Every Notre Dame recruiting cycle, there’s at least one player who greatly outperforms their national ranking.
Thus far from the 2020 class, it’s been Clarence Lewis, a mid-level three-star prospect, who rated lower than dozens of his own classmates at the cornerback position. Yet, he was named the ACC Defensive Back of the Week on Dec. 7 after recording 12 tackles in Notre Dame’s 45-21 victory over Syracuse.
That’s not to say the recruiting services did a poor job of evaluating and comparing Lewis to the thousands of players in his class. Rather, there can be intangible traits that are near-impossible to measure in high school but then become apparent once the prospect steps on campus.
“There are times I forget Clarence is a freshman because he just carries himself with such a mild manner,” said standout Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton. “He goes about his business day in and day out, never complains, always does his job. He came in like that. Since day one in camp, you could tell he's different, his demeanor, the way he plays.”
The 2021 cycle, however, will be a slightly different situation given the limited amount of information college coaches and recruiting services were able to obtain due to COVID-19 restrictions. There were no junior-year camps, significantly fewer seven-on-seven competitions and a large portion of players haven’t yet had their senior seasons.
“I will say this to our fan base and to the media outlets that cover us,” said Brian Polian, Notre Dame’s recruiting coordinator. “If there was ever a year that the star system may not be the be-all and end-all — I don’t know how you can accurately rank a class when some of the top players haven't played their senior year, some have played six games, some have played eight.”
With that in mind, it’s fair to assume that a handful of the 13 three-star prospects Notre Dame signed on Wednesday will overachieve their recruiting rankings throughout the duration of their Fighting Irish career.
“The obvious guys are always there,” Polian said, “but I do feel like, given the circumstances we're dealing with this year, we did a really good job of digging deep, and there are going to be some players in this class that maybe weren't regarded the way that they should have been. At least, that's our belief and our hope.”
When asked which recruits were the most underrated in the 2021 class (based on the scholarship offers they received), Polian first thought of two defensive players: Merrillville (Ind.) High School cornerback JoJo Johnson and Honolulu Punahou linebacker Kahanu Kia.
Both committed to Notre Dame with just a handful of Power Five offers from regional programs.
“I love JoJo Johnson,” Polian said. “I know he's not prototypical height, but he's a feisty, feisty competitor. He's physical and we know for a fact he can run because he's put up really good times on record here in our camp. I think Kahanu Kia, had he had the chance to play a senior year, would have had more than some of the Pac-12 [offer him].”
In Polian’s mind, a player with tremendous upside is Fridley (Minn.) Totino-Grace offensive tackle Joe Alt, a prospect with NFL pedigree. His father, John Alt, is a two-time Pro Bowler who played professionally for more than a decade. He actually began his collegiate career as a tight end at Iowa before transitioning to offensive tackle. It appears his son is well on his way to doing the same, albeit at a much younger age.
“Joe Alt, who in our own data that we're going to put out to the media today, at one point we had listed at 240 and was playing tight end as a junior," Polian said. “Now, you see he's up 40 pounds. He's 280. He moves great.”
The Irish also signed a trio of three-star defensive ends in the 2021 class, all of which bring a different skill set to the program, as well as tremendous upside. The first of this group to commit was Warwick (R.I.) Bishop Hendricken School strong side defensive end Jason Onye, who's 6-5 and is already up to about 250 pounds.
“Onye is already a big, big man, and he's going to offer some position flexibility," Polian said. "Onye is the type of guy that might someday be able to rush at three-technique in passing down situations because he would be such a mismatch.”
The other two ends likely project to the Vyper (or drop end) position but could also play a different position in South Bend.
Will Schweitzer and Devin Aupiu are both at least 6-4, have top-notch athleticism but more than likely will need some time in a college strength and conditioning program before they're ready to contribute.
“Schweitzer is actually the last prospect that I think I saw in person," Polian said. "I was in Schweitzer's school in January before the cycle ended. We haven't been back out since. Clark [Lea] and I loved him. The issue when he was a junior was that he was playing linebacker, and he was 205 to 208 pounds.
“So why are you recruiting this guy to play the Viper position when he's standing up? You don't see him pass rush that much. But his motor was so good. And we knew because we had seen him that he's got length.”
On the other hand, Aupiu reminds the Irish recruiting coordinator of a current Notre Dame standout and the team's leader in sacks thus far.
“Aupiu is a great bet, right? If this guy played a senior year, who knows what his recruiting would have looked like," Polian said. "We see shots of this guy dunking a basketball, the way he runs, his length. What we're hoping for is Ade [Ogundeji]. We’re hoping for Khalid Kareem. Who did we beat Ade on? Western Michigan. It took him two years in the weight room. Now you look at his production and what he looks like physically.
“That's the part of player development that we believe we can hit on because we trust Matt Balis and his staff.”
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