2016 Notre Dame Recruiting Big Board: Quarterback & Running Back

Welcome back to the OFD recruiting Big Board for Fighting Irish football. We'll be posting Big Boards twice a week with each looking at two positions.

This past Wednesday, April 15th saw a few more of the dominoes fall at the quarterback position within the matter of hours. Around noon eastern time Ohio State picked up the commitment from (TX) Tristen Wallace .937 out of DeSoto H.S. in Texas. Wallace was not carrying a ND offer but his verbal did signal that the scheduled commit for (NJ) Jarrett Guarantano .941 later in the day wasn't going to go in Ohio State's favor.

Shortly after 3 PM ET Guarantano committed to Tennessee and came off Notre Dame's Big Board. This past weekend Guarantano attended the Rivals camp in New Jersey and came away with the MVP honors among the quarterbacks.

Congrats to our #RivalsCamp New Jersey QB MVP Jarrett Guarantano (@Guarantano18) pic.twitter.com/8zmhCGSiQo

— Rivals Camp Series (@RivalsCamp) April 19, 2015

Later in the day (CA) Devin Modster .899 gave what was considered a surprise commit to Arizona. He does not have an Irish offer and was considered a strong UCLA lean.

Xavier Gaines told AL.com that he'd be visiting 5 schools during the summer and making a decision shortly after. Those schools include Alabama, Auburn, Notre Dame, Tennessee, and Texas. The paper incorrectly calls them official visits but nevertheless we'll see if Gaines actually makes it to South Bend.

Dwayne Haskins came away with the MVP of the quarterbacks at the D.C. NFTC, earning himself an invite to the Elite 11 finals and The Opening this summer. He's continued to talk about a June commitment and spoke with Scout ($$) in this video at the NFTC about his top teams.

Carver H.S. quarterback Jawon Pass was at Auburn this past weekend and is now saying the Tigers are tied atop his recruitment with Louisville.

Another player who was at the NFTC in Washington, D.C. was Abdul Adams who has been linked to Michigan State for quite some time. He'll be visiting East Lansing in less than a week and some believe he is on commit watch for the Spartans.

For the second time in April a trip to Auburn was made by Elijah Holyfield--this time for the Tigers spring game. It was good news for Holyfield to visit Notre Dame back in March for Junior Day but Auburn is grabbing all of the momentum right now.

Boxing legend Evander Holyfield with his son, 4-star RB Elijah Holyfied, prior to Auburn's A-Day Game. pic.twitter.com/uCHlTYZ6qO

— Wesley Sinor (@WesleySinor) April 18, 2015

Miami has been considered the final destination for Deon McIntosh who lives an hour north in Fort Lauderdale but he just recently added a Louisville offer. In early April, he put Notre Dame in his top five, is speaking frequently with Autry Denson, and hopes to visit South Bend.

Notre Dame appears out of it for Robert Washington who has a top six of TCU, Michigan, North Carolina, Syracuse, Florida, and Alabama. He plans on committing this Saturday and there doesn't appear to be a good read of which school he will be choosing.

Irish commit (FL) Tony Jones, Jr. .885 was back in South Bend for the spring game this past weekend.

Always a good time up in South Bend #ND20 @OffcialTFolston @BrandonW_7 pic.twitter.com/b5StXVIFyU

— T4⃣ (@TonnJoness) April 18, 2015

For now, Jones plans on walking in Torii Hunter's footsteps as someone who will juggle playing both football and baseball at Notre Dame. He is currently hitting .491 with a .622 slugging percentage for the No. 22 nationally ranked IMG Academy baseball team.