Notre Dame picked up its fourth commitment of the week today, and third from last weekend’s junior day visitor list, when jumbo wide receiver Micah Jones announced for the Irish. The 6’5″, 200-pound Illinois prospect earned an offer after attending Irish Invasion last year and was immediately rumored to be an Irish lean. His recruiting rankings are fairly diverse; Rivals, who is usually the harshest of the services on Midwest recruits, has him as a top 200 guy, while 247 and ESPN have him in the top 300 and Scout has him unranked at his position, let alone overall. We have no way to tell which service is right at this point, of course, but Mike Denbrock liked what he saw in person last summer and Chip Long and Del Alexander are obviously on board with him now. That’s a strong recommendation in itself.
Jones is the tenth commit in the 2018 class and the fourth offensive player, joining QB Phil Jurkovec, RB Markese Stepp, and OT Cole Mabry. With Mabry and CB Kalon Gervin, he also brings the inaugural 2018 junior day conversion rate up to 60%. LB Dallas Gant and WR Braden Lenzy are the two uncommitted prospects from that weekend who are still on the market.
Recruiting Service Rankings
247 Sports — 4 star (90 rating), #289 overall, #47 WR, #5 in IL
Rivals — 4 star (5.8 rating), #158 overall, #27 WR, #1 in IL
Scout — 3 star, NR overall, NR position, #23 in IL
ESPN — 4 star (80 rating), #231 overall, #38 WR, #1 in IL
247 Composite — 4 star (.8945), #315 overall, #50 WR, #3 in IL
Cohort
Jones also holds offers from Iowa, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ole Miss, and Vanderbilt, among others. He also has drawn some interest from Miami, Michigan, and Wisconsin, but no offer as yet.
Highlights
Micah Jones could practically serve as the definition of a possession receiver, based on the junior year highlight film seen here. Jones ran a rather pedestrian 4.8 40 a regional recruiting event recently, but he also logged a very respectable 34″ vertical. He’s not going to take the top off a defense, but with that combination of size and leaping ability he could pose a matchup problem that can move the chains or be a red zone threat. In his highlights he shows nice soft hands and a good catch radius, aggressively snatching the ball out of the air whether the throw is on the money or not. He’s fearless over the middle, and very adept at finding a soft spot in coverage and using his body to shield defenders as well. He rounded off almost every cut I saw on here, as is very common with kids at his development stage, so he’ll need to work on that. I’d also like to see him bring the same physicality after the catch that he brings to his run blocking. Speaking of which, boy, does he relish contact as a blocker. He just buries guys over and over. Yes, it’s cliche, but man do I love seeing receivers block like this.
Something that jumped out to me here is that almost every single play is a short or middle pass. Almost nothing down the field, and almost nothing contested. That seems kind of odd; even if he doesn’t have top end speed, you would think that in high school it would be worth chucking up a jump ball to your 6’5″ target every so often. If anyone is familiar with the Warren (Gurnee) program, I’d be curious to know if that’s just not a feature of their offense. Or if for them, Jones is in fact a possession receiver.
Impact
Given the wideout depth chart, Jones will likely have some time to work on his strength and technique before he’s needed on the field. He’s not exactly skinny, but 200 pounds is a touch light at his height so some weight room time would do him some good. As alluded to above, I wouldn’t expect to see him suddenly gain explosiveness or elite speed, but he could definitely develop into a Corey Robinson type of player and fill a similar role in the offense. Given that these will most likely be popular questions: I don’t think he has the frame to grow into tight end, and I don’t think he profiles well as an outside linebacker or defensive end. So don’t ask. Also, please stop asking about switching Chase Claypool to defensive end. It’s not going to happen. And if you’ve ever thought about asking if Brock Wright would switch to defensive end (yes, this is a real message board phenomenon), go to the corner and give yourself 20 lashes. Anyone else want the soapbox before I put it away?
And, more importantly, welcome to the Irish family, Micah!
Keep them coming! A good start to our WR cycle.
But can we switch Finke to defensive end?
I would rather move Wimbush to DT.
How has no one mentioned Jurkovec to WDE? He would need to pack on about 40 LBs, but at 6’5″, with his quickness, watch out QBs.
I promised complaining. I guess I’ll just say I hope we can take more than the 2 receivers Eric was thinking. Amon-Ra is a definite take. We are at least the flavor of the month for Lenzy. This past year, WR was a lot of disappointment and decommitments, but I don’t think it should color our projections.
I could see more than 2 WR’s taken this cycle. There’s only 6 non-slot WR’s on the roster for 2017, and by the time Micah Jones would be up and ready to contribute in 2019 at earliest, ESB will be gone and Claypool+Boykin will be in their final year of eligibility (if even still on the team), so Jones might be the only big frame WR around in 2019/2020 and on. From that angle, I could see why he was an intriguing take.
**** 6’5″ receivers (especially in the Midwest with ND interest) don’t exactly grow on trees…
I expect us to take three WR’s. And if Amon-Ra or the like are still out there, I think we we’d make room for him as a 4th.
Who are the other two you project to join the class?
We gonna need lots of them because this guy is going straight to the defensive line.
I think we’ll get Braden Lenzy. After that it’s wide open, way too early to handicap things with anyone else, but I feel pretty good about our chances to get another quality guy. And if someone like Amon-Ra St. Brown wants in, it’s not going to matter who else we have already.
^^ What Brendan said. Things are looking really good right now with Lenzy. As of now it sounds like we will get him in the fold. After that, we could hit a homerun with Amon-Ra, Brian Hightower, or Joshua Moore. We also have a shot with Jahan Dotson. Bryson Jackson is another guy who is big on ND right now. We were his first offer and he was pretty emotional about it.
If they don’t work out at WR. Move them to D. A DB is basically a WR that can;t catch.
I think DBs are typically better athletes
That’s what TCU use to do all the time with their defense.
Something that been on my mind lately is the lack of rangy, 6-5 guys who could rush the passer. If speed is a problem with this guy, lets see if we can fill out his frame and move him to OLB.
Some other worthy candidates IMO would be Claypool or maybe even Brock Wright.
Idk im just spit ballin here.
That sounds like a great idea Dmac. What do you think about it Brendan?
Damn you guys. Your 18SAD privileges have been revoked.
I like this kid. He will never be a burner but he can grow into a excellent red zone threat. I expected to be better in recruiting but this staff have been tremendous thus far. They have kept the momentum from NSD and are rolling. Brian Kelly has been getting killed and he deserved it for the most part. If you kill him for the mistakes he made you also need to give him credit for making the upgrades to this staff and especially the changes to the strength program. The players are being challenged every time they lift. This is the best staff we have had in a very long time. Excellent coaches and excellent recruiters.
How do you know the players are being challenged every time they lift is different and better than before? Was there an article or report about the new strength program?
There was discussion, on the latest II podcast, of the new S&C program. Sounds like new life has been brought to the program by installing more competition in workouts. Other things discussed, more core work and Longo not being able to get as involved with the players (health issue?) I think the latter may be the biggest aspect. I just don’t believe that Longo forgot how to be a S&C coach. I’m sure he understood the value of core strengthening and I remember the competition aspect being discussed when he first arrived.
In that connection, check out also the interviews with Elko and Chris Long on the JS show; esp Long, very explicit and pumped about those S&C aspects. Add one, which is asking the players to make tough decisions while physically tired and challenged. Coupled w Longo being put on leave of absence, leads me to concur with your thoughts here.