ends on the Big Board. He's been one of the more classy prospects from this cycle and left a video on his dropping the Irish.

Offensive Line
Score	Player	State	Ht/Wt.	Temperature	1*	2*	3*	4*	5*
.980	Damien Mama	CA	6-4/370	Cold
.986	Damian Prince	MD	6-5/295	Cold
.967	Braden Smith	KS	6-6/290	Cold
.961	Casey Tucker	AZ	6-6/270	Cold

Notre Dame is all done at offensive line with the lone target in Braden Smith cancelling his visit to South Bend.

Defensive Line
Score	Player	State	Ht/Wt.	Temperature	1*	2*	3*	4*	5*
.892	Daniel Cage	OH	6-3/295	Mild
.989	Lorenzo Carter	GA	6-5/232	Cold
.927	Matt Elam	KY	6-6/350	Cold
.852	Jaylen Johnson	CA	6-3/232	Cold
.873	Trey Lelaimatafao	TX	6-0/301	Cold
.983	Malik McDowell	MI	6-7/290	Not as Cold
.955	Derrick Nnadi	VA	6-1/305	Cold
.882	Michael Sawyers	TN	6-2/300	Mild
.988	Solomon Thomas	TX	6-3/256	Cold
.952	Travonte Valentine	FL	6-3/338	Cold
.907	Andrew Williams	GA	6-4/247	Cold

No surprise as (NY) Thomas Holley .962 flipped from Penn State to Florida following the coaching change in Happy Valley.

Four offers went out per our last update and Notre Dame's chances with Lelaimatafao and Valentine appear very slim. However, things are heating up with Cage and Sawyers the latter officially decommitting from Vanderbilt recently.

Cage will visit Notre Dame in a couple days and while Sawyers has visits filled up each of the next two weekends he will likely come to South Bend during the week at some point just like Cage.

There have been some interesting developments with McDowell as his father spoke glowingly about Notre Dame. The coaching staff is trying to re-establish a bond there but it may be far too late in the process.

Notre Dame was looking to extend an offer to Isaiah McKenzie's teammate Edgar Cerenord but that may not happen as he gave a verbal to Duke yesterday.

Linebacker
Score	Player	State	Ht/Wt.	Temperature	1*	2*	3*	4*	5*
.986	Rashaan Evans	AL	6-3/220	Cold
.857	Vincent Jackson	FL	6-2/235	Cold
.920	Kenny Young	LA	6-2/220	Cold

One linebacker gave a verbal since our last update and that was (TX) Edwin Freeman .925 who joins Charlie Strong at Texas. Notre Dame is not targeting any of the above players anymore.

Defensive Back
Score	Player	State	Ht/Wt.	Temperature	1*	2*	3*	4*	5*
.866	Terrence Alexander	LA	5-10/180	Mild
.853	Nick Glass	GA	6-2/205	Cold
.995	Adoree Jackson	CA	5-9/182	Cold
.883	Mattrell McGraw	LA	6-0/183	Cold

Alexander is coming off a visit to Notre Dame from this past weekend. He's the last remaining hope for a player in the secondary. Alexander visited Stanford two weekends ago and heads to Ole Miss this weekend. Alexander really enjoyed his visit and the Irish are trending upward.

Irish Offense Commits
Score	Player	State	Ht/Wt.	Position	1*	2*	3*	4*	5*
.907	DeShone Kizer	OH	6-5/207	Quarterback
.953	Justin Brent	IN	6-3/190	Wideout
.920	Corey Holmes	FL	6-2/175	Wideout
.905	Nic Weishar	IL	6-5/223	Tight End
.900	Tyler Luatua	CA	6-4/230	Tight End
.892	Jimmy Byrne	OH	6-4/290	Offensive Line
.907	Sam Mustipher	MD	6-3/285	Offensive Line
.968	Quenton Nelson	NJ	6-5/295	Offensive Line
.953	Alex Bars	TN	6-6/309	Offensive Line

Justin Brent is the sole offensive player from the class to early enroll. He's already on campus starting classes and working out. He's been a favorite of many OFD staff writers.

As expected, Weishar officially passes Luatua in the rankings. I don't know if many people would have believed that this would happen a year ago when Luatua was considered the top tight end in the country.

Irish Defense Commits
Score	Player	State	Ht/Wt.	Position	1*	2*	3*	4*	5*
.898	Grant Blakenship	TX	6-6/252	Defensive End
.860	Jonathan Bonner	MO	6-4/250	Defensive End
.853	Kolin Hill	TX	6-2/220	Defensive End
.934	Andrew Trumbetti	NJ	6-5/250	Defensive End
.840	Jhonathon Williams	MI	6-6/237	Defensive End
.906	Jay Hayes	NY	6-5/260	Defensive Tackle
.972	Nyles Morgan	IL	6-1/225	Linebacker
.883	Greer Martini	VA	6-3/232	Linebacker
.872	Nile Sykes	IL	6-2/223	Linebacker
.904	Richard Yeargin	FL	6-4/225	Linebacker
.926	Nick Watkins	TX	6-1/185	Cornerback
.896	Drue Tranquill	IN	6-2/210	Safety
.805	Tyler Newsome	GA	6-3/190	Punter

Trumbetti is the lone defender to enroll early.

There are 78 scholarships taken right now including verbals for this 2014 class. According to Irish Illustrated there will be 4 players extended a fifth-year to play at Notre Dame: Christian Lombard, Austin Collinsworth, Kendall Moore, and Justin Utupo.

That brings us to 82 scholarships and room for 3 more recruits.

Brian Kelly has said they are going to take up to 26 recruits this cycle--which would be 4 more recruits--and that means they are either planning on further attrition or possibly not renewing Joe Schmidt's one year scholarship from 2013.