Notre Dame Recruiting Week In Review
The list of Notre Dame prospects worth watching in the Class of 2024 continues to grow at an extremely quick pace. Here’s a look at some of the key names that were added this week.
This isn’t meant to be – and will not be – an exhaustive list of all the prospects visited or offered and doesn’t even outline all of the recruits who will be seriously considering the Irish. It’s simply a collection of the some we believe are worth paying attention to.
SULLIVAN LOOKS LIKE FIT: The first thing that jumps out about 2024 Pittsburgh linebacker Cole Sullivan’s recruiting profile with regard to Notre Dame is the school.
The Irish have long had a presence at Central Catholic High School – the Hinish brothers, David Adams and even guys they didn’t end up landing like Anthony Speca and Damar Hamlin before that.
The next thing that jumps out is the fact that Sullivan (pictured above) made multiple gameday visits to South Bend last year without having an offer.
Then, you look at the fact that he’s already got his eye on another Notre Dame visit sometime next month.
There’s just no doubt this is a kid with serious interest in the Irish.
He saw a blitz of offers before and after the offer from the Irish last weekend with Virginia Tech and Penn State joining the mix this week.
Things are coming at him fast and he doesn’t have a timeline for a decision, but this seems like a race Notre Dame will be in until the end unless the Irish fill up before that.
IRISH JOIN MIX WITH CARR PASS-CATCHER: There was an interesting nugget in ISD’s Matt Freeman’s story on Kwazi Gilmer, who received an offer from Notre Dame on Monday.
In January, the 2024 California receiver started playing 7-on-7 with 2024 Notre Dame quarterback commit CJ Carr.
Carr, a Michigan native, plays some 7-on-7 with the same California Power program as Gilmer.
Gilmer said he mentioned his desire to be offered by the Irish to Carr and “literally the next day Coach Stuckey was at my school with all the coaches.”
The Irish will need to battle schools like USC, UCLA, Washington, Washington State and Arizona to land Gilmer, but he doesn’t seem interested in location or weather.
“All I care about is finding a home.”
Gilmer doesn’t have a timeline for a decision, but Notre Dame will probably need to get him up for an official this spring to stay in this race.
IRISH AFTER UNDER-THE-RADAR TEXAS RB: Kedren Young may not have an elite level offer sheet at the moment, but that could be a good thing for the Irish given running backs coach Deland McCullough’s eye for talent.
It’s a safe bet that the 6-foot-1, 210-pounder’s offer sheet will include more than Texas Tech, Vanderbilt, Boston College, Arizona, Arizona State and Georgia Tech soon.
“I really like him,” said one source in Texas who pays close attention to the best players in the state. “I think he’s about to blow up.”
The size and speed elements of Young’s game seem to make that an inevitability.
As we noted in our story earlier Thursday, Young has people close to him making sure he understands the value and prestige of the Notre Dame offer.
He took an unofficial to Texas A&M last weekend, so he ultimately could be tough to pull out of the region, but getting a head start will help.
“I’d think they have a shot,” that source said.
MIDWESTERN LINEMEN SEE BOOST: Iowa offensive lineman Grant Brix has received plenty of attention from Midwestern schools like Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska dating back to the fall, but his options have increased since.
After adding Tennessee and Penn State to his offer list in December, Brix picked up Notre Dame, Michigan State, Miami and Auburn last month.
He’s talked about wanting to visit all of the schools he sees as options before making a decision. In the past, he also talked about the possibility of doing another camp swing this summer, which would be unusual for a rising senior who was satisfied with the options he had.
Maybe the influx of offers will change that, but he does want to take all of his official visits this summer and go from there.
Missouri defensive end Kellen Lindstrom is in a similar position. In January alone, he picked up offers from Notre Dame, Iowa State, UNLV, Cal, Duke, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Michigan, Stanford, Tennessee, Kansas, Arkansas, Washington and USC.
That’s a lot to sort through, but the Irish would figure to be in good position to at least get him to campus for a visit this spring.
IRISH HAVE SHOT AT AZ SAFETY COMMIT: Kingston Lopa doesn’t say a whole lot about his recruiting process publicly, the 2024 California safety hasn’t said much at all honestly, so it can be difficult to know where he stands.
He committed to Arizona last month, seemingly out of the blue, with very little media coverage.
That hasn’t stopped other schools from getting into the race for Lopa with Michigan offering mere hours after he announced his commitment to the Wildcats.
Notre Dame joined the race earlier this week. We always say the Irish rarely offer kids committed elsewhere unless they believe have a shot and one source close to the situation assured ISD this week that they do here.
Could be an interesting – if difficult – recruitment to follow moving forward.
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