Notre Dame Football Recruiting: Kyren Williams is 11th Straight Player to Pick Irish over Michigan

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are not only on a recruiting upswing, they are taking players the Michigan Wolverines wanted.

The two teams will compete on the field Sept. 1 at Notre Dame Stadium, but the jockeying for players off the field has been ongoing since Jim Harbaugh re-joined his alma mater on Dec. 30, 2014.

Kyren Williams, who committed to the Irish Thursday, was the 75th player to hold an offer from both Michigan and Notre Dame and ultimately choose one of those universities since Harbaugh’s hiring.

Williams was the 11th person in the Class of 2019 to pick South Bend over Ann Arbor; only three verbal commits have gone the other way so far. The Irish also have Drew Pyne, the only Class of 2020 player to hold offers from both universities and choose one of them.

The three-star running back is also the 11th consecutive athlete to choose Notre Dame over Michigan while holding offers from both.

If four-star quarterback Cade McNamara hadn’t flipped from Notre Dame to Michigan, the Irish would have won 15 consecutive head-to-head battles against the Wolverines, dating back to four-star wide receiver Lawrence Keys III’s commitment during the February Signing Day.

Brian Kelly’s staff has now convinced 43 of the 75 athletes they’ve recruited against Jim Harbaugh’s team to come to Notre Dame. Michigan held the early advantage, but Notre Dame passed the Wolverines with three signings on Feb. 7. McNamara’s flip on March 16 evened the score again, and it’s been all Notre Dame since.

It’s not all bad news for Harbaugh’s squad. Michigan has recruited more five stars (3 - defensive tackle Rashan Gary, wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones and defensive end Chris Hinton) than Notre Dame (0). They’ve also protected their backyard fairly well, coaxing seven of the 10 shared recruits from Michigan to stay in-state.

Notre Dame has recruited more four stars, 32-23, and three-stars, 11 to 6.

Michigan convinced the five top-rated players to join their Big 10 program, and seven of the top 10 in the group holding offers from both schools. (They are Gary, Peoples-Jones, Hinton, tackle Ben Bredeson, cornerback David Long, cornerback Houston Griffith, tight end Brock Wright, tight end Devin Asiasi, linebacker Drew Singleton and tackle Liam Eichenberg. Asiasi is now with the UCLA Bruins.)

The picture isn’t as rosy if you compare Brian Kelly’s staff to Urban Meyer’s staff with the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Meyer, who was hired in Columbus on Nov. 28, 2011, has taken 75 commitments from recruits who also held Notre Dame offers. The Irish have been able to coax 55 to South Bend, but only seven of 34 from the state of Ohio.

Zeke Correll, who committed Monday to the Irish, was the first athlete from Ohio to pick Notre Dame over Ohio State since Eichenberg gave his pledge to the Irish on April 19, 2015. In that three-year period between Eichenberg and Correll, the Irish lost 10 straight recruiting battles for Ohio players to the Buckeyes.