Irish Signs 20 On National Signing Day
College football’s first-ever early signing period should be kind to Notre Dame.
The Irish have signed 20 prospects from the Class of 2018.
The early signing period opened at 7 a.m. local time today for each prospective student-athlete and stretches until Friday. The early signing session gives Notre Dame and other schools the ability to devote all of their energy down the stretch on uncommitted prospects to fill out their class.
None of the 20 verbal commits the Irish currently were required to sign early, but all 20 did.
Notre Dame signed a five-star quarterback in Pennsylvania’s Phil Jurkovec along with North Carolina running back Jahmir Smith.
Wide receiver is one position where the Irish will be looking to add before February’s signing day, but they added two today in Florida’s Kevin Austin Jr. and Illinois’ Micah Jones.
Offensive line is another area Notre Dame will continue to address after today, but Tennessee’s Cole Mabry and Ohio’s John Dirksen sent their National Letters of Intent today.
The Irish scored big again at tight end as Florida’s George Takacs and Georgia’s Tommy Tremble both officially became members of the family today.
Notre Dame may not be quite finished on the defensive line, but it added three more to the group today with New Jersey twins Jayson Ademilola and Justin Ademilola along with Maryland’s Ja'mion Franklin.
The Irish could add to their linebacker corps in February, but if they don’t, they’ll still have a very good group with New Jersey’s Shayne Simon, California’s Jack Lamb, Michigan’s Ovie Oghoufo and Pennsylvania’s Matthew Bauer now signed.
The action in recent weeks has been in Notre Dame’s secondary, where it has added two commits and at various times have been close to bringing in three others. For now, the Irish have already inked a pair of safeties in Georgia’s Derrik Allen and Indiana’s Paul Moala along with three cornerbacks in Illinois’ Houston Griffith, Florida’s Joe Wilkins Jr. and California’s Tariq Bracy.
Here at Irish Sports Daily, we have Jurkovec as the highest-ranked player in the class followed by Allen, Griffith and Austin Jr. Jayson Ademilola is the highest-ranked defensive lineman followed closely by Lamb and Simon.
Additionally, we have Takacs, Oghoufo, Franklin, Bracy, Justin Ademilola and Moala all pegged as four-star prospects.
The Irish have seven early enrollees in the group with Griffith, Lamb, Smith, Takacs, Oghoufo, Bauer and Jones.
Notre Dame could still add to the group of 20 with Washington cornerback Kyler Gordon and Oregon receiver Braden Lenzy expected to announce and sign by the time the period closes on Friday. The Irish are very much in the mix with both West Coast targets.