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Preview: Notre Dame Commits Set For All-Star Game Season

Notre Dame TE commit Brock Wright will get a chance to showcase his talents at the Under Armour All-America Game
Notre Dame TE commit Brock Wright will get a chance to showcase his talents at the Under Armour All-America Game (Rivals.com)

The national all-star games are right around the corner and once again Notre Dame's recruiting class will be well represented. Of Notre Dame's 18 committed players in the 2017 class, seven of them were chosen to partake in one of the nation's top two national all-star games.

These all-star games are the last shot for recruits to make an impression on the services that do their rankings, and even more important its an opportunity for many of the nation's top prospects to compete against other top players.

UNDER ARMOUR ALL-AMERICA GAME

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This will be the 10th annual Under Armour All-American Game presented by American Family Insurance. Notre Dame has had 25 commits participate in this event in the previous nine games. Notre Dame has five members of the 2017 class set to participate, tying the 2015 class for the second most for the Irish. The 2014 class set the record with six players from the class.

DATE: Jan. 1, 2017
TIME: 1:00 p.m. ET
LOCATION: Orlando, Fla. (Camping World Stadium)
BROADCAST: ESPN

Here's a look at the Notre Dame commits who will take part in the game:

Wright will play on Team Highlight. Wright committed to the Irish on Jun. 26, and will enroll early next month. Wright finished his senior season at Cypress (Texas) Cy-Fair with 30 receptions for 491 yards and four touchdowns.

Ranked as the No. 1 tight end in the country, Wright will certainly have a lot of eyes on him during the Under Armour practices. He'll be matched up against a number of top linebackers and safeties all week.

Making plays in practice against linebackers like Chris Allen (Alabama commit, No. 214 player in the country) and Drew Singleton (Michigan, No. 51), as well as safeties Xavier McKinney (Undecided, No. 43), Cyrus Fagan (Florida State, No. 74) and Daniel Wright (Alabama, No. 159) will cement his standing as the nation's top player at his position.

Davis had an outstanding senior season for Cedar Hill (Texas), leading his team to the quarterfinals while passing for 2,876 yards and 37 touchdowns to go along with 369 rushing yards and another six touchdowns. Davis battled an ankle injury for much of the season, so his rushing production was down, but that did not stop him from being named the Texas Region 6-7A Offensive Player of the Year.

Davis will play for Team Armour, along with Myles Brennan (LSU, No. 205), Lowell Narcisse (LSU) and Sean Clifford (Penn State, No. 138). Team Highlight is led by five-star quarterback Kellen Mond (Texas A&M, No. 27), Ryan Kelley (Arizona State, No. 152) and Tommy DeVito (Syracuse).

Rivals has Davis listed as a 3-star recruit, but a strong showing in practice against some of the nation's top quarterbacks could result in him getting a rankings boost.

Adams became Pittsburgh Central Catholic's all-time leading tackler this season, breaking the record of 290 career tackles formerly held by Nate Williams, who went on to record 254 career tackles in 47 career games (31 starts) during his college career at Northwestern between 2006-10. His dominant senior season ended with him leading Central Catholic to a 14-2 record, earning him first team Class 6A all-state honors.

Despite his strong final season, Adams fell in the most recent rankings. Adams will be playing for Team Armour, where he will be matched up in practice against four-star tight end Josh Falo (undecided) and running backs Khalan Laborn (Florida State, No. 40), Robert Burns (Miami, Fla.) and Todd Sibley (Pittsburgh).

Should Adams perform well in coverage and prove himself to be athletically on par with other top linebackers, Adams could see his ranking trend back up.

Adebo is on the rise with Rivals, earning a fourth star in the most recent rankings. He will be on Team Armour along with Davis and Adams. A two-way standout at Mansfield (Texas) High School, Adebo is listed as a wide receiver on the Under Armour roster, but he could end up playing on both sides of the ball during the event.

Notre Dame recruited Adebo to play on the defensive side of the ball, and it will be his action on that side that will matter most.

Hainsey and Wright are both set to enroll early at Notre Dame, and the future Notre Dame teammates will be paired together on Team Highlight as well. Ranked the nation's No. 79 prospect and No. 10 offensive tackle, Hainsey is looking to lock in his spot as one of the nation's top players.

In order to maintain that spot, Hainsey will have to standout on a Team Highlight roster that has five other Rivals100 players in five-star tackle Jedrick Wills (No. 17, Alabama), Austin Deculus (LSU, No. 33), Calvin Ashley (Auburn, No. 63), Cesar Ruiz (Michigan, No. 77) and Trey Smith (Tennessee, No. 97).

Hainsey and the rest of the linemen will have their hands full during the week of practice by going against players like five-star linemen Josh Kaindoh (Florida State, No. 16) and Tyler Shelvin (LSU, No. 22) and Rivals250 linemen LaBryan Ray (Undecided, No. 54), Robert Beal (Georgia, No. 227) and Aaron Sterling (Undecided, No. 241)

U.S. ARMY ALL-AMERICAN BOWL

This will be the 16th annual U.S. Army All-American Bowl, an all-star event that has had certainly had its fair share of Notre Dame recruits through the years. Ninety-eight different Notre Dame recruits have participated in the 16 previous games. Notre Dame has two 2017 commits scheduled to participate in the event, which will put the Irish at 100 recruits.

