Notre Dame Football Recruiting: Top Irish running back target commits to Penn State

2022 4-Star running back Nicholas Singleton from Reading, Pennsylvania, gave his commitment to the Penn State Nittany Lions on Tuesday.

Singleton made an official visit to Notre Dame, and the thought was that he may commit after short visits to the Alabama Crimson Tide and Texas A&M Aggies. Instead, it appears as though the luster of the visit to Notre Dame has disappeared, and the early favorite Penn State Nittany Lions have bounced back to be Singleton’s leader.

Notre Dame had narrowed itself down to three running back targets over the last few months. Singleton, along with Gavin Sawchuck and Dallan Haden were known by fans as “the big three.” Events started to move rapidly when Haden committed to the Ohio State Buckeyes, and shortly after Gavin Sawchuck committed to the Oklahoma Sooners. These events took the pressure off of Singleton to secure his spot in South Bend, and now we have arrived at the current situation.

The Irish already have a 4-Star running back in the 2022 class in Jadarian Price from Texas. While they were prepared to add a second back to this class — it was a second back if it was one of those “big three.” I’m not sure any of that changes moving forward.

Of course — nothing is final until national signing day, and I wouldn’t rule anything out just on general principle alone.

With the Singleton commitment, Penn State is just .92 points behind Notre Dame in the 247 Composite Team Rankings with the same number of commitments.