Notre Dame Hot Board: Latest With Offensive Line Recruiting
Notre Dame has yet to get on the board for the offensive line in the 2023 class, but the Fighting Irish staff is involved with a number of talented prospects. Offensive line coach Harry Hiestand will need to show he can close on talented players in this class like he did during his previous stint.
Notre Dame would like to land four offensive linemen in this class, and the board is set for the Irish to land an outstanding class. Notre Dame is in a strong position with a number of players, and there is one school in particular the Irish are battling with for a number of top prospects on the board. But the staff will need to close, and although it's still very early, the fact is right now no one is on the board.
That will likely change over the next month, but this is where things stand as of right now.
(Note: See below for explanation on Hot, Warm, Cool)
Jagusah is the top target on the board and the player that right now Notre Dame has the strongest chance to land. He is an absolute must-get for the Irish staff, and he's one of the three to four players left that it must add on offense. The 6-6, 285-pound standout is one of the nation's best blockers, and On3 ranks him as a five-star and the No. 7 overall player in the country.
Notre Dame hosted Jagusah on January 29 and again this weekend, and things have been going extremely well. The Irish staff has done a great job from the beginning of showing Jagusah how much he is valued and wanted in this class.
Iowa is the strongest contender right now, and programs like Miami, Arkansas and Michigan are also making a hard charge, but Notre Dame has put itself in great position to close the deal. For Notre Dame that needs to happen sooner rather than later.
Siereveld is another prospect that will be on Notre Dame's campus this April (multiple times), and the Ohio standout recently released a Top 3 that includes the Irish, Ohio State and Alabama. Ohio State has long been considered the leader for the 6-5, 315-pound lineman, but Notre Dame is making a hard charge.
Siereveld had a great visit to Notre Dame in January and had another great visit the first weekend of April. That second was crucial for Notre Dame, as it allowed him to see Hiestand at work up close and personal. Now he is returning for the Blue-Gold Game, which will be his second visit of the month and third in 2022. The Irish staff - led by Hiestand - has continued to chip away at Ohio State's lead in this recruitment, and the hope right now is that they can knock his spring game visit out of the park.
Ohio State will be tough to beat, but Notre Dame has a chance to close this one out if it can have a great Blue-Gold Game visit.
Pendleton was offered on March 16 and almost immediately set up a visit to Notre Dame, and he made that visit this weekend. That alone says a lot about what Pendleton thinks about Notre Dame. Despite getting on Pendleton a bit later than other targets on the board, the staff immediately made him a priority once they did get on the board with an offer.
The visit this weekend went extremely well, and Notre Dame has clearly put itself in great position, but landing Pendleton will be about what happens coming out of the visit. Once the emotion of the visit wears off the staff will need to continue to sell its vision of why Notre Dame is the place for him to be and how Hiestand is the man that can get Pendleton to reach his full potential.
You're going to hear something with Pendleton that is going to be a theme for the next two offensive linemen .... this is very likely a Notre Dame vs. Clemson. For Pendleton, NC State, Penn State and Michigan also making a push, but in this case the Irish have positioned themselves quite well early on.
Absher recently narrowed his list of schools down to Notre Dame, Clemson and NC State, but our sources indicate that right now this is a battle between the Irish and Tigers.
Absher was on campus for Clemson's spring game this past weekend and he's headed back to Notre Dame for the Blue-Gold Game. The expectation is that Absher will make his decision soon after the game, so this is a recruitment that won't drag on for very long.
Right now Clemson is the leader for Absher, and our sources aren't nearly as optimistic about this one as they were a month ago. The good news is Notre Dame gets the last chance with Absher when he visits for the spring game. Expect a decision in the weeks following that visit.
Freeling is the pure left tackle that Notre Dame really wants in this class. After visiting Notre Dame on January 29, Freeling immediately became very pro-Notre Dame and the Irish seemed to be in great position, and they are still in a good place.
But since his visit in January, Freeling has traveled all over the East Coast. He has visited Clemson, Florida and Miami, and he's likely to take official visits in June. That means this is a recruitment that seems destined to drag out a bit longer, which gives programs like Clemson and Miami to continue pushing for him.
In regards to where things stand right now, well, it depends on who you talk to. I have sources that feel Notre Dame is the clear leader, I have other sources that feel Clemson is the team to beat. We'll know a lot more about his Blue-Gold Game visit to Notre Dame.
Freeling is a must-get for Notre Dame in this class, and both he and Jagusah sit at the top of the board for the Irish along the offensive line. He's a very, very important recruit for the staff.
Notre Dame likes Paige a lot and they are building a good early relationship, but right now we have him in the cool category because it's still quite early in his recruitment. Paige won't make a trip to campus until June, when he plans to visit the Irish officially. With his recruitment still in the early stages we have him listed as cool, but as we get closer to the summer we expect things to heat up.
Notre Dame has tried hard to get in the mix with Okunlola, but right now he has not reciprocated that interest. Okunlola says all the right things about being interested in Notre Dame, but he taken no steps to getting on campus and the vibe is that he's just not all that interested in going to a school like Notre Dame.
The staff will continue to go hard after Okunlola, he's just too good not to recruit, but right now they are on the outside looking in.
Notre Dame is recruiting Harris and has talked about getting him on campus, but if that happens it will be on the summer. The staff likely won't start really pushing for Harris until it sees how things shake out for prospects like Siereveld and Pendleton.
HOT BOARD KEY
Hot means things are really, really going well on both sides of the recruitment.
Warm means there is legit interest from both but not in the committing discussion yet.
Cool means one or both sides aren't high on the other or the prospect is a long way away from making a decision.
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