Notre Dame Recruiting: Two-Year Grades On Offense
My favorite way to grade Notre Dame's recruiting efforts is to look at back-to-back classes. It gives better context to how a team meets its needs, how classes complement each other and give a better view of just how much talent the program is adding.
Notre Dame's recruiting on offense has been strong the last two seasons, for the most part, and it has hit at some key positions.
Grades are based on a combination of meeting need, scheme fit and talent of the players. The grades are also based on the evaluation of players in high school, and not what they did during their freshman season at Notre Dame.
Here are the two-year grades for the Notre Dame offense:
QUARTERBACK
Grade: A-
Signees (3): Tyler Buchner (2021), Ron Powlus III (2021), Steve Angeli (2022)
Landing Buchner in the 2021 class gives Notre Dame a potential star of the future. Buchner ranked as a Top 100 recruit despite missing his senior season due to Covid-19, but there he graded out as a Top 50 recruit on the Irish Breakdown board, and he has legit five-star upside. Buchner eviscerated his high school opposition, passing for 4,474 yards and 53 touchdowns as a junior to go with 1,610 rushing yards and 28 touchdowns.
Buchner will need to continue developing consistency with his mechanics, decisions and ball placement, but he has the tools needed to dominate from the pocket. Buchner grades out as a Top 100 recruit as a thrower, but what makes him a five-star upside player is that he combines that with truly elite playmaking ability.
Angeli is a quality prospect whose leadership, character and solid all-around skills help add depth to the position. Not landing a top-level player in back-to-back seasons is why this grade dipped a bit.
RUNNING BACK
Grade: B+
Signees (3): Logan Diggs (2021), Audric Estime (2021), Jadarian Price (2022)
After several years of disappointing recruiting at the position the Irish have restocked the depth chart in impressive fashion. Landing Chris Tyree in the 2020 class was a great start, but Lance Taylor has added very good talent to the position in the next two classes.
Diggs has an impressive all-around game, showing the ability to make defenders miss in space just as effectively as he can lower his shoulder and deliver punishment. His combination of patience and decisiveness is impressive and he has potential in the pass game. Estime is a thumper with great size, but don't let his frame fool you. He has very good feet and vision, and he has every down back skills
After landing a strong one-two punch in 2021 the Irish added another Top 100 back in the 2022 class when it landed Price. Price is a great complement to the bigger backs in the 2021 class. While the 2021 backs add size, great feet and strong all-around games, Price adds explosiveness to the backfield.
There aren't many programs that have had as much success recruiting running backs the last seasons.
WIDE RECEIVER
Grade: B+
Signees (4): Deion Colzie (2021), Lorenzo Styles (2021), Jayden Thomas (2021), Tobias Merriweather (2022)
If this grade was just about the talent there is no doubt Notre Dame would have an A at wide receiver. The Irish added three Top 100 players at wideout and all four signees were four-stars on the composite rankings. There is some impressive size and athleticism in this group.
The problem, however, is that it fell well short of numbers due to Del Alexander completely striking out down the stretch. Those needs are even more problematic when you consider his struggles to keep players on the roster.
Back to that impressive talent. Notre Dame's 2021 class graded as an A- group thanks to the high upside talent of Styles and Colzie. They are great complements to each other, with Styles being a legit home run threat and Colzie has a strong volume pass catching game thanks to his size/athleticism combination. Thomas isn't as dynamic but he's a quality athlete with positional flexibility.
Merriweather grades out as the best player of the group, and a future wide receiver corps that has him, Colzie and Styles in the same lineup, with Thomas as part of the rotation could be truly outstanding. You can win a title with that group for sure, and there will be no lack of playmakers excuses being used by coaches.
TIGHT END
Grade: A-
Signees (4): Cane Berrong (2021), Mitchell Evans (2021), Eli Raridon (2022), Holden Staes (2022)
Notre Dame has done it all at tight end the last two seasons. It has met its numbers needs and then some, it has added high-upside talent and it has added a group of four players with unique skillsets.
Berrong is an athletic pass catcher that projects to be a big play weapon in the pass game. He's competes in the run game and he has the tools to be an impact route runner with a strong catch radius. I wasn't all that high on Evans coming out of high school, and that view is what impacts this grade. I must say, so far Evans has looked a lot better than I thought he would, which makes the future of the position even stronger.
The 2022 class was excellent and arguably the nation's best tight end haul. Raridon graded out as a Top 100 recruit and Staes wasn't far behind. They complement each other quite well and both are potential impact players in the pass game, which means along with Berrong the Irish adding big time pass game threats at tight end, which is what the Notre Dame offense covets.
OFFENSIVE LINE
Grade: A
Signees (10): Joe Alt (2021), Pat Coogan (2021), Blake Fisher (2021), Caleb Johnson (2021), Rocco Spindler (2021), Ty Chan (2022), Ashton Craig (2022), Billy Schrauth (2022), Joey Tanona (2022), Aamil Wagner (2022)
After coming up short on numbers in the 2020 class, which followed a 2019 class that quickly got down to three players after John Olmstead transferred following his freshman season meant Notre Dame's future numbers were problematic. That is one factor that led to Notre Dame looking for grad transfers for the 2021 season.
Notre Dame's last two classes have gotten the program back on track. The 2021 class added a much-needed numbers boost, and it included an elite prospect in Fisher. Spindler was another Top 100 prospect and Alt added a high ceiling. I wrote a year ago that Alt would be the key to the class, and if he reached his potential the class would be an A, and so far he has been that kind of player. That, of course, was not taken into account for the two-year grade.
The 2022 class also added five players, and while none of the prospects are on Fisher's level the class the top-to-bottom depth is truly outstanding. All five of the 2022 signees were ranked as a Top 200 recruit by at least on service, and all four graded out as 4.0-star players on the IB Board.
Notre Dame signed five players that project as tackles and five that project as interior players, which is good balance from a positional standpoint. Eight of the 10 signees earned at least 4.5-star upside grade on the IB Board, which is outstanding.
GRADE KEY
A — Elite / College Football Playoff caliber
B — Outstanding / Top 15 caliber
C — Solid / Borderline Top 25 caliber
D — Subpar / Not good enough
F — Disaster
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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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