Notre Dame Recruiting Notebook: QB Gavin Wimsatt, Early Enrollees, More

Notre Dame has offered three quarterbacks in the 2022 class, including Owensboro (Ky.) High's Gavin Wimsatt.

The Rivals100 passer narrowed his list down to nine schools on Friday with Cincinnati, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Louisville, Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Oregon, Rutgers and West Virginia making the cut.

Wimsatt recently spoke to Rivals.com midwest analyst Josh Helmholdt about the Fighting Irish.

“The relationship with Notre Dame is good,” Wimsatt said. “I talk with the quarterbacks coach (Tommy) Rees. He’s experienced being in that quarterback position at Notre Dame, so he can help a lot. I could definitely see myself fitting in that offense with the way they play.

Rivals ranks Wimsatt as the nation's No. 54 overall prospect, No. 1 dual-threat quarterback and the top player in the state of Kentucky.

Wimsatt threw for 2,349 yards and 27 touchdowns, plus 443 rushing yards and six scores, during his junior season in 2020.

Several top class of 2022 prospects in the Midwest have decided to make their commitments since the early signing period for the 2021 class ended.

St. Louis John Burroughs' defensive end Tyson Ford was the biggest commitment in the Midwest region during that span, per Helmholdt.

"The only Midwest Rivals100 prospect to announce his commitment, St. Louis defensive lineman Tyson Ford pledged to Notre Dame on Jan. 18," Helmholdt wrote. "This went against earlier expectations, with Oklahoma being the popular prediction for Ford’s destination until just a few days before he announced.

"Notre Dame named Marcus Freeman as its new defensive coordinator 10 days before Ford’s commitment, and Freeman immediately went to work trying to lock the four-star up for the Irish after defensive line coach Mike Elston had laid the groundwork.

"Other finalists for Ford were Georgia and Missouri. The tall, athletic defensive end became the fifth commitment in a Notre Dame class that currently ranks sixth overall in 2022."

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As part of Rivals ranking week, the analysts answered several questions, including "which prospect do you think we ranked too low?"

Helmholdt's answer was the Irish's December running back signee Audric Estime from Montvale (N.J.) St. Joseph's.

"The question of how high to bring up a late-riser is always a difficult one to answer, but I'm not sure we moved Audric Estime high enough after his senior season," Helmholdt wrote. "The running back position was light this year, and that helped Estime generate attention late, but he is an outstanding talent going to a good situation. We saw the success Kyren Williams had in that Notre Dame offense; Estime has the tools to duplicate that success."

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BlueandGold.com's Mason Plummer and Mike Singer discuss Notre Dame offering Martin (Tenn.) Westview class of 2022 quarterback Ty Simpson, the Irish's pursuit of the nation's top inside linebacker, the latest on the recruiting dead period and more!

First day of classes for Notre Dame's 2021 spring semester was pushed back from January to February. The Fighting Irish's early enrollees are making their way up to South Bend this weekend and begin classes on Wednesday, February 3.

All 14 of Notre Dame's early enrollees are expected to make it to campus. Here are tweets from a few of the early enrollees.

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