Tracking The Trail | Notre Dame Defensive Targets Visiting Other Schools
The dead period, in place since mid-March 2019, is set to be lifted on June 1st, setting off a flurry of recruiting visits over the ensuing 30 days.
Notre Dame has already locked in dates with dozens of visitors to get to South Bend, but those targets will be busy making trips elsewhere as well.
Some of Notre Dame’s top defensive targets in the Class of 2022 will be hitting the road to see other schools the very first week.
COVIL PUTTING IN MILES
Sherrod Covil Jr. will be the busiest of Notre Dame’s top targets the first week.
The Virginia safety will start off the month with a visit to Miami on Tuesday. He’ll follow that trip up with a stop at Virginia on June 3rd, with back-to-back trips to Maryland and Penn State on June 4th and 5th, respectively. He’ll close the week out with a trip to Ohio State on June 7th.
Covil will also make visits to Clemson and North Carolina later in the month before heading to South Bend for his official visit on June 21st.
Notre Dame is in solid position with Covil, but as evidenced by his visit schedule, the competition is stiff.
OTHER SAFETY TARGETS HAVE STOPS AS WELL
Georgia safety target Jake Pope is scheduled to be at North Carolina for an official visit on June 4th.
Pope will be in South Bend for an official a week later followed by official visits to Ohio State and Alabama the next two weekends. Pope has played things somewhat close to the vest throughout, but these visits could help make a pecking order more clear.
Meanwhile, Maryland safety Kevin Winston will take his first official visit of the process to Michigan State this weekend. The DeMatha standout will be at Penn State the following weekend before officials to Maryland and Notre Dame to close out the month.
The Irish appear to be in very strong shape with Winston, so getting that final trip could help them put some distance between themselves and the others.
Iowa’s Xavier Nwankpa will kick off his official visit slate with a trip to Columbus this weekend to see Ohio State. He’ll be at Texas A&M the following weekend and South Bend after that.
The Buckeyes seem to be in a good position with Nwankpa, but it’ll be interesting with the Aggies and Irish getting their says after he sees Ohio State.
COUPLE STRONG LBs CHECKING OUT OTHERS
Notre Dame is in very strong positions with linebackers Jaylen Sneed and Niuafe Tuihalamaka and will get the chance to host each in the coming weeks.
But both will be elsewhere opening weekend.
Sneed is traveling across the country from South Carolina to Oregon this weekend before an official visit to Notre Dame, which will start on June 14th.
Meanwhile, Tuihalamaka will head from California to Texas this weekend for an official. Tuihalamaka will be at Notre Dame for an official visit the following weekend. He was initially supposed to be in Austin the weekend after Notre Dame, but moved it in front.
It wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see the Irish land both linebackers before July.