Notre Dame Football Recruiting: 4-Star Tight End Jack Nickel commits to the Irish

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are off to a really good start to the 2022 recruiting cycle after 4-Star Tight End Jack Nickel gave his commitment to Brian Kelly and John McNulty on Monday.

The 6’4” 230 pound tight end from Alpharetta, Georgia chose the Irish over a nice list of offers from around the country including the Iowa Hawkeyes, Miami-Florida Hurricanes, Florida State Seminoles, LSU Tigers, Penn State Nittany Lions, and many more. Currently he is the 12 ranked tight end in the country and the 276th overall according to the 247 Composite rankings.

From Irish Illustrated’s Tim Prister:

Perhaps the best way to describe Nickel – in addition to the word “solid” – is that he’s good in a lot of aspects of his game. He’s fairly nimble. He shows the ability to reach back across his body to make a difficult catch, and then stays on his feet and gets up field. In fact, one of the best things Nickel does is stay on his feet, both as a pass-catcher and a blocker.

Nickel’s hands are good. He makes difficult catches look easy. He’s tough and physical, both as a guy with the football in his hands and as a blocker. While he generally stands a little tall as a blocker – he could widen his blocking base on a more consistent basis – he is most definitely an active and an aggressively willing blocker with a desire to get after it. His active approach to blocking may be his greatest attribute.

Notre Dame continues to add to its future tight end depth with this commitment — and they are still looking to add another TE to the 2021 class to go along with Cane Berrong.

This is the second commitment of the 2022 class, and it came just days after the first one in offensive tackle Joey Tanona. Notre Dame’s recruiting strength over the years has certainly been with offensive linemen and tight ends, but these two commitments also represent top talent in the home state and another commitment from the state of Georgia — a priority for the Irish over the last few years.

In fact, in 2022 Notre Dame could have 3 tight ends on the roster from the state of Georgia in Nickel, Berrong, and Tommy Tremble (should Tommy stay for a 5th year).

While it’s still very early in the cycle, Nickel’s addition is an exciting one as we look towards how Notre Dame moves on from Chip Long in a full cycle.

FIST PUMPS UP FOR JACK!