I see he's a 4 star and is the son of a former Alabama/NFL player, so he's got good bloodlines. He's a little light for a DL at 240 but he's got some time to grow and put on some weight.
IMO, this is a pretty complete assessment of the spring game by Eric Hansen of the SBT: https://www.ndinsider.com/football/...cle_c97968d9-73cf-5207-9007-c3f574df585c.html Like Terry, I usually watch the spring game thinking that if either side looks too good, the other side must be bad. I didn't feel that on Saturday. I know we have a good defense, how good is anyone's guess, but good. I was mildly surprised that both offenses moved the ball as well as they did. Hansen's comments seem to point to good balance on both sides of the ball. That was illustrated somewhat by the final score, a balance of offensive and defensive points. Now we wait.
I assume that Howard Cross is the son of former NY Giant TE Howard Cross who had a very good NFL career and succeeded Mark Bavaro as Giant TE.
Kona Schwenke R.I.P https://247sports.com/Bolt/Notre-Dame-Football-Former-Irish-DL-Kona-Schwenke-dead-at-25-117599381
ND <t>And yet another commit for the Irish.<br/> <br/> Andrew Kristofic, OL. He’s a 3 Star but he had an impressive list of offers:<br/> <br/> “The 6-6, 265-pounder from the class of 2019 chose the Fighting Irish over offers from Boston College, Clemson, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Oregon, Ohio State, Wisconsin and many others.â€</t>
Nice pickup with the Kristofic kid, he's going to end up higher ranked than his current 3* status according to everything I read. Hopefully Quinn Carroll will be the next OL to give his verbal, he's a natural for the Irish with the Irish name, red hair and family that are longtime ND fans according to what I read. OL recruiting seems to be going well and I wonder if we'll take a total of 4 guys or maybe 5. Zeke Correll is also a kid who is high on the OL list, if we get both Correll and Carroll that might be enough. A QB named Mertz who is committed to Wisc is supposedly in play again, reportedly the 2019 offers were to him and McNamara but McNamara jumped on his offer right away so Mertz eventually too the Wisc offer, another kid who grew up an Irish fan in a family of Irish fans...reportedly. We have a lot of QB's potentially, with Wimbush having a 5th year available, Book having 3 more years, Avery Davis having 4 years (although he seems to be trending away from QB) and Phil Jurkovec of course having 4 years. So if we take a 2019 QB that would potentially mean 5 QB's on campus....or 4 if Davis has moved on from QB.
Nice pickup with the Kristofic kid, he's going to end up higher ranked than his current 3* status according to everything I read. Hopefully Quinn Carroll will be the next OL to give his verbal, he's a natural for the Irish with the Irish name, red hair and family that are longtime ND fans according to what I read. OL recruiting seems to be going well and I wonder if we'll take a total of 4 guys or maybe 5. Zeke Correll is also a kid who is high on the OL list, if we get both Correll and Carroll that might be enough. A QB named Mertz who is committed to Wisc is supposedly in play again, reportedly the 2019 offers were to him and McNamara but McNamara jumped on his offer right away so Mertz eventually too the Wisc offer, another kid who grew up an Irish fan in a family of Irish fans...reportedly. We have a lot of QB's potentially, with Wimbush having a 5th year available, Book having 3 more years, Avery Davis having 4 years (although he seems to be trending away from QB) and Phil Jurkovec of course having 4 years. So if we take a 2019 QB that would potentially mean 5 QB's on campus....or 4 if Davis has moved on from QB.
Kyle Hamilton 6'4", 188 lb. safety. Currently 3*. Had a 30 on his ACT. According to the Dawg Nation article below, he was a "priority" Georgia target. https://www.dawgnation.com/football...t-kyle-hamilton-has-made-his-college-decision
He's rated as a 3 star and this article confirms what others have said....he's not a 3 star kid he's a major league talent. Glad we got him! Now I hope all these new recruits stick till the early signing period!
ND <t>The last two recruits are listed as 4*. When you check the list of offers they both have a list of high profile football programs listed. What can I say, if these are 3* recruits I’ll take 25 of them each year.</t>
Irish have 2 OL taken in the first 9 picks in the NFL draft. Quentin Nelson to the Colts @ #6. Mike McGlinchey to SF @ #9.
Glad to see Durham Smythe taken in the 4th round. He could have left last year and been and UDFA, but staying another year and being the starter and a reliable inline TE as well as one who can make some good grabs when the ball is thrown his way. ESB went to the Packers and I don't think anybody doubts he has talent, he just never achieved what people thought he would after a good freshman season. He missed a year due to academics, and when he came back he had a QB who was struggling with his accuracy. Josh Adams goes to the Eagles, as a FA. I liked Josh a lot as a college player I am just not sure his college success will translate to the NFL. Same for the other FA, Nyles Morgan to the Bears. Morgan will have to be 1) healthy he battled shoulder problems all last year and 2) terrific special teams guy to make an NFL roster. I see that the Irish M. Lacrosse team won the ACC tournament. They had a ok season, but like Minn-Duluth in Hockey, sometimes you can get hot at the right time and win it all. Maybe that will happen to the Irish Lacrosse. The women's golf team is in the NCAA tourney but they aren't likely to make it to the Regionals. I'm not sure about other spring sports like M.Golf, Tennis and track. Sometime this month I'll open up a ND Summer topic.
Terry, you know, I am happy when Alabama players get drafted and do well in the pros, but I really measure them by their desire and results during their college career. Julio Jones and Trent Richardson, I think are two of the all-time greats at Alabama. They will be remembered alongside Joe Namath, Ken Stabler and Ozzie Newsome as superstars. Julio is going strong in the NFL and Trent has struggled. Doesn't matter to me. Trent played his heart out at Alabama and is one of my all-time favorites. 8)
I would agree kp, first and foremost I like to see the Irish win and have players who play well as collegians. Whether they are able to have great NFL careers is a sort of cherry on the top. I think it does help with recruiting, esp top players in the high 4 star/5 star range, when you have a lot of players 1) drafted and 2) have success in the NFL. Those types of players and their parents have NFL expectations, have been told even in HS that they will play on Sunday. So it makes sense for them to go to a program that is putting a lot of players in the NFL draft.
Kind of quietly, mostly because the Irish baseball program is mediocre at best, Cole Kemet is having a great spring. He has functioned mainly as a closer for the Irish, but has had an excellent spring not AA type of season but he's been effective. Plus he's really come forward in football and with the Spring he had in football will be competing for a lot of playing time this coming year. We are well stocked at TE with Weishar (5th), and Alize Mack probably ahead of him, but he'll have his chances given what he showed in the Spring.