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2016 Notre Dame Recruiting Big Board: Defensive Line

Michigan State is Doing Good Things™ on defense at the expense of Notre Dame.

By Eric Murtaugh
Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

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Welcome back to the One Foot Down recruiting Big Board for Fighting Irish football.

Defensive Tackle
Score Player State Ht/Wt. Temperature 1* 2* 3* 4* 5*
.875 Kyree Campbell VA 6-5/305 Cold
.846 Christian Colon NC 6-3/325 Cold
.953 Jordan Elliott TX 6-4/305 Cold
.999 Rashan Gary NJ 6-4/290 Cold
.977 Antwuan Jackson GA 6-2/285 Cold
.990 Dexter Lawrence NC 6-5/310 Cold

Last night the Houston Cougars picked up the commitment of (TX) Ed Oliver .991 who is the second best player in Texas. There was talk that he was seriously looking at his hometown team but this is still pretty shocking.

By the end of June it'll be time for Christian Colon to come out with his top 5 list. He spoke at the Nike Opening Regionals in Charlotte recently and said things are still pretty wide open.

Notre Dame stopped by to see Jordan Elliott earlier this month and he's picked up offers from Georgia, Utah, and Arizona State in May. A couple weeks ago he said that USC is the team to beat.

Some good news as Rashan Gary has plans to visit Notre Dame after the Irish Invasion, though. All visits are important but we'll see how much traction the Irish can gain as several schools are thought to be well ahead with Gary also making several more summer visits to the likes of Auburn, Alabama, Ole Miss, and possibly a trip out west to USC, UCLA, and Stanford.

Auburn, Alabama, and Georgia remain the favorites for Antwuan Jackson but Ohio State is lurking in the shadows, too.

Dexter Lawrence earned an invite to The Opening earlier this month and is kind of athletic.

Right now, Lawrence is all about the southeast with North Carolina, Clemson, NC State, Florida, and Florida State among his favorite 5 schools.

A quick note as Kyree Campbell has been reclassified from an end to a tackle.

Defensive End
Score Player State Ht/Wt. Temperature 1* 2* 3* 4* 5*
.970 McTelvin Agim AR 6-2/268 Cold
.864 Quayshon Alexander NJ 6-3/230 Cold
.869 Andre Anthony LA 6-3/214 Cold
.923 Patrick Bethel FL 6-3/243 Cold
.961 Oluwole Betiku CA 6-3/240 Cold
.915 Amani Bledsoe KS 6-5/270 Cold
.994 Nick Bosa FL 6-4/265 Cold
.870 Brian Burns FL 6-5/212 Cold
.871 Antonneous Clayton GA 6-4/218 Cold
.919 Ron Johnson NJ 6-4/240 Cold
.923 Khalid Kareem MI 6-4/252 Mild
.923 Xavier Kelly KS 6-5/230 Mild
.960 Josh King IL 6-6/250 Mild
.952 Justin Madubuike TX 6-3/255 Cold
.944 Auston Robertson IN 6-5/230 Mild
.875 Jordan Smith GA 6-6/222 Cold

With Bo Wallace not coming to South Bend and playing for Notre Dame the 2015 class now has zero defensive end prospects. As you would imagine, the Irish staff began immediately planning for an additional edge rusher in the 2016 class and recently handed out 3 new offers.

Quayshon Alexander comes out of De Paul Catholic in New Jersey under 30 miles west of Manhattan. He was going to commit to Nebraska this past Monday but backed off those plans. He plans on visiting Notre Dame this summer.

Andre Anthony is the second new offer out of Edna Carr H.S. in New Orleans. He's one of the more highly coveted 3-star players in the country.

Antonneous Clayton is the third offer out of Dooly County H.S. south of Macon, Georgia. He is planning on attending Irish Invasion next month with his football coach. He'll also be visiting more schools during the summer and plans on taking official visits in the fall.

One DE came off the Big Board recently as (GA) Chidi Okonya .883 committed to Tennessee.

ND is trying to get a visit out of McTelvin Agim, but don't hold your breath. He was recently offered by Missouri.

Kansas, West Virginia, and Cincinnati are new offers for Patrick Bethel. HERE is a nice long article with him in which he mentions Notre Dame is among the schools recruiting him the hardest.

Oluwole Betiku dominated at the Nike Oakland Regionals and earned an invite to The Opening. He lives with former Penn State great LaVar Arrington and has interest in the Nittany Lions. However, he's nowhere close to deciding anything.

Amani Bledsoe is keeping things open right now.

Technically, the Irish made the top 4 for Nick Bosa who included Florida, Florida State, and Ohio State. He hasn't visited any of those schools outside of OSU and might make it to Notre Dame this summer.

Michigan offered Brian Burns a few days ago.

Ron Johnson was offered by Oregon in early May and told 247 that he is very high on the Ducks and would like to visit Eugene. He also mentioned not having a top list of teams yet.

Scout has a long interview with Khalid Kareem's father and mentions yet again that a degree is the most important factor for his son. Kareem is planning to visit of bunch of southern schools this summer.

Notre Dame is still waiting for Xavier Kelly to visit South Bend in a few weeks. Jamie, did a film breakdown of him for ISD a while ago:

Notre Dame made the top 5 for Josh King and he'll be announcing a commitment on June 6th. The Irish fell off pretty hard here in recent months and there's speculation that it could be academic related. Michigan State is the heavy favorite to secure his verbal.

The Spartans also recently offered Justin Madabuike who really likes Texas A&M and will be visiting College Station this summer.

The consternation will flow hard as Auston Robertson is committing on June 7th and is down to MSU, Michigan, and Notre Dame. Like King up above, the Spartans are the heavy favorite.

LSU stopped by Jordan Smith's school recently and gave him an offer.

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