Recruiting Week In Review

Written by Joe Bradshaw

It’s said that confession is good for the soul and it’s in that spirit that I admit that Notre Dame’s double overtime victory against Clemson took me by surprise. I believed the Irish would be competitive but like so many times in the past, they would play hard but come up short. What I saw instead was not just a team that refused to lose but also one whose talent was not overshadowed by that of the number one team in the nation. In fact, Notre Dame dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and the best running back in the game was named Williams, not Etienne.

Many believe that Notre Dame’s path to a national championship runs through their offensive and defensive lines and last night’s performance should have elite players at those positions pushing the Irish towards the tops of their lists. Last week Irish Sports Daily reported on a top Class of 2022 offensive line recruit who recently released a top four. Did Notre Dame make the cut? What have you been missing by not being a member of Irish Sports Daily?

Billy Schrauth‍, OL, 6-5, 265, St. Mary’s Springs Academy, Fond Du Lac, WI recently released a top four of Wisconsin, Ohio State, Michigan and Notre Dame. Schrauth is the youngest of three brothers to play for St. Mary’s, his two older brothers helping the Ledgers to conference championships before leaving to play at Minnesota State and Winona State respectively. While both brothers were all-state selections, St. Mary’s head coach, Bob Hyland believes that Billy has a higher ceiling than either of his siblings.

“He has the height and agility that the others didn’t have,” Hyland pointed out. “He has a little bit more than they had at this point. He’s in the same grade as my grandson, so I’ve known him a long time. You just knew there was something special there.”

Hyland related a story of Billy accompanying one of his brothers on a recruiting visit and being mistaken for the recruit. Billy was only in eighth grade at the time. College coaches definitely know who the four star lineman is now. In addition to his final four, he also holds scholarship offers from Penn State, Stanford and a host of others. Schools are not only attracted to Schrauth the player but also Schrauth the person and student.

“He’s a very intelligent young man,” Hyland said. “I think he has a 4.0 or very close to it.”

Hyland thinks that Schrauth’s development has been aided by being the youngest member of the family.

“He’s very competitive,” his coach shared. “He works hard, but he has the natural God-given talent.”

After giving him a taste of varsity football as a freshman, Hyland through him into the deep water as a sophomore.

“Last year as a sophomore, he was starting both ways,” he said. “He doesn’t get tired. We just let him go and he plays most of the time both ways.”

Schrauth gets as much or more competition at practice as he does in the games. Fond Du Lac’s talent doesn’t end with Schrauth and they all benefit from it.

“We have a lot of playmates for him,” Hyland explained. “We have a bunch of kids in excess of 225. We probably have a couple other linemen a year younger than him who have as much talent as him.”

Wisconsin pushed their football season to the spring but now with the state being one of the nation’s worst COVID-19 hotspots, obviously that plan is in jeopardy. The loss of an entire season would be difficult for Schrauth, and everyone else as well, but Hyland believes that his star possesses the right attitude and mentality to overcome it.

“He’s going to have to work,” Hyland said. “He works very hard.”

This summary represents just a sample of the Notre Dame football recruiting information available each week on Irish Sports Daily