Notre Dame's two committed players will not be the only story. Four current Notre Dame recruits are scheduled to make their announcements

DATE: Jan. 7, 2017
TIME: 1:00 p.m. ET
LOCATION: San Antonio, Texas (Alamodome)
BROADCAST: NBC

Commits

Lugg will compete in the game as part of the East team. As a senior, Lugg and the North Allegheny offensive line helped pave the way for almost 400 yards of offense per game including an average of 275.3 yards rushing. Blue & Gold football analyst Bryan Driskell ranks Lugg as the No. 2 offensive lineman among the players Notre Dame recruited at the position this cycle given his long-term upside.

Prior to last summer, Lugg was considered a Rivals100 prospect, but a subpar showing at a non-padded event caused his stock to drop. Despite a dominant senior season on the field that matched his outstanding junior season, Lugg sits outside of the Rivals250. A strong performance during the week of preparation for this game could cause his stock to rise again.

Lugg will get to compete all week against a number of talented defensive linemen, providing him an opportunity to cause his stock to jump similar to that of 2016 offensive line commit Liam Eichenberg, who went from a three-star recruit to a Rivals250 player following a dominant performance at the Under Armour All-American Bowl.

Top defenders like five-star tackle Aubrey Solomon (Undecided, No. 30), end A.J. Epenesa (Iowa, No. 35), end Chase Young (Ohio State, No. 50) and end Jordan Williams (Clemson, No. 126) will give Lugg opportunities to show he is among the nation's top blockers.

Kmet is the other half of Notre Dame's impressive tight end haul this class coming in as the No. 3 tight end to go with the No. 1 tight end in Wright. The four-star will also play for the East team.

Kmet is a tight end who can stretch the field vertically and he will have an impressive group of quarterbacks throwing to him in five-stars David Mills (Stanford, No. 4) and Hunter Johnson (Clemson, No. 7), as well as four-star Jake Fromm (Georgia, No. 36) and four-star Tua Tagovailoa (Alabama, No. 46).

Kmet finished his senior season with 754 yards receiving and four touchdowns on 48 catches in eight games of action after battling mono. He also added a rushing touchdown. He has been committed to the Irish since October 2015 over offers including Ohio State and Michigan.

Targets

Sarell is the top target left on the board for the Irish in terms of ranking. Adding Sarell to Notre Dame's current four-man group would give the Irish a very solid case in the top offensive line class argument. Notre Dame is currently battling Stanford, Washington, USC and Nebraska for the top offensive tackle's services.

The five-star, who will be part of the West team, took an official visit to Notre Dame for the Stanford game and came away impressed with the game atmosphere in South Bend. A visit over the summer did much of the same in terms of grabbing the attention of the Sarell family. Harry Hiestand and Sarell have a great relationship and is one of the reasons Notre Dame is in the spot they are. Hiestand and Brian Kelly both went in-home with the tackle for their final pitches before the dead period began.

Notre Dame has a chance to land Sarell, but staying on the West Coast to attend Stanford or Washington is the likely ending to his recruitment. Sarell will announce his decision during the game.

Martin may have an argument as quietest member of the 2017 class. Everything is kept very close to the vest for Martin and his family. That may change during Army week as he arrives and could potentially make an announcement during the game. Notre Dame is vying with Iowa and Michigan State to land the underrated wide receiver. He took an official visit Dec. 9 for Echoes weekend which followed his unofficial in September for the Duke game.

Notre Dame would like to add at least one more wide receiver to its class and Martin is certainly a possibility. This battle may come down to Notre Dame and Iowa. Martin caught 85 passes as a senior for 1,272 yards and 14 touchdowns. He also added a kickoff and punt return touchdowns.

Martin will play for the West team.

Calvin, like Martin, was also in South Bend for an official visit during the weekend of Echoes. He and Martin are the top two targets at wide receiver and it is quite possible the Irish land both prospects. Calvin is on the West team.

For Calvin, he is down to Notre Dame, Nebraska, Washington State and Alabama. He will announce his decision during the game. The battle for Calvin appears to be between the Irish and Cornhuskers. Texas recently offered the speedy wide receiver and could come into the picture late if he takes a visit to Austin following his commitment. Tom Herman and the Longhorn staff recently extended Calvin an offer which was his 39th overall. A visit to Miami is also possible.

Even if the Irish were to land Calvin it will still be interesting to watch if he winds up taking additional visits. He has already taken officials to Notre Dame, Nebraska, Washington State and Oregon State. He finished his senior season with 86 receptions for 1,312 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Johnson had been committed to Arizona since March, but his lead recruiter, Donte' Williams, left to join the Nebraska staff has the defensive backs coach earlier this month. The Rivals100 member quickly opened up his recruitment and made his way to South Bend Dec. 9 for the Echoes weekend.

Despite the official, it appears Johnson will wind up on the West Coast or will follow Williams to Nebraska. USC is another major player in his recruitment especially with his younger brother Marcus, a four-star in the 2018 class, committing to the Trojans while Greg was in South Bend. Getting Johnson on campus for an official was huge for Notre Dame, but the Irish are a long shot to land the talented Rivals100 member.

Johnson will also be part of the West team.

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