Ten Thoughts On Notre Dame’s Early 2020 National Signing Day

Blue & Gold Illustrated recruiting insider Mike Singer gives his thoughts on the early National Signing Day for the 2020 class. Topics include Notre Dame’s big recruiting win, missing out on one target, USC’s class, insights from Brian Kelly and Brian Polian, and more.

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RELATED: Notre Dame Fighting Irish National Signing Day Central

It was expected that Notre Dame would sign all 17 of its verbal commitments Wednesday, but it can’t be overlooked how important it is that it really happened. There were attempts by other coaching staffs to get in with Notre Dame’s top offensive recruits, but they stuck true to their word. Notre Dame was a perfect 17 for 17.

There was some buzz/rumors out there that Ramon Henderson would end up signing with Utah, but the big-time athlete stuck with his initial decision of Notre Dame.

At 1 p.m. ET, Henderson had not signed his LOI per a source, and as I said in Lucky Charms the night prior, you just don’t know until the fax (I just want to say fax, ok?) comes in.

If you follow even just a little bit of my work here at BGI, then you’ve read a good bit about Henderson. It’s been a wild recruitment but calm at the same time. I know that doesn’t make much sense, but that’s just what it was. Notre Dame led pretty much the entire way, but Henderson literally stretched this out as long as he could.

The biggest storyline heading into National Signing Day from my point of view was whether or not Notre Dame would be able to flip Moorpark (Calif.) High offensive lineman Jonah Monheim. The Irish staff brought him on campus over the weekend prior to NSD for an official visit and worked really hard to flip him.

Notre Dame fell in love with his senior tape and really wanted to land him. Monheim gave the staff the final decision on sticking with USC around noon, and the Trojans announced that he signed at 1:20 p.m. ET.

In his early National Signing Day press conference, head coach Brian Kelly mentioned that there could be an addition to the 2020 class in February.

“Probably just be on the offensive side of the ball, yeah,” Kelly said on the topic.

I’ll dive more into some recruits to keep an eye on in a couple of days, but offensive line is certainly a position group to keep an eye on. And this is obvious considering that the Irish nearly added another offensive line prospect in Monheim.

I don’t believe Notre Dame has any recruit really “lined up” right now, but this really could be a “best available” situation, whether it’s in the transfer portal or high school ranks.

Kelly discussed the 2020 defensive back class in terms of position and confirmed what we’ve been reporting for a while.

Landen Bartleson, Caleb Offord, Ramon Henderson and Clarence Lewis — Notre Dame’s four high school defensive back signees — were recruited as cornerbacks. They wanted a true safety in this class, but that just didn’t work out. There is certainly the possibility that one or two of these prospects ultimately lands at safety, though, and I believe Offord would be best suited there. Kelly and Co. don’t recruit the prospects at specific cornerback positions either.

“No, we’re not talking about field and boundary, because that’s always open to the ability to change from year to year,” Kelly said. “... [Ohio State graduate transfer Isaiah] Pryor is the only [safety].”

Notre Dame special teams coordinator Brian Polian spoke candidly about the defensive back class. He even mentioned that he's aware of concerns people have brought up about the DB class the Irish landed, but he felt strongly in a positive sense about the class.

“I would tell you from our football staff’s perspective we feel, we feel more comfortable with this group than probably any group we have recruited in the last couple years because we know the most about this group," Polian said. “Terry Joseph, Coach [Todd] Lyght, Clark Lea, myself in the spring recruiting, we flew all over the country. We watched these young men workout at track, in spring football. In whatever it was that they were doing that we were allowed to evaluate, we watched these guys.

“We have verified times on every one of them, whether it be a track time, a 40 time at a camp, we know more about this group than we probably do any group the last couple of years. So we’re excited about this group and feel very positively about it.”

The Irish’s 2020 class ranked No. 16 coming into the day, and the addition of Henderson moved ND up one spot to No. 15, which is where the Irish still sit as of Dec. 23.

This was the seventh NSD I've covered as a football recruiting writer, but my first with BlueandGold.com. In looking at Twitter throughout the day and talking to my colleagues, there was so much drama. Don’t get me wrong, Henderson’s recruitment had some twists and turns, but I wouldn’t say there was a lot of drama. There was just uncertainty. I’ve really enjoyed on the Notre Dame recruiting beat.

The quality of young men and caliber of prospects Notre Dame signed in the 2020 class is superb. I got a call from a parent today who thanked me for my coverage of his son. I hadn’t ever spoken to him prior to today either. All of the recruits and parents I’ve met since I started in May have been incredible.

This is Notre Dame related because it’s a huge rival for the Irish. And wow, USC’s class, on paper, stinks. The Trojans landed just one new commitment today and missed out on five-star linebacker Justin Flowe, who picked Oregon.

The Trojans have just 11 commitments in the class, which ranks No. 74 nationally, and get this, it’s the WORST in the Pac-12. Yikes, Clay Helton. Yikes.

• One-time Notre Dame target Malcolm Greene, a four-star safety from Virginia, flipped his commitment from LSU to Clemson today. This was interesting because Clemson offered him a while back, but really cooled on him in the spring. I like him as a player, but things just didn’t work out with Notre Dame.

• Arguably the flip of the day was Washington (D.C.) St. John’s College High five-star wide receiver Rakim Jarrett, who ranks just one spot ahead of Irish signee Jordan Johnson in the pass-catcher rankings per Rivals, flipped his longstanding commitment from LSU to Maryland. Huge recruiting win for Mike Locksley in the DMV.

• As of writing this, Florida State landed five new recruits on National Signing Day. Nice class for new head coach Mike Norvell. They flipped quarterback Chubba Purdy from Louisville, a passer I really like in Arizona.

• Dallas Jesuit running back EJ Smith signed with Stanford today over Florida, Georgia, Texas A&M and others. He was featured a good bit on TV by FOX when Notre Dame beat up on Stanford. He’s ranked as the No. 158 prospect in the country. Stanford has 18 commitments and the class ranks No. 24 nationally. Their average star ranking is 3.5.

• Sugar Hill (Ga.) Buford outside linebacker Phillip Webb was an option for Notre Dame over the summer. It came down to Alabama, Florida and LSU, and he picked LSU today.

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