National Signing Day is like Christmas morning for college football enthusiasts. And what did your parents always tell you on Christmas morning? Be thankful for what you got, not upset about what you didn’t get.
Notre Dame defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator Mike Elston reiterated that sentiment in a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
“I’m not going to worry about the ones we didn’t get because it’s going to be about celebrating the guys that we did get,” Elston said.
The ones who fell in the former category, though, are still worth noting. Especially at the wide receiver position.
Notre Dame began the week with three wide receivers committed in the class of 2022. It finished Wednesday’s early signing period having signed just one of them.
The biggest miss was Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei four-star prospect CJ Williams. Williams committed to Notre Dame on Aug. 8, but decommitted Monday. As of Wednesday afternoon, Williams had not announced a signing day decision.
Ponchatoula (La.) High three-star Amorion Walker spurned Notre Dame by flipping his commitment and signing with Michigan. He had been committed to Notre Dame since March 10.
That left Vancouver (Wash.) Union’s Tobias Merriweather as the lone wide receiver taken by the Irish in this class. The 6-4, four-star has talent and upside. Notre Dame’s coaches didn’t want that to get lost in the letdowns of Williams and Walker.
Head coach Marcus Freeman said Merriweather was the second recruit he and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees visited after Freeman had officially taken the job. They made it a point of emphasis to check in on him in a prudent manner.
“To get him as a part of this class was huge,” Freeman said.
“He’s not just as one-trick pony as sometimes long guys are,” Rees said. “You see him return kicks, change direction, get in and out of breaks. He’s somebody we’re extremely excited about and have extremely high hopes for moving forward.”
All of those things may very well be true, and Merriweather could turn out to be a complete player. But that still doesn’t change the fact that Notre Dame inked one player in a position group that has as much uncertainty on the roster as any going into next season.
The Irish have a quartet of senior wide receivers who have decisions to make after the Fiesta Bowl. Will Kevin Austin Jr., Avery Davis, Braden Lenzy and Joe Wilkins Jr. return for an extra year of eligibility? They’re all able to. But even if they do, they’ll be a part of a unit that has not lived up to expectations all things considered.
Wilkins has been out for most of the year with an injury. Davis tore his ACL in early November. Austin and Lenzy have played all season, but both have been streaky. If their ceilings were reached this season, then neither can say they’re among the elite at their position across the country.
Austin was good, not great, with 42 catches for 783 yards and six touchdowns. Lenzy was absent at times with 25 catches for 290 yards and three scores. Austin led the team in receiving yards. Alabama, everybody’s measuring stick, had two wideouts with 1,000-plus receiving yards.
Austin had the first two 100-plus receiving yard games of his carer in the final month of the regular season. Davis might have something to proof coming off rehabbing his knee. Those would most likely be the first two of the four Freeman turns to when having conversations about coming back.
Say any combination of those two return, though. What would that leave Notre Dame in terms of scholarship wide receivers? Two fifth-year players, three sophomores (Lorenzo Styles, Deion Colzie, Jayden Thomas) and one true freshman. That’s not exactly strength in numbers, and Freeman is well aware of that.
“We will go back after this season and address it,” Freeman said. “We’ll look and say, ‘Hey, where are we at with the guys who could possibly come back for another year versus are those guys leaving? What numbers-wise do we need to address in the wide receivers room?’
“If we need to go and look at the transfer portal, we will. If we need to start recruiting more high school kids for the following 2023 class, we will. That’s still something that’s an ongoing process in terms of our current roster, in terms of guys leaving and then, ‘Hey, is it a transfer portal situation or is it a high school recruits situation?’”
It’s going to have to start with recruiting high school players. Elston said it himself; Notre Dame is dealt a disadvantage when it comes to the transfer portal. The Irish can’t just grab anyone out of there because of academic stipulations.
“If they’re not grad transfers, it’s still a challenge for Notre Dame to send a young person’s transcript over to admissions,” Elston said. “It’s not like it's an open door. It’s not free agency for Notre Dame. Maybe it is for a lot of other schools that don’t have the academic requirements we have.”
Notre Dame has seven commits in the class of 2023. Five of them are defensive players. The two offensive players are a running back and a tight end. The Irish cannot afford to fall behind the eight ball on wide receivers in the next class. That closed door in the portal Elston mentioned will stay closed as long as Notre Dame upholds the values that have made it a truly unique university in college athletics for over a century.
If Merriweather was one of Freeman’s first priorities after becoming head coach in the class of 2022, it’d also be wise for the new man in charge to make wideouts a top priority in the class of 2023. The state of the Notre Dame wide receiver room depends on it.
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