Notre Dame Becomes Instant Contender For 2022 Rivals100 DT Hero Kanu
Penn State became the first offer for class of 2022 defensive tackle Hero Kanu back in May 2020. He moved to Southern California from Germany in October of last year, and after his first high school game this past March, he started racking up offers.
In the span of one week, the standout recruit from Santa Margarita Catholic High in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., added offers from Washington, USC, Colorado, Arizona, Kentucky, Oregon, Michigan, TCU, Arizona State and Ole Miss. Clemson, LSU, Ohio State, Florida, Oklahoma, Georgia and Alabama have offered him since as well.
The latest school to join Kanu’s offer sheet is Notre Dame. Irish defensive line coach Mike Elston had been communicating with him off and on for several months, and Kanu told BlueandGold.com that the hold up was essentially finding a scholarship spot for him.
Elston spoke to Kanu on Saturday and delivered the news of an offer to the four-star prospect. It was a big deal to Kanu.
“Notre Dame was one of my top schools I was looking at before I received an offer,” he said.
The day before he received his Notre Dame offer, Kanu announced on Twitter that Alabama, Clemson, Washington, Georgia, Oklahoma, LSU, Texas, USC and Ohio State were among his top schools. However, he left room for the Irish to make it a top 10.
“It’s not too late for them,” he said of Notre Dame. “If you look at my tweet, you’ll see that I said here’s my top 10, but it only has nine schools. I was leaving an extra spot.”
Part of why Kanu is so excited about his offer from the Irish is his connection with Notre Dame sophomore defensive end Alexander Ehrensberger, who is also from Germany. Although they haven’t met each other in person yet, Kanu and Ehrensberger both are from PPI Recruits organization and text each other often.
“We’re from the same program, and that’s exciting,” Kanu said. “I’ve been watching highlights of Notre Dame football on YouTube. When I got to the U.S. with my host family, we’ve talked about what I should consider in a school, and some big things are alumni base and education — and those are things Notre Dame can give to me.”
Rivals ranks the 6-5, 293-pounder as the nation’s No. 8 defensive tackle and No. 80 overall player in the country.
“Notre Dame sees me as a three-technique; that’s the main position I play,” Kanu added. “I can play some defensive end, too. I think I can play both and could do both in college.”
Kanu hopes to get to Notre Dame twice before his recruitment is all said and done. The month of July is a dead period besides the final week before August is once again dead.
“I will take two unofficials pretty soon,” he said. “One will be at USC, and I’m going to try to fly out to Notre Dame. This way, when I take an official visit [to Notre Dame], Coach Elston and I will already know each other.”
Kanu plans to take his recruitment the distance.
“I’m going to make an official decision on Jan. 8 at the All-American Bowl,” he said. “I will probably have committed silently before then.”
Official visits to Oklahoma (Oct. 15-17) and Ohio State (Oct. 29-31) have been locked in so far for Kanu.
Across five games of his spring junior season, Kanu recorded 28 tackles, nine tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, two quarterback hurries and one pass deflection. He was named to the MaxPreps California All-State second-team defense.
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