6/1/2021 football Edit

Five Things We Learned About Notre Dame Football Recruiting In May

Mike Singer • InsideNDSports

Recruiting Insider

It was a very busy month for Brian Kelly and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish coaching staff. BlueandGold.com gives you five things it learned from May.

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1. Notre Dame Coaching Staff Gets Creative

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly badly wants to win a national championship. Mike Elston was inserted into the role of recruiting coordinator. Young, new coaches are leading the way on the defensive side of the ball. All of these factors contributed to Notre Dame getting creative on the recruiting trail in May.

Notre Dame placing billboards (some temporary, some permanent) in Atlanta, Chicago, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Jersey City/New York City, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Tampa Bay got the headlines and attention from local and national media.

However, Notre Dame contacting over 1,000 high school coaches in the span of seven business days from Thursday, May 6 to Friday, May 14 may have a longer lasting impact.

“Our charge from Coach Kelly was that for this spring we’re going to get back into recruiting areas and build relationships with high school coaches,” Elston told BlueandGold.com three weeks ago during an exclusive interview. “We’re asking about the entire student athlete — academic progress, character, work ethic, leadership qualities. We want to figure out who they are holistically.”

During the past couple of cycles, Notre Dame has been geared more towards the assistant coaches recruiting their specific position, rather than them recruiting their area of expertise.

“It’s paid off because we’ve had really good classes, but at the end of the day, it’s all about building relationships in the recruiting process,” Elston explained. “Coach Kelly’s charge is to make sure we dig into an area, make phone calls and build those relationships.”

Marcus Freeman has deep ties in the state of Ohio. Jeff Quinn knows the state of Michigan as well as anyone. Del Alexander is from Los Angeles. Even if they’re not recruiting prospects at their specific position, it’s still important for Notre Dame’s coaches to recruit the areas that they know like the back of their hand.

Again, the billboards got the headlines and attention. It’s fun. The virtual recruiting blitz of high school coaches can actually win recruitments though. The key for Notre Dame will be to continue to build those relationships.

Notre Dame Covers The Country With Virtual Recruiting Blitz

Notre Dame Blitzing The Country With Virtual Recruiting Initiative

2. Notre Dame Wraps Up 2022 TE Recruiting

The Irish’s whirlwind of a recruiting process at the tight end position ended in May.

Atlanta Westminster’s Holden Staes had basically been locked in with the Irish since late March or early April, but he didn’t announce his decision until May 8. He wanted his out-of-town family members to be involved in his commitment video.

West Des Moines (Iowa) Valley’s Eli Raridon announced his pledge to the Irish six days before Staes did on June 2, and his decision came together more quickly. He visited campus for a self-guided tour the weekend of April 25 and decided that he didn’t want to take official visits to Iowa, Iowa State and Tennessee. He knew he wanted to be at Notre Dame for college.

Raridon and Staes will officially visit Notre Dame the weekend of June 18 and will meet each other, tight ends coach John McNulty, quarterback commit Steve Angeli and others for the first time.

3. Notre Dame Impressing Elite 2023 Prospects

The Fighting Irish don’t have a commitment yet in the 2023 class, but that should change by the end of the summer. With the end of the dead period meaning that visits are back in business, prospects in the rising junior cycle will be flocking to South Bend for campus visits.

The Notre Dame coaching staff put in work for the following prospects in May to set themselves up for hosting them in June.

Here’s a look at a few notable prospects.

Roswell (Ga.) Blessed Trinity’s Justice Haynes: The four-star running back will visit Notre Dame among many other powerhouse programs in June. Position coach Lance Taylor is still working on landing a talented second running back in the 2022 class, plus building strong relationships in the 2023 cycle. Haynes is liking Notre Dame early on.

Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy’s Carnell Tate: The talented Chicagoland native and four-star wide receiver will visit Notre Dame in June, which will be his second time on campus. He took a self-guided tour of Notre Dame in the spring. Tate holds around 30 scholarship offers and seems to be the highest on Notre Dame and Ohio State.

Fredericksburg (Va.) Riverbend’s Mathias Barnwell: Listed as a tight end by Rivals, the nation’s No. 52 recruit is also getting looks at defensive end. That’s where Notre Dame likes Barnwell, and he’ll be on campus this month. Barnwell was a recent offer dished out by defensive line coach Mike Elston.

New Hope (Minn.) Robbinsdale Cooper Sr.’s Jaxon Howard and St. Louis De Smet’s Mac Markway: Two of Notre Dame’s four-star tight end targets in the 2023 cycle will make their way to South Bend this month. The Irish seem to be in strong position early on for both.

Mt. Pleasant (S.C.) Oceanside Collegiate Academy’s Monroe Freeling: The 6-7, 274-pound four-star prospect is a top target for offensive line coach Jeff Quinn and Co. The Irish staff is fired up to host Freeling for a campus visit in June.

Findlay (Ohio) High’s Luke Montgomery: The Notre Dame staff has put in a lot of work with four-star defensive lineman Luke Montgomery. He’ll visit a handful of schools in June, but Montgomery’s recruitment may come down to Notre Dame and Ohio State.

Tampa (Fla.) Berkeley Prep’s Keon Keeley: The Sunshine State defensive end locked in a Notre Dame visit a few days ago, which was reported by BlueandGold.com. The Irish are in strong early position for Keeley.

Merrillville (Ind.) Andean’s Drayk Bowen: Ranked as the No. 16 recruit in the country, Bowen has a superb offer list too. He’s visiting Notre Dame June 1.

There are so many others that we could’ve mentioned as well. Click here for our premium visit list.

4. Fighting Irish In Front For Top-30 WR CJ Williams?

A big spring development for Notre Dame’s 2022 recruiting class was its emergence in the recruitment of Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei’s CJ Williams, the nation’s No. 27 overall recruit and No. 3 wide receiver.

Notre Dame’s staff, led by wide receivers coach Del Alexander, has worked hard in this recruitment for well over a year, but the feeling had been that Notre Dame was running around fifth for much of their pursuit of him. However, Alexander and Williams have been clicking, and Notre Dame will host the borderline five-star player for an official visit at the end of June.

Williams has discussed taking his recruitment the distance and announcing this winter, but he’s also not shutting down the idea of committing this summer if either Notre Dame or Texas impress him enough.

One can make a strong argument that Williams is the most important recruit left on Notre Dame’s 2022 board. Can the staff close?

5. Notre Dame QB Commit Continues To Impress This Offseason

Oradell (N.J.) Bergen Catholic’s Steve Angeli hasn’t been taking it easy in recent weeks.

On April 25, he made it to Philadelphia for an Elite 11 Regional camp. The following weekend was Baltimore for an Under Armour regional camp. He was invited to the prestigious all-star game following his performance.

He participated at the New Jersey Rivals camp May 16 and impressed there. And for the weekend of May 23, he flew to Illinois to play for the Chicago-based 7v7 team “Midwest Boom” to take part in the NFA 7v7 regional tournament in Rockford, Ill.

Angeli’s squad dominated. He led Boom to a perfect 8-0 record and took home the Midwest regional championship.

Angeli and Boom will compete NFA 7v7 National Championships in Bradenton, Fla. at IMG Academy the weekend of June 11-13. He’ll also participate in Under Armour’s Future 50 event June 12 at IMG Academy; it coincides with the 7v7 tournament.

Watch recent film of Angeli below.