Notre Dame football’s Junior Day event this past Saturday, while small, has already bore fruit for the Fighting Irish program. Junior Day attendee and 2021 safety Justin Walters has decided to shut down his recruitment and verbally commit to Notre Dame. The 6’2″/175-pound safety out of Bolingbrook, Illinois is Notre Dame’s eighth verbal commit in the 2021 Class, and the 2nd defensive prospect to join the fold.
God, Country, Notre Dame☘️#GoIrish #GoldRush21 @CoachBrianKelly @CoachJohnnyi @T_Rees11 @Coach_TJoseph @Coach_Lea @EDGYTIM @BHSRaiders @MB_Weaver pic.twitter.com/bx7avhJXzz
— Justin Walters (@Justin_Walters2) February 2, 2020
Recruiting Service Rankings
247Sports — 3 star (87 rating), #411 overall, #18 S, #15 in IL
Rivals — 3 star (5.7 rating), NR overall, #14 S, #8 in IL
ESPN — 3 star (No Further Ratings)
247Sports Composite — 3 star (.8739), #426 overall, #19 S, #14 in IL
Irish Sports Daily — 3 star (89 rating)
Cohort
Justin chose the Irish over other offers from Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Kentucky, and others. His offer list totaled 23, mostly from schools on the eastern part of the United States.
Highlights
Walters’ highlights show an athlete that is likely best-suited for the strong safety position. There isn’t a ton of film of him playing the ball in the air. He is clearly a sound tackler, though. He does an excellent job of form tackling and making contact with the lower body of ball-carriers. He’s a lengthy, athletic prospect — which Notre Dame seems to be making a priority in the secondary lately.
Impact
The depth at safety is currently pretty thin right now. Houston Griffith and Litchfield Ajavon are the clear-cut strong safeties that will still be on campus in 2021. The Irish will also have Kyle Hamilton and DJ Brown still on campus at free safety. And one or maybe both of incoming 2020 freshmen Ramon Henderson and Clarence Lewis will be at safety as well. That’s it from a numbers standpoint right now, and it’s highly likely that both Houston Griffith (eligibility) and Kyle Hamilton (NFL) will not be on the roster for 2022. The opportunity for serious playing time will be there for Justin in his sophomore season. He should be physically ready at that point, it will all be up to how well he adjusts to the college level from there.
Welcome to the Irish family, Justin!
Kelly said they want verifiable speed. Do you know how fast he is?
I don’t think they make that info public. In my opinion, it wouldn’t really be fair to the student-athletes and I wouldn’t want to publicize the nature of ND’s recruiting profile that specifically.
Kids who participate in certain camps (e.g. The Opening) often have their results included in their player pages on ESPN, though — or at least they did when I was a subscriber, so you’d likely need to have an ESPN+ hookup.
His speed is not verified.