What’s Left? Possible 2020 Recruits To Keep An Eye On

Notre Dame signed 18 prospects on early National Signing Day as a part of its 2020 recruiting class.

The Fighting Irish pursued Moorpark (Calif.) High offensive lineman Jonah Monheim until the last second, which showed that Notre Dame was very open to taking a 19th prospect in the class.

Even during his early National Signing Day press conference, head coach Brian Kelly left the door open to the Irish adding another prospect in the February signing period, noting that it would probably be on the offensive side of the ball.

Considering that Notre Dame nearly took an offensive line recruit, we will look at potential OL options, as well as a defensive end prospect to know. The pickings are mostly slim, but there are some prospects out there that we really like.

There are 36 offensive line prospects who have a three-star ranking or higher that did not sign in the early signing period.

The highest-rated prospect in that group is St. Louis Trinity Catholic guard Jalen St. John, a nationally unranked four-star who stands at 6-4, 323 pounds. St. John was committed to home-state Missouri for several months, but opened up his recruitment Dec. 1. Several SEC schools will look to land St. John’s signature in February.

Chantilly (Va.) High offensive tackle James Pogorelc would make a lot of sense for Notre Dame. He is a high academic young man who reported that Michigan, Stanford and Virginia are his top three schools. If Notre Dame takes another offensive line recruit, it ideally would be a tackle. Pogorelc fits that profile with his 6-8, 270-pound frame.

If I was Notre Dame, I’d give a long look at Pogorelc.

Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy tackle Alex Atcavage decommitted from Florida State in December. This is a prospect who Notre Dame had interest in a couple years ago and he visited campus in 2017. I would be surprised to see the Irish circle back around to Atcavage, but he is a possibility.

On early National Signing Day, Notre Dame safeties coach Terry Joseph said that he would love to keep recruiting in the South. It would be a long shot that Mize (Miss.) High tackle Trey Tuggle would earn an offer from the Irish, but he held several SEC offers before committing to Tulane over the summer. He decommitted from Tulane in December.

Notre Dame was recruiting defensive back Collin Gamble from Argyle (Texas) Liberty Christian for a couple of months during the 2020 cycle. He signed with Cal, but an offensive lineman from that school, Andy Buttrell, went unsigned. He held offers from Air Force and Nevada.

Baltimore St. Frances defensive end Demon Clowney gave a verbal to LSU in March, but he was essentially dropped from the Tigers’ class. I don’t have any reason to believe Notre Dame will take a defensive end prospect, but Clowney goes to a top private school in the DMV and his recruitment is wide open now that he has opened it up.

If Notre Dame is looking at this from a best-available recruit regardless of position standpoint, then Clowney is someone who could be realistic for the Irish.

The schools expected to be involved for Clowney are Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Ole Miss and Miami.

----

• Talk about it inside Rockne’s Roundtable

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.

• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @BGI_MikeSinger, @CoachDeDario and @AndrewMentock.

• Like us on Facebook.