Vernon is a 5 star in most services. A huge pickup for the Irish. Always very tough to get a top player out of the State of Ohio.
Lost a guy from the 2021 class, Devin Aupin from California. Due to covid he never visited ND and flipped late from UCLA. He did enroll early and went through Spring Drills. We can only assume that he just felt like he didn't fit either the University or the Program or both. He was a 3 star player at LB, where we have recruited well so he's not leaving a big hole in the roster. Good luck to him.
The next pin's and needles recruiting story seems to be RB Nick Singleton who is on the top of the Irish wish list at RB for 2022. He loved his visit to ND, but he's also likes Penn State quite a bit. Alabama has now crept into the race as well. Has taken all of his visits now and gurus are expecting a verbal to somebody in the next couple of weeks. Pin's and Needles!
Irish picked up one of Krebs neighbors in db, Jayden Bellamy, from Bergen Catholic. He's a 3 star kid, #34 CB. Will need to be developed by S&C.
Devin Moore 4* CB from Naples, FL to ND. This 2022 class is shaping up to be one of the best the Irish have had in a long time. Coach Freeman is on fire.
We are having a good class, heavy on defense so far though. Not surprising given new DCoord is a recruiting machine. We need some skill position players on offense though and to finish out the OL class. Trouble is as I see, while we are getting a lot of good players the elite are continuing to load up on the truly elite level of players. Don posted Ohio State just picked up the #1 overall player and I believe they have 4 or 5 of the top 10 players. Alabama will be doing something similar. It's going to be hard to break into that elite club when they just have better players. Our 2022 QB is a good QB, while Ohio State has a 5 star, we've wiffed on RB and elite WR's. I think we'll continue to be a very good team that will do well but come up short vs those teams
Tom Loy says we'll close and have a really good offensive class as well. I hope he's right but I fear we'll have a good class that will need to be developed and we'll need to hope for some diamonds in the rough like Chase Claypool as opposed to instant stars like you see at Alabama, Georgia, Clemson and Ohio State. "I do like what they're doing. I like the guys and the talent that they're bringing in. I think a lot of the hype right now and the chatter is about the defensive side of the ball, but I actually think that the offensive side of the ball is bringing in a ton of really good players too. As we see the rest of the 2022 class unfold, that's where you're going to kind of see the Notre Dame offensive class start to really improve. They will add guys that could be potential difference-makers on that side of the ball.
Classic example, a kid who showed some good stuff in Irish camps and got a scholarship. Unfortuneately instead of being a diamond in the rough who gets polished up and plays well his last 2 years he's never healthy and gets buried on the depth chart because of this and decides to leave. Good luck to him, he's from the Northeast so this is going home, and he'll get an Ivy League degree.
If businesses choose to do things like this, I'm all for it. ND OL wins, and hopefully for that business it's a win for them as well. I personally wasn't aware of them, but looked them up and I might give them a try the next time I'm at Notre Dame for a game.
Things have really changed, for most of my fandom of ND football the Irish didn't offer players till they had passed muster with Admissions, something Holtz complained about. It meant that for the most part they had to have finished their Jr year and they have to come to campus. Then they could get an official offer from ND. When the world changed and guys like Stoops and Meyer started handing out offers like they were Halloween candy, the Irish were always late to the party. Not anymore. ________________ Notre Dame isn't going to offer many freshmen football players, but Pittsburgh (Pa.) Central Catholic linebacker Anthony Speca was simply too good for them to wait. The 6-3, 220-pounder from the class of 2024, who will be a sophomore this fall, was offered by head coach Brian Kelly and defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman. The Irish are one of five scholarship offers to his name, joining Pittsburgh, Penn State, Purdue and West Virginia.
In a move to bolster the Irish recruiting, they have hired former Illini RB Dre Brown who was the Recruiting Coordinator for Josh Heuple at Tenn. Josh Heupel worked quickly to assemble a strong off-field support staff while placing a strong emphasis on the recruiting department. Now, it appears one of those pieces in former Illinois running back, Dre Brown is being poached from the staff, according to a report from Football Scoop's John Brice. "Multiple sources on Wednesday told FootballScoop that the Fighting Irish are adding Dre Brown, a former University of Illinois running back and most recently the Volunteers' Director of Recruiting, in an offensive analyst/recruiting-centric role within the Notre Dame football program," Brice wrote earlier tonight. Report: Tennessee Loses Recruiting Coordinator to Notre Dame
In an article on The Athletic about Brandon Wimbush and a company he helped found with fellow ND grad Ayden Syal called MOGL, there are some estimates of what ND athletes might have earned in the past. MOGL has a proprietary formula for estimating athlete earning potential, similar to other players in the space. It estimated Wimbush would have made $56,901 during his Notre Dame career based on his following and presence. It estimated that Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah would have cleared $21,036. Non-venue examples are included, too, notably All-American lacrosse player Sergio Perkovic ($26,824) and women’s soccer player Monica Flores ($21,654). While there was no figure attached to Ian Book, the Opendorse platform estimated the three-year Irish starting quarterback could have made $246,000 last year, which would have ranked 12th among all NFL Draft prospects. Trevor Lawrence was No. 1 at $2.28 million. “The community is really such advocates on every athlete that’s part of Notre Dame,” Wimbush said. “It would have been a phenomenal opportunity and easy opportunity for those athletes to take advantage of.”
BYU v Notre Dame... Las Vegas 2022? I like it! Report: BYU-Notre Dame Series Proposed for Las Vegas in 2022