Notre Dame Commit Profile: Safety Ethan Long
Notre Dame picked up an important commitment when it landed Connecticut safety Ethan Long. It is a position of major need for the Irish in the 2025 class. Let's take a look at Notre Dame's newest commit.
ETHAN LONG PROFILE
Hometown/High School: Milford, Conn./Brunswick School
Height/Weight: 6-2, 185
IB Grade: 4.0 (Top 150 caliber prospect)
Upside Grade: 4.5
Player Comp: Julius Brents, Kansas State
Recruited By: Chris O'Leary
Offers: Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, UCLA, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Duke, Pittsburgh, Boston College, Maryland, BYU
RECRUITING RANKINGS
Rivals: 4-star - No. 27 safety
247Sports: 3-star - No. 23 safety
On3: 3-star - No. 35 safety
247Sports Composite: 4-star - No. 317 overall - No. 23 safety
On3 Consensus: 3-star - No. 395 overall - No. 32 safety
NOTRE DAME FIT
Long can play either safety position and he has the all-around game to thrive in all areas. The part I like best about his game, however, is his range and ability to play the middle of the field in Notre Dame's man and Cover 1 schemes. Long's name is quite fitting, he's a very long athlete that shows the range to play the post and protect the deep ball, something Notre Dame needs more and more of in the secondary.
FILM ANALYSIS
The first thing you notice about Long is his length. He's listed at 6-2 and 185 pounds, and he's a very high-cut athlete with impressive length and range. He's a long-limbed player, and those physical traits allow him to play with a lot of range on the back end. He can cover the hashes well, he's gets over the top quickly, he can fly downhill when needed and he can close on routes quickly, all because of his length and range.
Long is a smooth and fluid athlete that changes direction with ease. He opens up off the hash with ease and he can plant and drive downhill and redirect in a very natural fashion. He can drive downhill in the run game, but I really love his ability to impact the pass game both as a high safety and ability to drive on the ball and drive on routes.
The Brunswick star is very instinctive as well. He reads offenses quite well, both schematically and with route recognition. Long's ability to anticipate what the offense is doing combines with his length to make him a high impact player in the pass game. He's smooth enough to cover and he's a more than willing tackler. He'll need to fill out and add a lot of strength, but the tools are there for him to be an impact cover player.
My only real knock on Long at this point is a lack of top level/elite speed. He's very rangy, but he isn't a burner or super explosive. What I like about evaluating him, however, is I think there's some untapped explosiveness there that will come out once he gets into a college strength program. Even with normal projection he has starter talent, and can do everything I discussed above. If his speed and explosiveness makes the jump I think it will this will turn out to be a Top 50 player caliber pickup for the Irish.
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