Final 2022 ISD Fab 50

Notre Dame fans are excited that they have two great young offensive tackles on their roster in Joe Alt and Blake Fisher. They should also feel some relief because they’re going to need elite offensive tackles to block all of the awesome edge rushers coming into college football in 2022.

The 2022 recruiting class is loaded at defensive end and I ended up ranking eight players that I project to play on the edge in college in my top-50. It’s a good mix of size, speed, and power at the position and a bunch of that group could end up being first round picks in a few years.

My final ISD Fab 50 for 2022 is a pretty good indicator that Notre Dame was close to having a great class with three players making the top-50 cut ( Jaylen Sneed‍ at 28, Joshua Burnham‍ at 38, and Aamil Wagner‍ at 49), but they finished second for safety Xavier Nwankpa‍ (13) and running back Nicholas Singleton‍ (14). If they were able to land those two and pull Sonny Styles‍ (11) away from Ohio State, a very good class would have been on another level.

That’s where Texas A&M (eight in the Fab 50), Georgia (seven), and Alabama (6) are. That’s where Notre Dame would like to be when things are all said and done with the 2023 class.

The initial ISD Fab 50 for that cycle will come out in February. Before we get into that, here’s the final

ISD Fab 50 for 2022

- Three players I’m higher on than any of the national sites: Burnham (who also may end up playing as an Edge in college), WR Adam Randall‍ (37 and going to Clemson), and DE Darris Smith‍ (45 and going to Georgia).

- On3 has Wagner ranked as a 5-star prospect so I’m not alone in having him ranked as high as he is for ISD, but even without that, I feel very comfortable with my grade on him. He has the kind of traits that anyone would want in a tackle that will have to block all of these great pass rushers.

- USC CB Domani Jackson‍ is lower for me than most and there is no doubt he is a ridiculously talented athlete, but I was always a bit underwhelmed with his film relative to how fast he times as a track athlete.

- It’s not hard to see how Notre Dame can keep winning like they have playing against their schedule when USC isn’t quite there yet, signing top players and the only two ACC teams who signed top-50 talents are North Carolina (two) and Clemson (three).

2023 should be different for USC based on their fast start to the class.

- Here’s a reminder that Notre Dame is going to play Texas A&M in 2024 and 2025 when all of these studs will be upperclassmen. The Irish have to make that leap with top-50 prospects in the next cycle because this type of raw talent is going to be difficult to match up with.