8/24/2022 football Edit

2023 DE Armel Mukam announces Notre Dame commitment

ND defensive line coach Al Washington has added three 2023 defensive line commits since joining the Irish in January. (Jeff Douglas, Inside ND Sports)

Kyle Kelly • InsideNDSports

Recruiting Writer

Notre Dame football recruiting writer with past experience covering Ohio State football recruiting for cleveland.com. Current Northwestern University graduate student and John Carroll University grad.

The Irish are not finished bolstering up the defensive line in the 2023 class.

On Wednesday, three-star defensive end Armel Mukam announced his commitment to Notre Dame.

The three-star recruit from Woodberry Forest (Va.) School flipped to the Irish about two months after making an initial pledge to Stanford. Mukam (6-foot-4, 250 pounds) previously earned offers from California, North Carolina, Rutgers, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Virginia Tech and others.

Rivals ranks Mukam as the No. 65 strongside defensive end and No. 17 player from Virginia in the 2023 class.

Mukam marks Notre Dame's 23rd commit in the class and fourth on the defensive line. Following Keon Keeley's decommitment last week, the Irish had dropped to three defensive line commits in the class. But adding Mukam gives the Irish another versatile option to go along with Brenan Vernon, Devan Houstan and Boubacar Traore.

"Mukam is a quick-twitch defensive lineman who does a great job using his hands to break free from blockers and make tackles in the backfield," Rivals national recruiting analyst Adam Friedman said. "He has long arms and uses that length to fend off offensive linemen as he chases down the ball carrier.

"Mukam's size and quickness have given him the advantage of almost every offensive lineman he's played against at the high school level, so his learning curve at the next level may be steep. He has the raw ability and the frame to become a reliable player once he is physically ready."

This summer, the Irish kept expanding the defensive line board, extending offers to Blake Purchase, Caleb Herring and Jaeden Moore. Mukam seemingly became a fourth ND target, although he did not previously report a Notre Dame offer before making his commitment announcement.

Mukam is not the first high school football recruit from Woodberry Forest to choose the Irish.

Since 2012, Notre Dame landed three-star (then defensive back) CJ Prosise and linebackers Doug Randolph and Greer Martini in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Randolph, the No. 134 player in his class, is the only player to earn a spot in Rivals250 from the school.

When Mukam signs with Notre Dame in December, he will be the 15th player the Irish have landed from Virginia in the Rivals era (since 2002). Before Mukam, the Irish also signed five-star running back Chris Tyree, three-star linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and four-star defensive back Jalen Elliott. 2022 four-star defensive end Aiden Gobaira is the first and only previous defensive end from the state to choose the Irish in the Rivals era.

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