6 Thoughts on a Thursday

I have followed Notre Dame recruiting for a couple of decades. This is my seventh year evaluating recruits and my sixth for Irish Sports Daily.

I can’t recall a month ever being this crazy for recruiting. And it’s only going to get more hectic in the next few weeks as officials wrap up and many players start going into decision mode before their senior seasons.

I know it’s been an exhausting month for coaches around the country who aren’t just hosting visitors on the weekend. They are working camps throughout the week and constantly evaluating. The players and the parents of these players have to be overwhelmed as well. They’re trying to squeeze about 18 months worth of visits into four weeks.

It doesn’t seem reasonable at all, but that’s been the month of June in this completely unique recruiting cycle.

People love to say that the dominos start to fall when recruits start to commit. This feels more like Tetris. There are rearranging pieces to fit a plan that is fluid because the board is being adjusted once it appears spots are going to fill up.

Normally it would seem crazy for Notre Dame to decline blue-chip prospects take an official visit. There are six who were scheduled to get on campus for officials in the last couple of weeks who were scratched from the list. There is no way that has ever happened before.

There are already players who many thought would end up in Notre Dame’s class that before August that will end up committed to another program. This isn’t just something that is happening at Notre Dame either. This is happening everywhere and there are more than a few very good players who may not end up with their top school.

Suddenly being second or third in a recruitment could end up meaning a lot more than it would in a normal year.

I think we’re going to see the Irish end up being the first choice for a good number of the top uncommitted guys left on their board. We’re also probably going to see them benefit from finishing second for a player who didn’t fit in another program’s game of Tetris.

2. It’s been over two decades since I took an official visit. Just like the players today, I was treated to steak and lobster for dinner and could pretty much eat anything I wanted.

I also was treated like a piece of meat to a certain extent. It felt like every assistant I met was checking out my frame and poked and prodded me to see if I matched up with what they saw on film.

The same kind of thing happens today. The visits for recruits, whether official or unofficial, are opportunities for a coaching staff to check out how a player looks physically. It’s not just about what they weigh now. It’s what they can weigh once they get into your program.

The only reason I bring this up is that there seems to be some debate about Notre Dame’s recent offer to offensive lineman Ashton Craig‍. From his junior film, he doesn’t exactly look like he has the kind of frame that will translate to him being the kind of size a top program is looking for at his position.

The big issue with getting caught up in that is that Notre Dame worked him out at camp. Not only did they get to see him in drills and see how he bends and moves, they also got to weigh him and check out his frame.

This is a long way of saying no one should be worried about a player’s size and how big he might be in a few years if the player has a chance to be evaluated on campus. Notre Dame will have a far more accurate assessment of Craig’s size and frame than anyone, including myself, who only watched him on film would. 

3. Speaking of camps, I think many people might have forgotten that there were no camps on campus in 2020 and how that has impacted certain prospects.

Craig and Elic Ayomanor‍ both earned offers from Notre Dame at camps this summer. Who knows what their recruitments might have looked like if they had multiple chances at more schools last summer. Ayomanor in particular could have been someone who had his recruitment blow up much, much sooner if coaches got a chance to look at him up close.

Someone asked us a question on Power Hour last week about whether Notre Dame should hold open a spot for anyone who might emerge as a senior who didn’t get noticed because of a shortened or spring season. I don’t think they should, but this is definitely a year where I think there will be way more seniors than usual who go from barely on the radar to national recruits.

So maybe don’t hold a spot for someone, but if there is a spot, the chances of finding better than a typical “plan B” option is greater.

4. Notre Dame and Oregon are not usually recruiting rivals. It looks like that might be changing, though, because Oregon has not entered the chat as a national recruiting power.

In the last four classes they have a Blue-Chip Ratio (percentage of 4 or 5-star signees) of 56%. Notre Dame is at 55%.

The Irish tried hard to land stud receiver Donte Thornton Jr.‍ out of Pennsylvania last cycle. He signed with Oregon. In this cycle Notre Dame and Oregon appear to be running first or second for linebacker Jaylen Sneed‍ (South Carolina), edge Cyrus Moss‍ (Nevada), and wide receiver Nicholas Anderson‍ (Texas).

Mario Cristobal is 25-10 in his three years on the job for the Ducks and he has taken their recruiting to another level. They now have the most talented roster in the Pac-12. Doing that without having a ton of elite in-state talent to pick from makes it even more impressive.

In the last decade, Oregon is eighth when it comes to landing top-100 recruits from out of state (26). 15 of those 26 have signed since Cristobal became head coach.

I never thought we’d see Notre Dame be in more head to head recruiting battles with Oregon than Michigan, but here we are.

5. Just a reminder that if you haven’t watched safety Xavier Nwankpa‍, here’s your chance to do so. He is capital “E” Elite as a prospect.

The Irish are heavily in the mix to land him and if they do, they would be the choice over Ohio State. We don’t have to go that far back to a time when Notre Dame signed a comparable prospect to him in Kyle Hamilton, but when considering the circumstances of Notre Dame as the underdog heading into his official visit, coming away with a commitment from him would be the biggest get for the Irish since Jaylon Smith in my opinion.

6. There were 14 early enrollees in the 2021 recruiting class for Notre Dame. A handful of them made a splash this spring and look like they are going to help the team win games this fall.

13 freshmen arrived on campus this June and those players shouldn’t be forgotten when it comes to what they may contribute this season as well.

Out of that group, there isn’t a Michael Mayer, Chris Tyree, or Hamilton. Those three were going to be good enough to play no matter when they enrolled. I don’t see anyone who has the kind of talent that will force their way onto the field no matter what depth chart they are walking into.

I think most fans know that a good portion of the freshmen who arrive in the summer are physically ready to compete on day one. There is more to it than that in order to contribute on offense or defense as a freshman, but way more of these players put in extra time to be more prepared for the mental side of it as well.

Someone is going to be this year’s Clarence Lewis. I don’t know who it will be this year, but my pick would have been Logan Diggs if he had a more clear path to playing time.