Notre Dame Football Recruiting: 3-Star Safety Justin Walters commits to the Irish

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish got some good news this weekend as 3-Star safety Justin Walters ended his recruitment with a commitment in South Bend. The 6’2” 175 prospect from Bolingbrook, Illinois chose the Irish over a long offer list that included the Michigan Wolverines, Wisconsin Badgers, Minnesota Golden Gophers and others.

Walters is known as a big hitter, and a safety that closes in on the ball very quickly. His 40 time is not really known, but when you watch his film, there doesn’t appear to be a lack of speed or explosion in his play. For being a hard-nosed safety that played some linebacker in high school as well — he has pretty good ball skills as well.

Walters is the eighth commitment in this 2021 class for the Irish and the first safety to declare. He joins a class that is already ranked #3 in the country — although this is still very early in the recruiting cycle.

It’s been just a little over a month since Brian Kelly made some very strong statements about recruiting at Notre Dame, and in particular the need and want for the Irish to compete for top 5 recruiting classes. While fans may grumble a bit about Walters’ 3-Star rating,he’s a prospect that is highly coveted by Clark Lea and Terry Joseph — and was a very early target by the Irish. We should also all remember that recruiting ranks can and will definitely change over the next 10 months.

This commitment by Walters could be the catalyst of more commitments over the next 3-5 months — as we have seen in the past in this new era of early signing day recruiting. The Irish are heavily involved with a handful of 5-Star prospects, and can certainly strengthen their national ranking with a few wins (and much more importantly within their own program).

As recruiting heats up, it’s FIST PUMPS UP for right now and Justin Walters.