Notre Dame Football Recruiting: What to expect on national signing day for the Irish

Well it’s the early period for National Signing Day, and to be honest... this post should have been up on Monday. It’s a big week for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, so let’s get past MY excuses and talk about what we should be expecting on NSD for Notre Dame.

THE SCHEDULE

The early period for National Signing Day runs from Wednesday to Friday and operates in the same way as the NSD in February.

Colleges can start accepting National Letters of Intent (NLI) at 7:00 AM. This used to be all about the fax machine, but the NCAA has finally caught up to technology and electronic signatures can now be used. Notre Dame won’t announce anything official until it goes through their clearinghouse. Once that process is done (15-20 minutes or so) Notre Dame will officially announce that “JOSHUA VOWLES” has signed.

Keep in mind that the 7:00 AM time is for the time zone in which the player resides. The NLI’s will come in throughout the day, but most of them should be in before noon.

At 4:30 PM, there will be a press conference with head coach Brian Kelly and recruiting coordinator Brian Polian. Because of all of the circumstances of this week and because of COVID-19, there most likely won’t be much of a “Signing Day Show” from Notre Dame — which is fine.

WILL THERE BE SOME DRAMA?

Notre Dame fans have grown accustomed to quiet signing days over the past few years, but this one just got a little trickier — so there may be some “drama” before the day is done.

Clark Lea’s future departure to Vanderbilt has cause at least one commit to start to think twice, and that’s 4-Star LB Prince Kollie. The Tennessee native loves Lea and the defense that he runs, so Notre Dame is going to have to sell itself all over again — but without a successor in place. Other programs are surely in his ear, so we definitely need to keep an eye on what happens here. While Kollie may not decommit or flip anywhere on Wednesday, he may hold off on signing his NLI as he figures this all out.

There’s a similar situation brewing with 3-Star running back Logan Diggs. The Louisiana native finally got an offer from the LSU Tigers, and he’s wavering a bit according to the recruiting beat. Diggs may not sign on Wednesday, and could wait until Friday or until February to fully make up his mind.

Speaking of RB... Donovan Edwards isn’t going to commit to Notre Dame so there’s no need to watch his announcement on Wednesday. 4-Star RB Audric Estime is currently committed to the Michigan State Spartans, and even though all the crystal balls point to Notre Dame for him — he may still need some time to process the offer from the Irish that just arrived, and wait until February to sign.

This means that Notre Dame may not sign a single running back this week — but still could sign Diggs and/or Estime in February, and then there is still 4-Star Byron Cardwell from San Diego (who is waiting until February).

Other than all of that... we expect the rest of the class to have their NLI’s sent to Notre Dame on Wednesday.

COVERAGE

It will be the usual coverage for the day here at OFD. The commit/NLI tracker can and will function like a live thread, there will be a story stream that will have everything you need to know on the day, and despite the OFD Twitter account still being in purgatory (light a candle and say a prayer) you can check out the coverage at @TheSubwayDomer. We will also be recording a podcast in the evening to cover recruiting, Clark Lea, Clemson, and more — look for it late night and early Thursday.

HAVE FUN!