Recruiting Week In Review
Written by Joe Bradshaw
The changes made at Notre Dame after the disastrous 2016 season were well received by almost everyone but most acknowledged that it would take some time for those changes to reap their maximum dividends both on the field and on the recruiting trail. Last season’s 10-3 record exceeded nearly everyone’s expectations as did the 2018 recruiting class. Hopefully the 2018 season will continue to build on last year and all indications point to the recruiting Class of 2019 doing so as well. However, it’s the Class of 2020 where logic dictates that Notre Dame will really take a huge step forward. The coaches will have been able to build relationships with those players for three years by Signing Day 2020 and the hope is that class will become the first of yearly top five classes.
Last week, Irish Sports Daily reported on two 2020 prospects that have been on the Notre Dame radar for quite some time and seem to possess genuine interest in the Irish. What have you been missing by not being a member of Irish Sports Daily?
Gee Scott, WR, 6-3, 195, Eastside Catholic High School, Bellevue, WA is a true national recruit with scholarship offers from schools as far apart as Oregon and Florida, USC and Notre Dame. Don’t be looking for Scott to narrow his list any time soon, or at all.
“I won’t put out a top five or a top ten,” he explained. “I’m not really a big believer in that kind of thing. It’s kind of like alienating a school with this school not making the cut. Whatever college I go to, I’ll make a commitment and that’ll just be the school I go to. Wherever I’m going to go I’m going to be one hundred percent passionate about the school. I feel like me making a list and cutting down a list isn’t what’s necessary.”
Scott is strongly considering Notre Dame. Special Teams Coach Brian Polian is leading his recruitment. NCAA regulations have limited the four-star receiver’s contact with Polian, or more accurately, Polian’s contact with him. Scott can call Polian any time that he wishes but Polian cannot call Scott.
“Considering I’m so young, it’s kind of hard to have those communications,” Scott said. “Whenever we do talk, he just wants to make sure I’m handling my responsibilities and understanding what it takes to play on the Division 1 level.”
While Polian is limited in his contact with Scott, Irish 2020 quarterback commit Drew Pyne is not. Pyne has proven to be a strong recruiter.
“We talk every once in a while, we keep in touch like once a week,” Scott shared. “We touch base on what recruiting is going like and how everything is going. He just lists straight facts; the kind of talent they have coming in there, what we’ve got in store and what the potential could be with me as an addition there. Just having him there as one of my friends is pretty cool.”
With Scott being a receiver and Pyne being a quarterback, there is an extra measure of chemistry between them.
“It’d be cool regardless, if it was just a lineman or whatever, but the quarterback and the receiver usually have a special connection. Starting that now is definitely in the right direction.”
Scott received his Notre Dame offer when he visited last year for the Miami-Ohio game. He hopes to make a return trip but doesn’t have anything definite set up.
“I don’t have anything planned, but I would love to be out there around the environment again.”
He really doesn’t have that much planned for anywhere. He is going to Oregon later in July and hopes to get to a game at Boise State, but beyond that he appears to be open. He doesn’t know when he will choose his college but he does know why he will.
“Just wherever I feel comfortably honestly,” he said of what would drive his decision. “Obviously, there are a lot of things that go into deciding. One of the biggest things is somewhere I feel comfortable, somewhere my family feels comfortable. Obviously, having a great football team helps and having a top 2020 quarterback committed who is a great guy; that also helps.”
Mekhail Sherman, DE/LB, 6-4, 220, St. John’s High School, Washington D.C., attended The Opening finals in Dallas recently and though he was one of the very few Class of 2020 recruits there, he proved that he could compete with his older peers. That doesn’t mean he was satisfied.
“However, there are still things around my game that I can elevate and push to my fullest capacity and potential,” he said. “I’m still a raw prospect. All around it was a great learning experience; going against different competition you don’t see every day. I feel like I was prepared for it, but I still have to work on things.”
While acknowledging his need to improve, Sherman didn’t point to one particular area of his game where he felt noticeably deficient.
“I don’t think anything I do on the football field has been perfected,” he shared. “I might be better at some things, but nothing has been perfected. I’m still learning. I’m still trying to be that dog.”
Sherman holds scholarship offers from a veritable who’s who of college football royalty. Notre Dame, Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, Florida State, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Oregon and many others have offered him scholarships. Notre Dame has a very difficult group to overcome but they do have the advantage of recruiting him for a position with which he is familiar.
“They’re trying to offer me as a drop end which is cool,” he said. “It’s almost like a stand up outside linebacker, just me blitzing off the edge or dropping back in the flats. That’s basically what I do at St. John’s. I could still see myself doing it at Notre Dame if I choose to go there.”
Notre Dame Defensive Line Coach and Recruiting Coordinator Mike Elston is Sherman’s primary recruiter.
“He’s a cool guy,” Sherman opined. “As we talk, he sounds like a really calm, collected guy who knows how to breed good players like me.”
Sherman has yet to trek to South Bend but hopes to do so in the not too distant future.
“I’d like to see the academic portion,” he said. “The football portion I know would be guaranteed on a visit. I’d love to see more of the academic side more than anything because you always have to see that Plan B to see how it would help me academically and see where I would succeed in the world.”
He has a trip planned for Ohio State once the quiet period ends and hopes to also travel to Clemson sometime during the season. He says Clemson’s success in producing front seven talent is the main factor in his interest.
“The front seven is lethal,” he said. “Since the front seven is good that means the DB’s are excellent because they can hold their ground with the front seven going after the quarterback.”
He doesn’t have a specific timeline for a decision, but says he hopes to commit around this same time next year.
These two summaries represent just a sample of the Notre Dame football recruiting information available each week on Irish Sports Daily.