Recruiting Week In Review
Written by Joe Bradshaw
May has traditionally been an evaluation month for college football coaches to hit the road and expand their offer lists with newly scouted talent. While that still occurs, the recruiting landscape has changed because of the evolutions in technology and because of the early signing period. May evaluations are still important but by this point a school like Notre Dame already has a sizeable recruiting board and has been in contact with many of their targets for well over a year. Still, that doesn’t mean that new names won’t pop up. High school players can and do develop at vastly different speeds and new prospects, in many cases late bloomers, emerge.
Last week, Irish Sports Daily reported on both players familiar to fans of Notre Dame football recruiting those whose names are just now appearing. What have you been missing by not being a member of Irish Sports Daily?
Jahari Rogers, CB, 6-0, 170, Arlington High School, Arlington, TX is by no means an under the radar player. He’s a four-star talent that is being recruited by some of the best programs in America. However, the Irish are just now stepping up their efforts towards him and Rogers seems receptive. He previously posted a top eight of Georgia Tech, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, LSU, Miami, Arkansas and TCU. Since he posted that things have changed.
“The top eight has changed drastically since I put it out there,” he said. “It’s really not a top eight anymore.”
Notre Dame safeties coach Terry Joseph recently extended a scholarship offer to Rogers as the Irish and Rogers begin the process of getting to know each other.
“I actually talked to Coach Joseph,” Rogers remembered. “We spoke on the phone and he gave me the offer. I was really excited. It’s a really traditional school and they have one of the best fan bases.”
Rogers has a connection to Notre Dame through Irish freshman NaNa Osafo-Mensah. They played on the same 7-on-7 team and consider themselves friends. Outside of Osafo-Mensah, Rogers doesn’t really know much about Notre Dame but is looking forward to changing that.
“I just want to build a relationship and see how much they want me,” he shared. “I’m trying to go somewhere their people show interest in me. I’ve talked to them about possibly taking an official visit there. That’s in the works too.”
Rogers has already scheduled official visits to Arkansas, Florida and Texas. If he adds Notre Dame to that list, the visit will likely occur in June.
“I want to see everything honestly,” he said of what he’ll be looking for on a Notre Dame official visit. “Personally I haven’t seen anything about it. I’ve heard about it, but I’d like to see everything they have and see how it would fit me in the future.”
Jordan Morant, S, 6-0, 197, Bergen Catholic High School, Oradell, NJ has been to Notre Dame, but just recently.
“It went pretty well,” he said of his visit. “We got to see the facilities. I got to see the stadium, the locker room in the stadium, the Business School. I got to see the whole campus, so I pretty much saw everything.”
Like most recruits, Morant was very impressed with the Notre Dame campus.
“I really thought Notre Dame’s campus was amazing,” he shared. “The Golden Dome was just amazing and the facilities were breathtaking.”
Morant is looking to major in something either related to Entrepreneurship or Film. Though impressed, he wasn’t surprised by Notre Dame’s academics.
“I really thought the Business School was amazing,” he said. “It was really what I expected. Since Notre Dame is such a prestigious school academically, I just think it’s really amazing.”
While Morant has discussed Notre Dame with Notre Dame freshmen and New Jersey natives, Shayne Simon, Justin Ademilola and Jayson Ademilola, he didn’t get to spend much time with them on his visit. Their class schedule prevented that. He did get a chance to spend a good deal of time with Joseph. He noticed the fact that the safeties coach stayed in South Bend, just to meet with him, instead of being on the road recruiting.
“Coach Joseph is a great, great coach,” Morant said. “He’s a great guy. He’s just a great coach. I love him.”
After leaving South Bend, Morant took trips to Michigan and Ohio State. Still, the Irish definitely made an impression.
“Notre Dame is really a contender among my top choices,” he said. “I really think Notre Dame could be one of the schools I go to. I’m definitely going to take an official there in June.”
These two summaries represent just a sample of the Notre Dame football recruiting information available each week on Irish Sports Daily.