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Under the simplest of guidelines, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish didn’t have a great recruiting class for the 2020 cycle. A quick glance at the team rankings forces you to scroll down the page a bit to see Notre Dame’s ranking.
Here are Notre Dame’s class rankings per Rivals, ESPN, and the 247 Composite:
- #14 ESPN
- #17 247 Composite
- #20 Rivals
Back in December, the Irish were ranked right around #10 — but a lot has happened since then. For starters, Notre Dame didn’t add anymore recruits to its class. Secondly, the Irish were forced to part ways with Landen Bartleson, which dropped their class size to 17. According to the 247 Composite, it was the lowest number of commitments ranked in the top 25.
Just looking at the 247 Composite Team Rankings, here are some programs of note:
- Clemson Tigers #3
- Ohio State Buckeyes #5
- Michigan Wolverines #14
- Stanford Cardinal #21
- USC Trojans #55
- Eastern Michigan Eagles #113
It should also be noted that not only did the Irish only have 17 players in this class (which was close to the target because of scholarship numbers), one of them is a long snapper — which are generally ranked as a 2-Star prospect (sorry Kohl’s). The overall quality of the commitments in this class is much better than its class ranking, but it’s understandable if fans are a little put off as they see the usual suspects in the top 10.
After Brian Kelly said that Notre Dame should be competing for top 5 classes, a story about him not recruiting two elite prospects personally and this final ranking have made his words a little hollow in the present.
It all adds up to a bit of frustration for sure, but when you start thinking about that, change your thought process. Think about Chris Tyree, Jordan Johnson, Michael Mayer, Tosh Baker, Jordan Botelho, Rylie Mills, Xavier Watts, and all of the other guys in this class that got you excited when they committed. It’s a good class that’s added to a good team to help find greatness.
We can work with that.