Notre Dame Football Recruiting: Early Trending And Trending Down

There’s been a steady stream of bad news on the recruiting front for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. While only a small portion of the news was of actual commitments elsewhere, the appearance of trending down with some of the better prospects on the board has Irish fans screaming at their screens.

There is an awesome recruiting tool from 247 that fans use to follow what’s going on with every recruit that they are following for the cycle. It, of course, is the Crystal Ball. Fans have differing opinions about this tool, but at its core, it allows those that follow recruiting a way to see which way a recruit is trending via the various media members in the country - mostly staff from 247 sites.

Over the past few weeks, it is these Crystal Ball picks that have Irish fans freaking out. Two of the best players on the big board are Texas defensive end, Nana Osafo-Mensah, and Georgia defensive back, Kenyatta Watson. Both of these players have been trending on the Crystal Ball for the Texas Longhorns over the past few weeks.

Keep in mind that neither have committed to Texas, and both have official visits scheduled to Notre Dame this spring - BUT IT IS TIME TO FREAK OUT BECAUSE SOME TEXAS WRITERS THINK THEY HAVE THESE GUYS IN THE BAG!

I don’t want to trivialize these picks, and I don’t want to hang my hat on them either. What I will say, is that this is much more of a fight than what Irish fans were anticipating just a month or so ago.

These two individual battles represent the changes Notre Dame is trying to make this cycle.

1. Gain a bigger footprint in Georgia with elite prospects.
2. Recruiting a pass rusher [pauses for laughter].

So between the initial optimism for NOM and Watson, Notre Dame’s needs, and recruitments that are trending down - it’s no wonder that Irish fans are fairly freaked out right now.

This is also a good time to remind people that the first signing day is still about 8 months away, and another a month and a half after that.

The threat is real y’all, and there is no denying that fact. This is going to be a much smaller recruiting class than last year, and could be just a 20 players total. Notre Dame has to win some of these battles, and right now it’s looking more and more like the “good news” we were hearing in March is turning into bad news for April.