Pete Werner Decommits From Notre Dame And We Wait For More

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish recruiting machine can officially be classified as “in trouble.” 2017 linebacker Pete Werner has decommitted from Notre Dame per 247.

Werner was an incredibly important part of the Notre Dame recruiting class for 2017. It’s no secret that the Irish defense can use all the help it can find in the coming years, and the lack of elite defensive line prospects makes the linebackers that much more important if the Irish plan on having a good front 7.

Werner is also a prospect from the state of Indiana- and a catholic high school. If you’re Notre Dame, the most powerful catholic school in the country which just so happens to be in the state of Indiana- YOU CAN’T LOSE PROSPECTS FROM AN INDIANA CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL. Especially if the kid was already committed.

Werner took a visit to Columbus for the Ohio State Buckeyes VS the Michigan Wolverines (and is likely a Buckeye lean right now), so the writing has been on the wall since Saturday. At least he had the decency of not dragging this out much longer. It’s not like Notre Dame is going to be able to replace him, but the PR closer to signing day won’t be as bad.

Or... it doesn’t matter because the PR might get way, way worse. Notre Dame is in a dog fight for a few committed prospects right now, and they don’t have much of a backup plan in place- nor are they in the running for very many prospects, legitimately.

By our count on the One Foot Down scholarship chart for 2017, this decommitment drops Notre Dame to 86 players for 2017 (85 limit). Of course a few guys that are on that list that are current Notre Dame players are probably going to be elsewhere in 2017, so this makes the journey to 85 for 2017 that much harder.

We will have much more on Notre Dame football recruiting in the coming weeks. It may get really sad around here.