Notre Dame Football Recruiting: Huge Weekend In Store For Michigan State Game

Notre Dame has an enormous weekend in store for the football program. Not only do the Notre Dame Fighting Irish have a Top 20 showdown with the Michigan State Spartans, they have 50 recruiting visitors lined up.

The list is indeed vast and includes some of the best players in the country that are uncommitted, committed elsewhere, and committed to Notre Dame. It covers the recruiting cycles of 2017, 2018, and 2019. It’s an organizational nightmare, but organization is the absolute strength of Notre Dame Recruiting Coordinator, Mike Elston.

To make this as pressing as possible, let’s discuss the recruits for the 2017 cycle that are not committed to Notre Dame. (Don’t worry, I’ll list the rest later).

DEFENSE

This is a list heavy on stars, but to be perfectly honest, it is also heavy with dreams. Shaun Wade for example, is a recruit that Notre Dame fans would die for, but you’ll live. He is currently committed to Ohio State, and a battle versus Big State U and Urban Meyer is usually a battle that you will lose 99% of the time.

The west coasters are equally difficult. Guys like Salvon Ahmed and Thomas Graham have top 5’s of Pac 12 schools and then Notre Dame. While getting them to visit is a HUGE step, it will take a lot (as it usually does) to pull them from the left coast to the Great Lakes.

If there are a couple of real possibilities on this list, they are Jerron Cage and Donovan Jeter. Problem here, is that Cage (the brother of current Notre Dame defensive lineman Daniel Cage) is committed to Ohio State and Donovan Jeter is leaning hard towards Pitt.

You would hate to see such a huge swing and miss with top prospects, but there isn’t anything here that would lead me to believe otherwise. Ouch.

OFFENSE

So, basically, this is... we might need a wide receiver and another big ugly. I don’t see any real possibility here except maybe Jones, and if Notre Dame would extend an offer to Hippenhammer, they might get a flip there too. Aaron Banks? Probably not leaving the west coast.

So... What?

Not all is lost- really. Here is the list of 2017 commits that will be visiting:

TE Brock Wright
TE Cole Kmet
LB Pete Werner
OL Joshua Lugg
LB David Adams
LB Drew White
OL Dillan Gibbons

That’s good news, right? The key to all of this is what we have left in the class, and according to the scholarship chart, Notre Dame is pretty close to ALL FULL (we leave some wiggle room).

So, it’s okay to swing for the fences because the class is pretty well set as far as numbers are concerned. Not full, despite the overage, but close.

2018 Commits

Notre Dame will have a handful of 2018 commits on hand as well:

QB Phil Jurkovec
LB Matthew Bauer
RB Markese Stepp
LB Ovie Oghoufo

That scholarship chart looks like this:

As you can see here too... Notre Dame is in a healthy position with its numbers for that class too. Of course things can and will change, but it’s a decent start and proves just how young this 2016 team is.

The rest of the 2018 Visitors

CB Derrik Allen
OL Jackson Carman
DE Leonard Taylor
CB Christian Tutt
DE Malik Vann
LB Dallas Gant
DE Tyreke Smith
TE Tyneil Hopper
OL Verdis Brown
OL Emil Ekiyor
LB Cameron Hoelscher
LB KJ Phillips
DE Lawrence Johnson
WR Dashon Bussell
DB Garrison Vaughn
OL Ryan Hayes
LB Bryce Ray
OL Colin Woodside

2019 Visitors

DE Stephen Herron Jr.
OL Logan Brown
DT Mazi Smith
CB Moses Douglass
DT/OL Isaiah Gibson
OL Peyton Young
DE Dallas Fincher

Wait and see

While my predictions of doom and gloom are based on fact, public statements, and science; I can be wrong and have been wrong before. I don’t think much will come of the weekend, but if it does, it may be much later in the season. Keep watch.