Wednesday, February 6th opens up the second National Signing Day for the 2019 recruiting class and for all intents and purposes will bring the current cycle to a quick finish as Notre Dame waits to add one more player to a class that has already signed back in December during the early signing period.
In a few short hours the 2020 cycle enters the spotlight.
With the new cycle comes the Fighting Irish carrying perhaps its strongest hand of the Brian Kelly era, coming off a College Football Playoff appearance and back-to-back 10+ win seasons for the first time in more than a generation. If there’s ever a time for Notre Dame to stay patient and picky for higher-end recruits we’ve reached it now.
It would be charming if the 2020 cycle was curiously bent towards Notre Dame’s region although the 247 Composite Top 100 player rankings remains dominated in other parts of the country. The states of Texas, California, Georgia, and Florida gobble up exactly half of the top spots. Add in Arizona, Maryland, Tennessee, and North Carolina and you’re up to 67 players.
Curiously, 2020 is looking like a weak year for Florida. Despite 12 players in the Top 100 the highest rated recruit right now is Fort Lauderdale receiver Marcus Rosemy at 29th overall. That has to be a modern record for Florida being shut out (for now at least) at the very top of the rankings.
Speaking of receivers, this class is loaded at the position with 18 wideouts (leading all positions by a decent margin) inside the Top 100 and this is definitely having a trickle-down effect for Notre Dame.
The Irish are sitting in great position for St. Louis’ Jordan Johnson (#47 overall) and suburban Chicago’s A.J. Henning (#51 overall) which would be a major boost to the offensive weaponry in South Bend. They are also fighting hard for Fresno’s (yup!) Jalen McMillan (#72 overall). That would be a dynastic haul for Notre Dame.
Safe to say the global reach of Notre Dame was in full effect during the contact period. 🌎
In just one day we had coaches 7,000+ miles apart recruiting in Germany and Hawaii. #FightClub19 ☘️ #IrishBouNDXX pic.twitter.com/SRGW02DrGG
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) February 2, 2019
Elsewhere inside the Top 100 there isn’t a ton of breakthrough at the moment. The Irish are fighting hard for suburban Detroit’s Enzo Jennings (#95) who is listed as an athlete but is being recruited as a defensive back. They’ve been in the mix for suburban Tulsa offensive lineman Andrew Raym (#56 overall) who was once committed to Oklahoma and as you’d imagine is being tugged in multiple directions by the blue-blood programs.
Notre Dame does have the #100 overall player committed in tight end Michael Mayer, while quarterback Drew Pyne (#113) and tight end Kevin Bauman (#120) are just outside the Top 100 and already in the class. The Irish are heavy favorites for Massachusetts offensive lineman Kevin Pyne (#108) and another Chicago area kid in defensive end Rylie Mills (#128), as well. Throw in a battle for Boston prep school linebacker Kalel Mullings (#102) and the options for high-end recruits is looking as good as at any time in recent years.
We’ve talked about Notre Dame needing to seek out more high-end talent and despite every year seemingly feeling like it could be a Top 5 class the program hasn’t been able to reach that type of success in a long time. The program–utilizing its on-field success and cohesive coaching staff–actually looks to be in much better position for top recruits for 2020 and needs to come through with its strongest class in recent memory. If they can’t take advantage now, there will be a lot of head scratching going on around campus.
I’ll believe it when I see it. This time last year there were stories (not on this site!) that the 2019 class was going to be a breakout class; the guys on the Irish Illustrated podcast were almost certain of it. Obviously, the class was fine, but not the way it was made out to potentially be.
uhh, it’s been a long time since a top ten class? The 247 composite had ND at #10 in 2018 and 2017. 2013 Seems like a long time ago since all those players have cycled through, but that class was #5.
18 Stripes has issued a correction to that sentence which now reads:
“We’ve talked about Notre Dame needing to seek out more high-end talent and despite every year seemingly feeling like it could be a Top 5 class the program hasn’t been able to reach that type of success in a long time.”
