Notre Dame Notebook: Tommy Rees Talks 2022 Recruits
Comments and analysis of the 2022 recruiting haul by Notre Dame offensive coordinator Tommy Rees.
Tight End Tradition Continues
Notre Dame has always been the place for quality tight ends for years.
Michael Mayer has been the guy for the last two years. Before that it was Tommy Tremble, Cole Kmet, Durham Smythe, Ben Koyack, Troy Niklas, Tyler Eifert and Kyle Rudolph to name just a few. That looks to continue with the 2022 recruiting haul.
The Fighting Irish believe they got one of the steals of this year’s recruiting class when it signed Eli Raridon, a 6-foot-6, 228-pounder from Valley High School in Des Moines, Iowa.
"Covid probably did us a favor in that one because people couldn't see him live,” Rees said. “To be honest, the difference-maker for him was when we turned on his basketball film a year ago. It's like, ‘Wow, this guy's athleticism, pun intended, jumps out of the room. He's someone you get around him and see him in-person for the first time—you see the length. You see his athletic ability. To me, the sky is the limit for his potential. He's someone that we're extremely excited about. He was under-recruited for a lot of reasons and I think kind of late, he's gotten the notoriety he deserves.”
Raridon had the Notre Dame genes.
Scott Raridon, his dad, was an offensive lineman at Notre Dame during the Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis tenures.
His grandfather, Scott Sr., was the strength coach for Lou Holtz.
Covid-19 obviously provided a snag in his recruitment.
He played well as a junior but not well enough for Notre Dame to make an immediate offer. When Notre Dame offensive coordinator Tommy Rees saw a tape of Raridon playing basketball, he knew they had to make an offer.
Raridon’s basketball game offered another dimension of his athleticism.
Raridon blew up this fall, catching 53 passes for 627 yards and 10 touchdowns. He’s now a known quantity now but the Fighting Irish figured it out sooner than everyone else.
Offense Will Be Player Centric
Player-centric: That is the line Rees is going to use when he recruits offensive players at the skill positions.
It’s the dawn of a new era for Rees. He’s the new face of Notre Dame’s offense.
Before, it was former coach Brian Kelly, who was branded as a developer of quarterbacks (this is debatable on some levels) and an offensive guru.
Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman has gifted the keys to the offense to Rees. He’ll have freedom to develop all aspects of the offense with minimal interference.
"We're always going to be player-centric. That's probably something people don't fully understand. We're not an offense that says, 'Hey, you have to come here and fit into this role,' Rees said. “The role that you're going to have in this offense is completely dependent on who is here. We're going to be built around featuring our best guys and finding ways to allow them to be great.”
Rees said the push to be cutting edge will continue in terms of getting players and implementing them once they get to Notre Dame.
“We're going to continue to be aggressive as heck both offensively and recruiting. We're not going to stop going after the best players in the country. We're not going to lower our standard just to make sure we're getting guys here,” he said. “We want to raise the level of this program and the only way to do that is to continue to attack the best players in the country. The more we can do that, the better we're going to be as an entire program. I think offensively, we're going to continue to push the envelope of what we can do. We're going to continue to find ways to allow our great players' opportunities to be successful. That's not going to change. It's our job moving forward to make sure we continue to find those great players and diversify where they're at, but we're not going to stop being aggressive and we're not going to stop pushing the envelope to get the very best.”
Tobias Merriweather Adds Impact Talent
Notre Dame signed one receiver Wednesday, and they think he’s a good one.
Tobias Merriweather, a 6-foot-4, 185-pounder from Vancouver, Washington is an all-purpose threat that Irish Breakdown ranks as the top offensive recruit in the class. SI All-American ranks him as the nation's No. 46 overall player.
He’s fast, physical, and long.
"He's somebody we're extremely excited about and have extremely high hopes for moving forward,” Rees noted. “I think he's a guy that given his length, given his maturity, given his ability to run, he's a guy that you can put outside and expect him to slowly make an impact early in his career."
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Irish Breakdown Content
Notre Dame 2021 Roster
Notre Dame 2021 Schedule
Notre Dame 2022 Commits Big Board: Offense
Notre Dame 2022 Commits Big Board: Defense
Notre Dame 2022 Scholarship Offers
Notre Dame 2022 Class Big Board
Notre Dame 2023 Class Big Board
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