Five Things We Learned About Notre Dame Recruiting In January
It was a very busy month for Brian Kelly and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish coaching staff. Blue & Gold Illustrated gives you five things we learned from January.
1. Brian Kelly Making Impact On The Road
When the dead period ended and the contact period began, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly hit the road and visited schools from coast to coast.
It means a lot to high school coaches and recruits to have Kelly stop by. He's such a highly respected coach and does very well on the recruiting trail.
Kelly made stops out in Southern California, made the rounds in the Midwest, checked in at schools in Florida and Georgia and was in the Northeast and DMV as well. The Irish head coach was recruiting nationally as Notre Dame tries to build a truly elite 2021 class.
"It was unbelievable," said Notre Dame offensive line commit Blake Fisher, who Kelly visited Jan. 17. "I definitely appreciate him coming to see me on the first day of the contact period. I love that man!"
Among his visits this week, Kelly visited the high schools of big offensive line targets in Wyatt Milum of Huntington, W. Va and Nolan Rucci of Lititz, Pa. He's visiting the schools of a lot of Notre Dame's top targets and building relationships with those high school coaches.
2. Mike Elston Is Serious About Finding Big Time DE Targets
Notre Dame has offered about 10 new class of 2021 defensive linemen targets in the past couple weeks and a few in the 2022 class as well.
It's been very clear what defensive line coach Mike Elston wants in the 2021 class: big time players coming off the edge.
Notre Dame has a commitment at defensive tackle in four-star Gabriel Rubio from the St. Louis area, and Elston hopes to add another big time defensive end talent to pair with him.
This weekend, one of Elston's new DE offers will be on campus as David Abiara of Mansfield (Texas) Legacy is making the trip to South Bend.
Several others, including Loganville (Ga.) Grayson defensive end Victoine Brown, hope to get to Notre Dame this spring.
"[Elston] said he's looking for some replacements after sending three defensive linemen to the NFL," Brown said. "He said he wants to get me up for a visit in the spring or any time I can come. Right now, him and my step dad are talking about me getting up there."
3. March Shaping Up To Be Huge For Notre Dame
Notre Dame offensive line coach Jeff Quinn is working to set up a huge recruiting weekend in South Bend.
According to the Blake Fisher and our sources, a handful of Notre Dame's top 2021 offensive line targets will be at Notre Dame for the weekend of March 20.
The aforementioned Milum and Rucci, Clarkston (Mich.) High offensive linemen Rocco Spindler and Garrett Dellinger, and Olney (Md.) Good Counsel's Landon Tangwall are all expected to visit for a massive weekend.
There's still a lot of time between now and that weekend in March so things could change, whether it be in a positive or negative way. But as of now, that weekend will be huge for Notre Dame.
Notre Dame tight end commit Cane Berrong and Rivals250 defensive end Aaron Armitage are also expected to visit March 21.
4. Notre Dame Looking To Add Talent In Key States
Notre Dame wide receivers coach Del Alexander spent several days in Southern California in January, and safeties coach Terry Joseph and defensive coordinator Clark Lea spent some time in the Los Angeles area as well.
Irish running backs coach Lance Taylor, special teams coordinator Brian Polian and defensive line coach Mike Elston have spent time in the state of Texas during the January contact period.
Down in the Southeast, Brian Kelly made stops at big time high schools, and Elston, Taylor, Alexander, and defensive analyst Chris O'Leary have also been in Florida and Georgia.
Elston and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees have been in the state of Ohio too.
In the 2020 class, Notre Dame signed just one prospect from the following states: Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Texas or California (Ramon Henderson).
These are the most highly populated states to find top recruits, and Notre Dame has been hitting them hard for its future classes.
5. Will Shipley's Recruitment Is Crazy
Matthews (N.C.) Weddington running back Will Shipley told me multiple times in the fall that his plan was to publicly narrow down his recruitment to a few schools after his junior season.
Well, he's a month and a half removed from leading Weddington to back-to-back state titles in North Carolina and he hasn't made a top schools list yet. It's looking like he won't either.
Even if Shipley did narrow down his choices to five today, I doubt that other schools would stop pushing for him. College coaches are flying through Weddington High, and Notre Dame's Lance Taylor visits the school literally every time he's allowed to.
And when I say crazy, I don't mean that in a negative way at all. It's crazy in terms of how busy it's been for Shipley and Weddington head coach Andy Capone. In a recent conversation I had with Capone, he walked me through one day where he didn't get to eat all day because so many coaches came in.
And it's the big time coaches too. Earlier this week, Brian Kelly, Dabo Swinney and Nick Saban were all at Shipley's school.
Feb. 3 begins a month long dead period, so Capone and Shipley will get to breath again and won't miss a lunch. But on April 15 the evaluation period begins, and it will go right back to coaches flying through Weddington.
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