Notre Dame Fighting Irish National Signing Day Preview

Tomorrow at 7 a.m. in the student-athlete's local time, recruits from across the nation will be signing their National Letter of Intent.

And in a press conference later in the day, every coach will step to a podium and say that he feels that his program's recruiting class met its needs.

For Notre Dame, the class has certainly met needs on the offensive side of the ball with speed and explosiveness on its way. The Irish are expected to sign St. Louis De Smet five-star Jordan Johnson, the nation's No. 3 wide receiver, and Chester (Va.) Thomas Dale speedster Chris Tyree, the No. 2 all-purpose back in the land, as well as six other four-star recruits on the offensive side of the ball.

Notre Dame's highest ranked commitment on the defensive side of the ball comes from Lake Forest (Ill.) High. Versatile defensive lineman Rylie Mills, the No. 161 prospect in America, picked the Irish over Ohio State, Wisconsin and a handful of other Power Five programs. Like Mills, Honolulu St. Louis drop end Jordan Botelho, who checks in at No. 198 in the Rivals rankings, has the ability to play as a freshman too.

Tomorrow, Notre Dame will enter the day with its 17 commitments -- nine on offense, seven on defense and one on special teams -- but if all goes Brian Kelly's way, there will be more added to the 2020 class.

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Of Notre Dame's 17 commitments -- and all of them are expected to sign on Wednesday -- seven are anticipated to be graduating from their respective high schools this month and enrolling at ND in January. This will allow them to get a head start on classes and participate in spring football.

Offensively, New Canaan (Conn.) High quarterback Drew Pyne, the nation's No. 118 recruit and No. 7 passer, and three-star wide receivers Jay Brunelle from Shrewsbury (Mass.) Saint John's and Xavier Watts from Omaha (Neb.) Burke will be enrolling early.

The two Irish receiver commits had incredibly productive careers, as Brunelle set the Central Massachusetts record for receiving yards in a career, while Watts set a school record in receiving yards and touchdowns.

Defensively, the aforementioned Botelho and Mills will join the program in January. Notre Dame will ink its first recruit from Missisisppi in three-star defensive back Caleb Offord, who will enroll early.

Dusseldorf (Germany) Fryeburg Academy defensive end Alexander Ehrensberger will also be at Notre Dame in just a few weeks. He was a member of the German national team in 2017 and 2018.

Bakersfield (Calif.) Liberty defensive back Ramon Henderson has been a huge target for the Fighting Irish since special teams coordinator Brian Polian offered him a scholarship back in May.

If Henderson does choose Notre Dame, he will make it eight early enrollees for Notre Dame's 2020 class.

Henderson, a 6-foot-3, 180-pound speedy prospect, has waited until the last minute to make his college decision. I've had a FutureCast pick for Henderson to side with the Irish since July 31, and there are now six predictions in total by Rivals network writers in favor of ND.

Henderson took three official visits this fall: Oklahoma, Notre Dame and Utah. The latter two schools are considered the top two options, but Washington offered late, and Henderson took an unofficial visit to UCLA this fall too.

The Irish are the favorite heading into National Signing Day.

Henderson tells BGI that he will announce his decision at 1:30 p.m. PT/4:30 p.m. ET.

You can also include Isaiah Pryor in the early enrollee count.

The Ohio State graduate transfer safety comes to Notre Dame with two years of eligibility in 2020 and 2021.

He officially visited Notre Dame Oct. 11-13 and returned for a three-day visit which coincided with the Irish's victory against Virginia Tech Nov. 2.

Pryor played in 31 games for the Buckeyes over three seasons (2017-19), and recorded 47 tackles, two tackles for loss, and an interception. He only played in four games this season for Ohio State, which allows him to redshirt this season.

Pryor played his high school ball at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., but is from Lawrenceville, Ga. Rivals ranked him as the No. 12 safety and No. 106 overall prospect nationally as a recruit in the 2017 class.

The 6-foot-2, 200-pounder graduated with his bachelor's degree from Ohio State on Sunday and moved to South Bend in Monday. He begins classes in January.

RELATED: Picking Notre Dame Was An ‘Easy Decision’ For Isaiah Pryor | Commitment Analysis: What Is Notre Dame Getting In DB Isaiah Pryor?

Notre Dame's class on Rivals ranks No. 17 in the nation as of Tuesday morning and has the 14th most four-star commitments with nine.

An average star ranking of 3.59 is good for 9th best in the country as well, with the Irish directly above Florida, Tennessee and Miami, respectively.

The Rivals rankings formula is this: Rivals Rating points for a team's Top 20 rated commits + Rivals250 Bonus Points = Total Points.

Notre Dame's class has 2,040 points. Washington, which is seven spots ahead of ND at No. 10, has 2,146 points, and Clemson, the nation's top class, has 3,060 points.

With the Irish currently having 17 commitments, it certainly puts them at a disadvantage in terms of the Rivals team rankings, which is why it's good to look at it from an average star ranking point of view.

ESPN has Notre Dame's 2020 class ranked No. 13 in the nation.

National Signing Day is known for all sorts of surprises. It could go your school's way or it could end up as a negative surprise.

I'd imagine there are Fighting Irish fans out there who are still concerned that Notre Dame will be able to keep its dynamic 2020 offensive class together because of the Chip Long news.. Those fans must not have tracked my extensive coverage in the past week.

I've received confirmation from every Notre Dame offensive recruit that they will be signing with the Irish. But then again, there could be a surprise. This would leave me absolutely shocked though.

Make sure to stay locked in to BlueandGold.com all day long on Wednesday, starting bright and early, as I (Mike Singer) will have the latest on all of the day's happenings and Lou Somogyi and the team will report from the NSD press conferences.

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