Notre Dame Football Recruiting: Looking ahead at the 2021 class for the Irish and a great opportunity

The 2020 recruiting cycle still isn’t over, but it might as well be for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. With an 18 man class and another offseason with tight numbers, we are 99.9% certain the Irish won’t be adding any scholarship players to the 2020 class.

Since recruiting never stops, we turn an eager eye to the 2021 class.

Currently the Irish have 7 commitments and the #2 class according to the 247 Composite Team Rankings. They’re off to an incredible start — especially on the offensive side of the ball.

Seven commitments and all of them are 4-Stars — with some that have the potential to get that 5th star. The Irish also are in great shape for another handful of players that include 5-Star RB Will Shipley and 5-Star OT Langdon Tengwall.

We aren’t going to lay out all of the possibilities in this post, but there is great opportunity with the 2021 class to give another great jolt of dynamic talent to the Notre Dame program. In the near future we can start to narrow in on who the Irish may end up signing, but this is merely an outline of sorts.

With that great base of commitments in hand, the Irish have 88 other offers out right now. Notre Dame sent out 160 offers for the 2020 class and 199 in 2019, so there should be plenty more going out in the coming months — and the coming months are what this is all about.

With the early signing period, the entire timeline has shifted from the fall to the spring in a lot of ways. Official visits will start on April 1 and run until June 21. During that time, Notre Dame will most likely receive a large number of commitments.

Part of what we will need to pay attention to, isn’t just the number of stars next to a recruit’s name, but what Notre Dame’s needs are moving forward. You can follow along in the updated 2021 Scholarship Chart.

With just the current offer list and the current set of commitments, Notre Dame has a great chance at finishing with a top 5 class. This is something Brian Kelly has recently stated that he wants. He’ll have to work for it, but the opportunity is there for the taking, and it would help cement Notre Dame as a national power for years to come.

So keep an eye out.