National Signing Day Is Here

Here we go…again.

After 21 prospects signed National Letters of Intent with Notre Dame during college football’s first-ever early signing period back in December, the Irish will look to complete their 2018 recruiting class today, the traditional National Signing Day.

Notre Dame remains in the running for seven targets who will announce their intentions today and seems like a strong bet to land at least three of them. Additionally, Notre Dame expects to officially add Arkansas offensive lineman Luke Jones, who committed to the Irish back in December, but after the close of the early signing period.

For the second straight year, Notre Dame has identified prospects very late in the cycle, quickly formed relationships, got them on campus for official visits and put itself in a position to close.

The Irish appear in a great position to land Georgia running back C'Bo Flemister‍ and Washington, D.C. cornerback DJ Brown‍. Both players were committed to other schools at the time of the Irish’s January push. Flemister remains committed to Georgia Tech and has the Yellow Jackets and Tennessee as finalists. Brown was committed to Virginia, but decommitted last month and is listing Northwestern and Cal as his finalists.

As late as early-Tuesday evening, Virginia defensive lineman Derrick Eason‍ seemed like he would make three in that group, but then word began to trickle out that he was likely to stick with his original commitment with NC State.

Now, it appears California offensive lineman Jarrett Patterson‍ is the next most likely to sign with the Irish. A former Arizona State commit who the Irish didn’t get seriously involved with until December, Patterson is picking between Notre Dame and UCLA.

But the Irish are also hoping to land a few prospects they’ve been on from the start.

For months, Notre Dame has been considered the favorite for Louisiana wide receiver Lawrence Keys III‍. Despite late pushes from schools like LSU, Texas and SMU among others, the Irish enter National Signing Day as the overwhelming favorites.

Things aren't quite as promising with Washington, D.C. cornerback Noah Boykin‍ and Florida offensive lineman Nicholas Petit-Frere‍.

Notre Dame was very close to landing Boykin back in December, but he held off on signing during the early period and after an official visit to Gainesville last month, this one has been a two-team race between Notre Dame and Florida until the end. The Irish’s chances figure to be a coin flip at best.

Things were even less clear with Petit-Frere, who would have the second-highest ranked prospect in the Irish’s class, behind quarterback Phil Jurkovec, according to ISD’s Fab 50. The Tampa native kept things close to the vest throughout the process, but on Tuesday word started to leak out that Petit-Frere would choose Ohio State over Notre Dame and Florida.

Petit-Frere’s decision will be carried live on ESPN at 10 a.m. today. The other targets have announcements scheduled at various times throughout the day, but official declarations could be made earlier in the day.

Stay locked to ISD’s National Signing Day Live Blog for all of the day’s news in real time.