Fighting Irish football has landed its 16th recruit from the class of 2017 today, as defensive tackle Darnell Ewell has verbally committed to Notre Dame. The 247 Composite ranks the 6’4″/295-pounder out of Norfolk, Virginia as the #144 player overall and the #9 defensive tackle in the country.

This commitment comes as no surprise to those who closely follow recruiting. But if you had told just about anybody a couple of months ago that the Irish would land Ewell, they’d probably call you crazy. At that time, Notre Dame was running around 5th place in his recruitment, with Ohio State holding a huge lead. However, after a June visit to South Bend, the Irish really started to gain steam in Ewell’s recruitment.

Oh, and Ohio State reportedly running out of room for defensive tackles probably also helped a bit as well.

Recruiting Service Rankings

247 — 4 star (92 rating), #182 overall, #8 DT, #6 in VA

Rivals — 4 star (5.9 rating), #125 overall, #8 DT, NR in VA

Scout — 4 star, #149 overall, #8 OG, #5 in VA

ESPN — 4 star (82 rating), #182 overall, #12 OG, #4 in VA

247 Composite — 4 star (.9364), #144 overall, #9 DT, #4 in VA

Cohort

Darnell chose the Irish over other offers from Ohio State, Alabama, Michigan, Clemson, Auburn, Florida State, Florida, LSU, Stanford, and many others. His offer list totals 32 teams right now.

Highlights

Darnell’s tape shows a kid with a lot of the qualities you look for in a defensive lineman — power, explosiveness, and the ability to shed blocks. You can see him both pushing the opposition back and holding his ground to keep the hole closed, waiting for the right time to shed the block. He seems to understand the position pretty well and also seems to be a pretty good athlete.

You can, however, also see some things he needs to work on. I noticed he has a tendency to play high sometimes, which allows offensive linemen the leverage to get up in his chest. It hasn’t been a problem for him at the high school level because he’s stronger and more athletic than most of the opposition, but that is something that definitely needs to be shored up.

(Also, I recommend you pay attention to the offensive backfield around the 4:50 mark. That lead blocker is huge — has to be at least 350 pounds!)

Impact

This is a pretty big pickup for Notre Dame. Landing a composite Top 150 guy at defensive tackle (where they haven’t landed a lot of Top 150 guys recently) is a pretty big deal right now. It’s also nice to get a guy out of Virginia. That’s a state that hasn’t been recruited particularly well in recent years, and this could hopefully help Notre Dame get where they want to be with recruiting in that area.

With two defensive tackles committed now (Kurt Hinish committed shortly after March Junior Day), this also likely closes out that position’s recruiting for this cycle (sorry, Dalyn Wade-Perry).

Ewell already has the physical stature necessary to play Division I football. He’s strong, he’s got good length at 6’4″, and he looks to be in good shape at 295 pounds. Those physical characteristics, coupled with the current quality at defensive tackle being a huge unknown at this point, could allow Darnell to see the field very early. It will likely all depend on how well he adjusts to playing at the college level.

Welcome to the Irish family, Darnell!