Stacking Up: How Notre Dame's 2021 Wide Receiver Haul Compares to Past Irish Groups
Notre Dame landed two talented four-star wide receiver this week, landing Athens (Ga.) Academy star Deion Colzie on Monday and Atlanta (Ga.) Pace Academy two-sport standout Jayden Thomas on Friday. They join fellow four-star star athlete Lorenzo Styles Jr. of Pickerington (Ohio) Central.
Colzie ranks as the nation's No. 84 overall player on the 247Sports composite ranking, Styles ranks No. 114 and Thomas ranks No. 260. It's an outstanding group of pass catchers with complementary skills, and it's one of the best recruiting hauls of the Brian Kelly tenure.
Check out this breakdown:
There are three different breakdowns in this chart, which is made up of the 247Sports composite ranking for each recruit in each class. It begins with head coach Brian Kelly's first full class (2011) until now.
The first ranking is the overall player average for each class, the second is the average of the two best players in each class and the third is the three best players in each class on the composite ranking. The latter two are meant to gauge the top-end talent in the class.
My personal ranking of the classes would look different than what we saw above, but any way you stack it up, the 2021 class is outstanding. I would rank the top five receiver hauls fo the Kelly era as follows (based only on evaluation of them as prep players):
1. 2016
2. 2018
3. 2015
Tie-4. 2021
Tie-4. 2020
All of these classes were outstanding, and a case could be made for any of the five to be on top. I went back and forth on each of them as I thought through my ranking.
Here's a quick glance at the other Notre Dame classes, listed by highest to lowest in average ranking for the class.
2011 - (247Sports composite ranking)
DaVaris Daniels - No. 93 nationally
This class ranks at the top due to the fact it had just one signee, and he was a Top 100 recruit (Daniels). Notre Dame had several misses in this class, but the one player they landed was quite talented.
2014
Justin Brent - No. 95
Corey Holmes - No. 187
Another class that benefited from smaller numbers, and what makes this class even harder to evaluate is where to slot Brent from a position standpoint. He was more of an athlete than a wide receiver, and he ultimately ended up at running back.
2015
Equanimeous St. Brown - No. 162
Miles Boykin - No. 203
CJ Sanders - No. 287
Jalen Guyton - No. 377
I had this class ranked higher than the composite ranking for one big reason, Jalen Guyton. I had him ranked as a four-star recruit and one of the 10 best players in that class. When you add a Top 200 caliber player (which is how I evaluated him) to a class that also had Sanders, St. Brown and Boykin that's one heck of a class.
Guyton never panned out at Notre Dame, but he is now starting for the Los Angeles Chargers.
2013
Torii Hunter Jr. - No. 208
Will Fuller - No. 280
Corey Robinson - No. 367
Fuller should have been more highly ranked, and not because of what he did in college. Rivals ranked him No. 176 nationally and Scout ranked him No. 179. 247Sports also had him as a four-star recruit, but ESPN ranked him as the lowest ranked player in that class. Talk about your all-time recruiting miss! If Fuller was ranked properly by ESPN he would have easily been a Top 200 caliber player.
2012
Davonte Neal - No. 57
Justin Ferguson - No. 353
Chris Brown - No. 451
This was a strange class. It was originally supposed to have Deontay Greenberry, the No. 42 player in the country, but he flipped to Houston on signing day. Neal didn't sign with Notre Dame that day either, but he ultimately ended up in the class. Had Greenberry stayed in the class it would have ranked much, much higher.
2016
Javon McKinley - No. 114
Chase Claypool - No. 172
Kevin Stepherson - No. 601
This was the clear No. 1 class for me. When I graded it back in February 2016 I gave it an A grade because I felt Claypool had as much talent as any player in the country, and I felt Stepherson was a legit Top 100-150 caliber player as well. Here's what I wrote about Claypool on signing day:
"The Canadian Claypool is as raw as they come, but he’s also as talented as any receiver in the land. Players with his elite size (6-5, 215) and athletic talents do not come along very often. He has freakish athleticism and shows the ability to out-jump defenders for the ball just as easily as he can make them miss after the catch. Claypool is just scratching the surface of how good he can be."
2018
Kevin Austin - No. 82
Braden Lenzy - No. 215
Lawrence Keys III - No. 286
Micah Jones - No. 376
Joe Wilkins Jr. - No. 742
A case could be made that this was the best receiver class based on its depth. It was a quality five-man class, and all five players earned four-star grades from me. Austin, Lenzy and Keys were ranked as Top 150 players by at least one service, and Jones was a Top 200 recruit according to Rivals.
2020
Jordan Johnson - No. 37
Xavier Watts - No. 389
Jay Brunelle - No. 780
This class is vastly underrated in my view. Johnson was one of the nation's best players, but Watts and Brunelle were both underrated. I've argued in the past that Watts was the most underrated wide receivers in the county. He graded out as a Top 100 player on my board, and Brunelle also earned a four-star grade, but both were three stars on the composite ranking.
2017
Jafar Armstrong - No. 472
Michael Young - No. 476
This was a class put together during a period when it looked like Kelly might be done at Notre Dame. The staff recovered and landed Young early and then Armstrong close to signing day.
2019
Kendall Abdur-Rahman - No. 530
Cam Hart - No. 644
Neither of these players remain at wide receiver. I liked Hart quite a bit coming out of high school, but he was raw and needed work. Now he's that same high-upside player, but he needs work at cornerback. Abdur-Rahman was ranked No. 276 on 247's ranking, which is about where I ranked him, but his composite ranking was much lower.
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