Recruiting Week In Review
Written by Joe Bradshaw
Going into the 2020 season Notre Dame feels very good about its safety situation, but admittedly has question marks at cornerback. Aside from Troy Pride, who is an All-American candidate, there’s uncertainty. While there’s talent, it’s young and unproven and in today’s college football that’s a major cause for concern. And with Jalen Elliott leaving and Alohi Gilman possibly declaring for the draft, safety recruiting is very important as well. It will be pivotal moving forward how the young defensive backs develop, but it will also be critical that the Irish sign some playmakers at the position. With that in mind, the Notre Dame coaching staff has been scouring the nation looking for defensive backs. Last week Irish Sports Daily reported on two Class of 2020 prospects that the Irish coaching staff is considering moving forward. What have you been missing by not being a member of Irish Sports Daily?
RJ Moten, S, 6-0, 200, Delran High School, Delran, NJ visited with Notre Dame Safeties Coach Terry Joseph recently and a few days later received a call from Irish Defensive Coordinator Clark Lea offering him a scholarship.
“He was just talking about how I did when Coach Terry came out and then he was like, ‘Congratulations, we’re offering you,’” Moten recalled. “I was speechless to be honest with you.”
Why was Moten speechless?
“It’s Notre Dame,” he said. “It doesn’t get any bigger than that.”
In addition to the Irish, Moten has been offered by Michigan, Penn State, Pitt, Purdue, Nebraska, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin, Boston College, Duke, Vanderbilt, Yale, Rutgers and others. Though, the offer is still fresh, he’s very serious about Notre Dame.
“I’m pretty sure I’m taking an official June 21st,” he told ISD.
Notre Dame is the only official visit he currently has locked in, but he’s planning unofficial visits to Michigan and possibly Purdue. He originally planned to make a decision in July but that has now changed.
“Everything is picking up more now,” he explained. “New schools are coming in, so I have to push it back.”
Moten has been viewed as a Michigan lean and the three-star safety admits he’s considering them strongly.
“Michigan is up there, yeah,” he acknowledged.
Ultimately, Moten, who describes himself as an “easygoing kid” says that comfort and academics will be big factors in his final decision.
Notre Dame Defensive Backs Coach Todd Lyght was recently in New Jersey at Timber Creek High School checking out two defensive backs, one in the 2020 class and one for 2021. Tarheeb Still, CB, 6-0, 165, Sicklerville, NJ is a member of the Class of 2020 that the Irish are looking at to help fill their needs at cornerback.
He’s a super young man, good student, tough football player, very versatile athlete, offense/defense, a couple positions in the secondary,” said head coach Rob Hinson. “He’s probably the best corner we’ve had come out of here and we’ve had Army All-Americans and everything play here.” I really think highly of the kid.”
Still currently holds offers from Rutgers, Boston College, Duke, Maryland, Pitt, North Carolina State, Wake Forest, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Syracuse and others. His head coach knows why.
“He’s very, very instinctive, tremendous ball skills and he’s really only been playing it for us one year,” Hinson shared. “And last year he only played part time and he had a bad hamstring going both ways, so we had to limit his reps defensively. He’s really taken it to another level this offseason.”
Hinson said Lyght’s on the spot evaluation was very positive. The Irish coach plans to return to Notre Dame where Still will be discussed in determining whether or not to make a scholarship offer.
If Notre Dame was to offer, Hinson said that Still would be “super interested.”
“When we told him Coach was coming to see him work out, he was pretty pumped,” Hinson said.
Lyght also took the opportunity to check out Timber Creek 2021 cornerback prospect Roderick Boyd.
“Track kid, started for me as a young pup last year and took his lumps, but now he’s going to be a pretty elite cornerback,” Hinson said. “(Lyght) got a chance to watch both of those guys work out…he thought that both of those guys did a really good job.”
These two summaries represent just a sample of the Notre Dame football recruiting information available each week on Irish Sports Daily.