Tightening The Target List
After a mini-flurry of commits this week, Notre Dame’s 2018 recruiting board is starting to solidify a bit as we approach the final stretch, but there are still plenty of twists and turns and a long way to go before it’s over.
With the first-ever early signing period for college football set to open next Wednesday, we decided this would be a great time to tighten our Target List and offer predictions on each prospect on it. Much of this will change and change quickly in the weeks to come. Targets will be removed, targets will be added and predictions will undoubtedly change, so consider this a quick snapshot of how things stand in our minds at the moment.
With 20 verbal commitments at the moment, Notre Dame likely has five and maybe six more spots available in the Class of 2018.
We’ve removed one-time Notre Dame commit Geordon Porter and Texas defensive end Joseph Ossai from our Target List. We currently have 11 other prospects on the board who hold Notre Dame offers and are either uncommitted or committed elsewhere.
It’s crucial for the Irish to make additions at offensive line, wide receiver and – to a lesser extent – in the secondary. They’re still actively recruiting at least one linebacker and one defensive linemen with offers. Notre Dame would love to land either, but missing out on both won’t result in gaping holes for the class overall.
When looking at our predictions, it’s important to note the corresponding Confidence Level for each prospect. Readers are consistently ask us where particular targets are leaning. Even if we truly don’t know, readers often ask what we’d say if we had to guess. So, when a prediction for a recruit is listed as “Low” confidence, that likely means it’s our best guess.
Also, predictions for the class as a whole wouldn’t necessarily match up with our best guesses for the class as a whole. For instance, we have both Kyler Gordon and Julius Irvin headed to Notre Dame in our predictions, but we think it’s more likely they get one or the other than both. If Gordon were to commit to Notre Dame this weekend, we’d probably swing our predictions on Irvin to either Washington or USC.
So, take it all with a grain of salt, but as we head to the close of the 2018 cycle, our Target List is going to be a handy tool and we’re going to continue pointing to it as we go.