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2015 Notre Dame Recruiting Big Board: OLB, CB, S

Notre Dame stocks up in the secondary and is still looking for an impact outside linebacker.

By Eric Murtaugh
Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

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Welcome back to another edition of the One Foot Down Recruiting Big Board for Irish Football.

Outside Linebacker
Score Player State Ht/Wt. Temperature 1* 2* 3* 4* 5*
.885 Manny Bowen NJ 6-2/206 Cold
.961 Porter Gustin UT 6-5/240 Mild
.988 Justin Hilliard OH 6-2/230 Warm
.981 Jeffery Holland FL 6-2/230 Cold
.985 John Houston CA 6-3/211 Cold
.992 Malik Jefferson TX 6-2/225 Cold
.961 Osa Masina UT 6-4/230 Mild
.864 Arthur McGinnis LA 6-1/222 Cold
.889 Cassius Peat AZ 6-4/235 Mild
.857 Dominic Sheppard FL 6-2/223 Cold
.926 Adonis Thomas GA 6-4/215 Mild
.867 Bo Wallace LA 6-3/215 Mild

The Irish appear to be fading from Manny Bowen's radar. He's looking to cut down his list of favorites with Penn State considered the team to beat moving forward.  He'll visit Happy Valley this weekend.

As previously reported, Porter Gustin will take an official to Notre Dame for the Michigan game and is scheduled for this weekend's Irish Invasion. He's a Mormon who might go on a Mission straight from high school so keep that in mind as his recruitment progresses.

Justin Hilliard visited South Bend two weekends ago. That makes it 3 visits to Notre Dame over the past 4 months. He also made it to Ohio State and Iowa recently. He will be coming back for the Irish Invasion this Friday and go back to Ohio State before making a decision later in the summer. Earlier this month Hilliard was invited to The Opening.

Ohio State also got a recent visit from Jeffery Holland but he's also been to Auburn 3 times over the past 12 weeks and is still considered a heavy lean to the Tigers.

Five-star prospect John Houston has been reclassified to outside linebacker and is set to make a bunch of summer visits. As of a couple weeks ago he was set to visit Notre Dame next weekend.

Malik Jefferson is the consensus top outside linebacker and has been very quiet for someone with his status. He did recently camp at Oklahoma and does not appear to be considering Notre Dame. Other teams in the mix are Texas, Baylor, and Alabama.

We're still waiting to see if Osa Masina makes any plans with Notre Dame but it hasn't happened yet. It appears UCLA is grabbing some momentum and he's close to being downgraded to Cold on our board.

Arthur McGinnis was originally scheduled to visit for this week's camp but has pushed back that date to next month. He's called Notre Dame one of his favorites and wants to learn more about the school's academics. We'll see if things heat up in a few weeks.

Cassius Peat is in the same boat as Masina. Both are players who have lined up visits but haven't actually made the trip yet.

The experts continue to say Dominic Sheppard is going to stay in town and go to Miami.

It will be interesting to see what kind of impact Notre Dame has on Adonis Thomas who visits this weekend. He has mentioned that Florida, Alabama, and the Irish are recruiting him the hardest. He's never been to South Bend and is coming off another trip to Florida and will get back to Alabama in July. He's deciding on August 1st so Notre Dame is going to need a major impact in a few days.

Notre Dame made a big impression on Bo Wallace who visited during the first week of June. He's scheduled to come back for an official visit for the Michigan game. Could the Irish finally pick up a player from John Curtis H.S.?

Corner
Score Player State Ht/Wt. Temperature 1* 2* 3* 4* 5*
.919 Micah Abernathy GA 6-1/185 Cold
.887 Josh Butler TX 5-11/175 Cold
.845 Carlton Davis FL 6-1/182 Cold
.921 Holton Hill TX 6-2/180 Cold
.943 Isaiah Langley CA 5-11/170 Cold
.927 Xavier Lewis LA 6-0/175 Cold
.995 Iman Marshall CA 6-1/190 Cold
.984 Tavarus McFadden FL 6-3/198 Cold
.907 Cameron Ordway TN 6-0/174 Cold
.950 John Reid PA 5-10/180 Mild
.992 Kendall Sheffield TX 5-11/180 Cold
.912 Darius Slayton GA 6-2/182 Cold
.923 Jordan Whitehead PA 6-0/180 Cold

We had a flurry of activity at corner since our last update. First, (OH) Shaun Crawford .951 left Michigan's class and recently committed to Notre Dame. Just a couple days earlier the Irish added a verbal from (OH) Nick Coleman .845 who comes out of Malik Zaire's high school. Coleman was offered at the end of May and committed after his visit during the middle of last week.

Another corner who was on Notre Dame's radar was (TX) P.J. Mbanasor .936 but he committed to Oklahoma.

Of note, Tavarus McFadden is now reclassified as a corner. He is not considering Notre Dame.

With the recent commits of Crawford and Coleman there may only be room for 1 more defensive back. The Irish did make the Top 10 for Cameron Ordway recently. I'm not sure if things will progress further for ND.

Philadelphia's John Reid recently visited Michigan and is being persued heavily by the Wolverines now. For now he's looking like the likely last piece to the puzzle for Notre Dame at corner if they can fight off Penn State and Michigan over the next few months.

Safety
Score Player State Ht/Wt. Temperature 1* 2* 3* 4* 5*
.958 DeChaun Holiday CA 6-2/195 Cold
.833 Denzel Johnson SC 6-2/187 Cold
.856 PJ Locke TX 5-11/180 Cold
.969 Marvell Tell CA 6-2/175 Cold

Notre Dame has offered a pair of recruits since our last update. First is North Carolina commit (FL) Ronnie Harrison .884 who heard from the Irish staff a couple Thursday's ago. He's been part of the Tar Heels class for nearly a year.

The second offer is to (SC) Denzel Johnson .833 who has good speed for his size. He's only carrying offers from Clemson and Louisville so he's flying under the radar out of A C Flora High School.

The Irish did make the Top 10 for P.J. Locke, as well.

As mentioned above, Notre Dame will be very picky in the secondary for the remainder of this cycle. With McKinney, Fertitta, Coleman, and Crawford they can afford to wait on an elite player or someone deciding later in the process.

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