Thank you. More correct and also less sad now. 😀
I agree the rankings haven’t been a high as you’d like to see them. I think the team has played a lot better than their recruiting rankings over the past two years though. So is that the case of a better job evaluating talent than the recruiting suites, or just a great job of coaching them up.
This certainly applies to the last two years, but Bill Connelly came out with the five-year S&P+ rankings recently and we were #11… which is right where one would expect us to be given our recruiting: https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2019/2/5/18211679/college-football-rankings-last-five-years-florida-state-pac-12
Hopefully/maybe, though, we’ve cracked the code in the post-BVG era.
I’m not always 100% on board with B.C., but #11 seems pretty much exactly correct for 2014-2018. Per 247 Composite:
2014 – 11th, 16/23 blue chip
2015 – 13th, 14/23 blue chip
2016 – 15th, 10/23 blue chip
2017 – 10th, 10/21 blue chip
2018 – 10th, 14/27 blue chip
2019 – 13th, 15/21 blue chip – Not final just yet as most teams still have targets out there, plus the Irish are expected to add Isaiah Foskey, 4 star DE still.
I thought we were 14th in the Composite, did we move up one spot this morning already?
We’re actually up to 12 now (at 11 am eastern) and we still don’t have Foskey. I know Auburn has lost a recruit to drop below us this morning but I don’t know the circumstances around it.
5-star WR flipped to Georgia. Bama and UGA are recruiting at another level right now.
From where?
Hoover, AL – https://247sports.com/player/george-pickens-46043191/
Now down to 15th in the Composite.
How about finding a top flight running back.
I know they really like Tucson’s Bijan Robinson (#39 overall) which would be an amazing pull.
I know we just got the German kid, are we recruiting a kid from Tuscany too ?
The old fix it and make the guy look like a nut trick…….sly.
Muahahaha!
If we pick up a kicker from Japan I’m really going to wonder about the direction of our program.
Ha! My wife is Japanese, and my brother-in-law is German. My brother didn’t hold up his end of the deal though
There are no recruits available in Tuscany, none (per the Maestro)!
What if we send a bag man with 2 million lira?
What is that with the exchange rate? Like $5? Not sure that’ll do it.
5* Chris Tyree, #25 overall, is very much in play. He visited ND and loved it. While Denson was out of the picture Kelly and Chip kept up contact with him, and Taylor has recently started talking with him as well. I’m actually a little more bullish on our chances with him than with Robinson; good vibes from Robinson too but he hasn’t visited yet.
Is it weird or concerning to “only” have four 2020 commitments locked in at this point? Seems like a lot of the elite ‘crootin schools (Bama, tOSU, Clemson, Miami, LSU, a&M) are all already 7-10 right now according to rivals..
I don’t usually follow far out all that closely, so I don’t really know. Just seems odd for a place like ND where a lot of guys either really want to go there and commit early in the cycle to not be too far down the road, seemingly.
It’s tough to say now with the early signing period changing things.
I tend to think waiting is better as you can recruit kids longer who may not perfectly align with your “aisle” of shopping. I was critical of the 2019 class because I think they filled up too quickly with 3 and low 4-star players. No one should complain if you’re filling up early with elite guys but it’s not time to panic yet because there’s only 4 in the class so far.
I do think there’s so much pressure now to get everyone to sign in December that it will move up the timeline. Seems like having your class relatively full and done by the end of summer is the new thing to do now.
Any word on the last guy yet? I don’t remember where he’s from (and I’m too lazy to look that and how to spell his name–Foskey?–up) so I guess it might still be early on the West Coast if he’s there.
He’s announcing at 3 eastern/noon local. There doesn’t seem to be any movement on the assumption that he’s signing with the Irish.
Thanks
Foskey signs with the Irish. Nice way to close the class.
Whatever happened to that LB that was committed to washington, Turner is it? Has he announced already?
He’s now signed with Washington. He had announced his decision to stick with UW a week-ish ago.
Basically he played LB in the Army game and hated it and played S in the Poly Bowl and loved it, and that was pretty much the end of it. That’s why BK never used his in-home. He had been saving it for the home stretch and then Turner told the staff forget it, he’s not interested in playing LB.