Recruiting Comparison: Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs BYU Cougars
Breaking down past recruiting rankings can be a valuable way to evaluate talent, and develop a much deeper understanding of a roster. It has proven to be a pretty sound indicator of quality of an on field product. It isn’t the gospel but more often than not, the better you recruit, the more talented the team is.
In order to evaluate matchups, taking a look from the recruiting standpoint can be an extremely telling exercise.
BYU has traditionally recruited in the middle of the pack nationally. More importantly, they have done a tremendous job as developers. Routinely, they have taken a large portion of players who take LDS missions and return to their playing careers afterward, presenting unique roster formations from an age perspective.
That can cloud how paramount high school recruiting can be for them, but still, the acquisition of talent is always important. This is a very intriguing matchup from a recruiting standpoint.
Here are the 247Sports composite rankings for the starters and top rotation players for the Notre Dame offense and the BYU defense.
Ten of Notre Dame’s 11 starters on offense were a four (9) or five-star (1) recruit coming out of high school. That includes nearly its entire wide receiver rotation outside of Joe Wilkins, tight end rotation and its top two running backs. The lone three-star in the starting lineup is Joe Alt, who has already exceeded early expectations and has developed into one of the best left tackles in all of college football.
BYU counters a starting defense that does not feature a single four-star recruit in their starting lineup or key reserves. They are a unit that is built off of three-star recruits, featuring 13 total of their main contributors. The Cougars in total have five players in their starting lineup that were considered two-star recruits or lower. There are two former walk-ons in the rotation, including starting Rover Payton Wilgar and back up defensive tackle Gabe Summers.
The unit’s top ranked player coming out of high school is their “Flash backer” Max Tooley, who was rated as a three-star and the No. 615 overall player in the 2016 recruiting class. It is a unit that is built pff of experience.
Now let's look at the Notre Dame defense and the BYU offense.
The Notre Dame defense is a great example of identifying and developing talent, currently projected to start just six players who were ranked as four-star players. They have five players who were ranked as just three-star recruits, including All-American safety transfer Brandon Joseph. In fact, their whole secondary was ranked as such coming out of high school outside of true freshman Benjamin Morrison.
The defensive line rotation is the exception, boasting almost exclusively four-star players in the rotation. The lone exception there is key defensive end reserve Justin Ademilola. It is a deep and talented unit up front.
Similarly to their defensive unit, the BYU offense is again built off of former three-star recruits. In totality, they have seven players who ranked as such in the starting lineup. That includes their starting quarterback Jaren Hall, who has become one of the more dynamic dual-threat quarterbacks in college football.
It is an overachieving offensive line up front who are led by left tackle Blake Freeland and left guard Clark Barrington. Both players were viewed as a three and two-star respectively. The highest rated recruit up front, as well as on the roster, is former Oregon transfer Kingsley Suamataia. He was rated as a four-star recruit and the No. 36 overall player in the 2021 class.
The only other four-star recruit in the starting lineup for BYU is wide receiver Puka Nacua. He also came to the program as a transfer from Washington.
CLASS RANKINGS
Here are the class rankings of the two programs from the last five seasons. (247Sports composite)
NOTRE DAME
2022 - 7
2021 - 9
2020 - 18
2019 - 15
2018 - 10
BYU
2022 - 56
2021 - 77
2020 - 81
2019 - 81
2018 - 78
Advantage: Notre Dame
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Irish Breakdown Content
Notre Dame 2022 Roster
Notre Dame 2022 Schedule
Notre Dame 2023 Class Big Board
Notre Dame 2023 Commits Board - Offense
Notre Dame 2023 Commits Board - Defense
Notre Dame 2023 Scholarship Offers
Notre Dame 2024 Scholarship Offers
Ranking The 2022 Signees - Offense
Ranking The 2022 Signees - Defense
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