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2016 Notre Dame Recruiting Big Board: Offense

Here's your latest recruiting update for Notre Dame's offensive targets.

By Eric Murtaugh
Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

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Welcome back to your regularly scheduled OFD Big Board for Fighting Irish recruiting.

Quarterback
Score Player State Ht/Wt. Temperature 1* 2* 3* 4* 5*
.914 Ervin Barrett FL 6-2/213 Cold
.895 Matt Fink CA 6-3/185 Cold
.903 Xavier Gaines FL 6-2/200 Cold
.941 Jarrett Guarantano NJ 6-4/200 Cold
.963 Dwayne Haskins MD 6-3/200 Mild
.972 Jawon Pass GA 6-5/220 Cold

Shortly after our last update at quarterback (LA) Shea Patterson .990 committed as expected to Ole Miss following a visit to Oxford. He's the only quarterback to come off the Big Board recently and has had an impressive off-season at several camps. Patterson is now nipping at Jacob Eason and Malik Henry's heels for the top rated quarterback in the 2016 class.

Towards the end of February the Irish extended an offer to Jarrett Guarantano out of Bergen Catholic just across the Hudson River from Manhattan in New Jersey. This might be a quarterback who Notre Dame could re-visit down the road but for now he plans on making a commitment next Wednesday between Tennessee, Rutgers, and Ohio State. Guarantano visited Tennessee last month and has been to Rutgers and Ohio State on several occasions--visiting Columbus again today. For now, the Vols lead his Crystal Ball pick.

On March 3rd, Notre Dame offered Matt Fink out of Glendora High School in eastern Los Angeles County. Since then he performed very well at the California Elite 11 competition and recently received an offer from USC. The Trojans are the presumed favorites with Fink noting he'd like to stay in California for college.

Notre Dame hasn't been in the picture with Xavier Gaines for quite some time and didn't make his top list from an interview last month.

Some good news came when Dwayne Haskins came to Notre Dame's Junior Day in March. The Irish are in the mix for now as he continues to take a lot of visits. Haskins has been to Duke, Florida, Maryland, and Rutgers in recent weeks and is one of the few quarterbacks who appears to be taking his time making a decision.

Notre Dame is in an interesting position currently with the highly rated Brandon Wimbush coming in this fall and in-state 2017 quarterback Hunter Johnson high on Notre Dame as the top-rated quarterback in his class. Ideally, the Irish wouldn't be in a hurry to grab a 2016 quarterback if it meant securing Johnson at some point during this calendar year. It's something to keep an eye on moving forward.

One quick note as Ervin Barrett has been reassigned from an athlete to quarterback. The former teammate of Dexter Williams at Orange High School outside Orlando is now the No. 7 dual-threat quarterback in the nation.

Running Back
Score Player State Ht/Wt. Temperature 1* 2* 3* 4* 5*
.858 Abdul Adams DC 5-11/205 Cold
.919 Elijah Holyfield GA 5-11/205 Mild
.855 Deon McIntosh FL 5-11/175 Cold
.909 Robert Washington NC 5-10/215 Cold

Notre Dame's attempt to continue building depth at running back paid off with the committment of (FL) Tony Jones .885 out of IMG Academy. He's already earned an invite to The Opening following a performance at the Orlando NFTC in early March and was recently invited to the Semper Fi All-American Bowl.

Two weekends ago (OH) Demario McCall .970 visited Columbus again and finally gave his commitment to Ohio State. That gives the Buckeyes the No. 1, No. 3. and No. 4 rated running backs in the class of 2016.

The loss of Tony Alford hurt Notre Dame's chances with Robert Washington to Ohio State's gain. However, with 3 top backs already in the Buckeyes' class Washington is forced to look elsewhere. With the verbal from Tony Jones it doesn't appear the Irish are pushing all that hard for Washington at this time as his commit date approaches later this month.

One player Notre Dame appears ready to wait on as a second back in the class is Elijah Holyfield. The son of the Real Deal Holyfield™ made the trip to South Bend for Junior Day and has the Irish in the mix among his favorites.

Like many other players with the means to do so, Holyfield has been on a fairly large spring visit tour. In addition to his trip to Notre Dame he's been to Georgia, Auburn twice, Tennessee, Florida, and will be back at South Carolina this weekend for the second time during 2015.

Athlete
Score Player State Ht/Wt. Temperature 1* 2* 3* 4* 5*
.951 Devin Asiasi CA 6-5/230 Cold
.970 Marquez Callaway GA 6-2/170 Cold
.935 Jordan Fuller NJ 6-2/190 Cold
.957 Jack Jones CA 5-11/170 Cold
.950 Chase Lucas AZ 5-11/166 Cold
.953 Ahmir Mitchell NJ 6-2/190 Mild

A couple of new offers have gone out at the athlete position. Devin Asiasi comes out of northern California power De La Salle and is being looked at as a defensive end by some schools, but mostly as a tight end by others including Notre Dame. The only school Asiasi has visited this spring is California.

Early March brought an offer to Jack Jones out of Long Beach Polytechnic. He's got UCLA, Notre Dame, and Oklahoma among his favorites and of course USC will likely be the favorite. A visit to South Bend could be likely in the summer or fall, however, Jones plans on deciding late in the process close to National Signing Day.

Jordan Fuller remains a top target for the Irish but has yet to visit South Bend. He made a trip to Michigan last month and has set up a visit to UCLA (yesterday) and Ohio State (tomorrow).

A Junior Day visit was set up for Ahmir Mitchell but he had to cancel due to nasty weather blowing through New Jersey right before the weekend. The bad news is that Mitchell was able to take visits to Ohio State and Michigan late last month. The good news is that Notre Dame is in his top 6.

Another reclassifying note as Chase Lucas moves from running back to an athlete.

Wide Receiver
Score Player State Ht/Wt. Temperature 1* 2* 3* 4* 5*
.945 Donnie Corley MI 6-2/180 Mild
.973 Dylan Crawford CA 6-1/175 Cold
.880 Divine Deablo NC 6-3/180 Cold
.977 Devin Duvernay TX 5-11/195 Cold
.889 Josh Hammond FL 6-1/180 Cold
.930 Brad Hawkins NJ 6-2/190 Cold
.947 Justin Layne OH 6-3/180 Cold
.940 Austin Mack IN 6-2/205 Mild
.957 Javon McKinley CA 6-2/185 Cold
.905 Tre Nixon FL 6-1/165 Cold
.939 Darian Owens CA 6-0/190 Cold
.955 Darnell Salomon FL 6-3/198 Cold
.957 Trevon Sidney CA 5-11/160 Cold
.943 Dredrick Snelson FL 6-0/198 Cold
.961 Eli Stove FL 6-1/178 Cold
.985 Tyler Vaughns CA 6-3/175 Cold
.944 Benjimen Victor FL 6-4/170 Cold

The Irish offered a ton of receivers relatively early in the process. As such, the only new offer to report is (CA) Theo Howard .937 back from March 4th. Less than two weeks later he gave his verbal to Oregon.

A busy spring for Donnie Corley has seen him visit Michigan three times, in addition to Michigan State, Penn State, Illinois, Tennessee, and a Junior Day trip to Notre Dame. Clearly a major target for the Irish, this one is going to be a spectacular Midwest battle.

One of the trio of players who were supposed to make the trip for Junior Day with Ahmir Mitchell was Brad Hawkins. He's made recent visits to Michigan, Ohio State, and Rutgers.

When Junior Day came for Notre Dame it was Austin Mack making his 5th visit to South Bend. Since then he's made a visit to Alabama and will be taking another trip to Ohio State and Michigan State later this month. As a Fort Wayne product this is a player most Irish fans feel is a must-get. He'll be committing to a school on June 7th at the R.A.S. Camp in Fort Wayne.

If there's going to be a Californian as part of the 2016 class Javon McKinley would be as good of a bet as anyone. He's set to visit South Bend later this month so keep an eye on that trip.

The Irish looked in great position a few months ago after offering Tre Nixon but since Tony Alford left for Ohio State that momentum has dissipated. That's also coincided with Nixon blowing up nationally with top offers from Arizona, TCU, Michigan, Mississippi State, Nebraska, Stanford, and Florida State. Nixon has taken visits to Florida and Alabama a couple weeks ago.

Tight End
Score Player State Ht/Wt. Temperature 1* 2* 3* 4* 5*
.916 Cary Angeline PA 6-7/230 Mild

With Asiasi and Cary Angeline the targets at tight end remain small as the Irish have good depth and are bringing in the nation's top prospect this fall.

For his part, Angeline has been on a spree of visits since coming to South Bend including North Carolina, Miami, Michigan State, Michigan, USC, Arizona State, and UCLA.

Offensive Line
Score Player State Ht/Wt. Temperature 1* 2* 3* 4* 5*
.985 Willie Allen LA 6-7/300 Cold
.913 Parker Boudreaux FL 6-4/287 Mild
.983 Ben Bredeson WI 6-5/270 Mild
.956 Liam Eichenberg OH 6-6/290 Mild
.925 Michael Jordan MI 6-6/285 Mild
.909 Nathan Smith CA 6-7/264 Cold

One of the country's top offensive lineman came off the board last week as (GA) E.J. Price .957 stayed in-state and gave a verbal to the Georgia Bulldogs.

A new offer went out to (CA) Nathan Smith .909 who took a super quick visit to Notre Dame a week ago. That trip was preceded by visits to Nebraska, Missouri and Illinois and followed up with trips to Miami, Arizona, and Arizona State before returning home.

Boudreaux, Bredeson, and Jordan--the latter visiting for Junior Day--all remain in play for Notre Dame heading into the summer. However, the next big domino to fall with be Liam Eichenberg. He'll be visiting Notre Dame again this weekend and following that up with another visit to Ohio State the following weekend.

Eichenberg is expected to make a decision between the Irish and Buckeyes shortly after these last round of visits. It doesn't happen too often but this one is looking like a true coin flip. You can expect the Irish to readjust their O-line plan once he makes his decision.

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