Recruiting Review: Notre Dame’s 2011 Class

In February 2011, second-year Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly signed his first Fighting Irish class in which he and his staff had a full recruiting cycle.

The reviews were effusive, mainly for three reasons. First and foremost, Notre Dame signed three defensive line prospects who were deemed five-star prospects — Aaron Lynch, Stephon Tuitt and Ishaq Williams — by at least one outlet. It was a Holy Grail of Fighting Irish football recruiting to pull off such a unique feat.

Second, Kelly signed his first quarterback at Notre Dame that more ideally fit his spread system in South Carolina’s Everett Golson, who originally committed to North Carolina.

Finally, the eventual 24-man class was unique in that it could fill out a full team on offense and defense — plus punter/kicker with top-ranked prospect Kyle Brindza. That almost never happens

Rivals.com ranked the class No. 10 in the country — and that was before the addition of offensive tackle Jordan Prestwood, who had originally signed with Florida State. He would transfer to Notre Dame that August before leaving a year later. Here was the class in its entirety:

Quarterback: Everett Golson

Running Backs: George Atkinson III and Cam McDaniel (moved to cornerback briefly as a sophomore)

Wide Receiver: DaVaris Daniels

Tight Ends: Ben Koyack and Troy Niklas (played defense as a freshman)

Offensive Linemen: Brad Carrico, Conor Hanratty, Matt Hegarty, Nick Martin and Justin Prestwood

Defensive Linemen: Chase Hounshell (moved to tight end as a fifth-year senior in 2015), Aaron Lynch, Stephon Tuitt, Tony Springmann and Ishaq Williams

Linebackers: Ben Councell, Jarrett Grace and Anthony Rabasa

Cornerbacks: Josh Atkinson (moved to receiver briefly) and Jalen Brown

Safeties: Matthias Farley (redshirted as a freshman wide receiver) and Eilar Hardy

Kicker/Punter: Kyle Brindza

Now that virtually everyone in the class has completed his collegiate eligibility after five seasons, we can finally assess the class. Here are the top three storylines:

1. Among the 24 original recruits, 15 either did not complete their eligibility at Notre Dame, finished their collegiate careers elsewhere in one way or another, or saw their football careers sidetracked by injuries or academics.

This is mind-blowing. The most publicized was Lynch transferring to the home state University of South Florida Bulls despite earning Freshman All-America notice with the Irish. He then turned pro after his junior season (or two full seasons total in college football) and was drafted in the fifth round.

• Golson also played only two full seasons for the Irish (2012 and 2014) because he redshirted in 2011, was academically ineligible in 2013 and opted to use his fifth season of eligibility in 2015 at Florida State, where he lost the starting job in the second half of the season after an injury.

• Niklas and Tuitt were second-round picks after their junior seasons, while Atkinson III opted to turn pro as a junior but was not selected in the draft.

• Josh Atkinson, the twin brother of George, saw little action at Notre Dame and used his final year of eligibility at Azusa Pacific.

• Prestwood redshirted as a freshman and then had a nomadic career since then, including stops at UCF and Arizona Western College.

• Hegarty, after receiving his degree (like Golson), decided to use his fifth season of eligibility in 2015 at Oregon.

• Daniels and Williams ran into academic problems and played their final seasons at Notre Dame as 2013 juniors, and never ended up getting drafted. Williams is reportedly on track to graduate from the school. Hardy also, for all intents and purposes, lost his senior year in 2014 during an academic investigation and he used his fifth year (after graduation) at Bowling Green.

• Hounshell, who was sidelined in both 2012 and 2013 with shoulder problems as a defensive lineman, found a blocking role at tight end last year with 168 snaps and is going to walk on at Ohio State to use a sixth and final season of eligibility.

• Medical issues precluded three players from continuing their football careers: Carrico had foot problems that sidelined him after his freshman year, while Hanratty suffered multiple concussions that prompted him not to return for a fifth season. Springmann had multiple surgeries and setbacks that sidelined him for good after his sophomore campaign.

For that matter, Grace also sustained a severe leg fracture that shelved him for a season and a half in 2013-14 and helped limit him to only 41 snaps during the 2015 regular season.

2. Only five players were drafted in this top-10 class: Niklas and Tuitt (second round as juniors), Martin (second round), Lynch (fifth round) and Koyack (seventh round).

There is far more to a stellar recruiting class than how many players are drafted by the NFL, but history does reveal at Notre Dame that a great recruiting class will have at least eight players selected, and on occasion even 10 or more.

When you consider that actually Lynch played only his freshman season at Notre Dame, it is a bit of a surprise that only four players among the remaining 23 were selected. It demonstrates how fragile a college football career can be and how difficult it is to carve a path into the NFL, making the college degree all the more coveted.

3. What you see on National Signing Day is not what you always get four years later

This can go both ways. There will always be pleasant surprises like McDaniel or Farley, or even Martin. How many would have bet McDaniel would lead Notre Dame in rushing as a junior (705 yards) and be selected a team captain? Farley came out of nowhere to be a valued four-year regular, including a sophomore starter for the 12-1 team in 2012.

Above all, who could have envisioned that among all the players in this class, the team MVP award when this group was seniors in 2014 would go to … former walk-on linebacker Joe Schmidt?

There also will be prospects who appear to have NFL as a future destiny but not fulfill such aspirations, a la Daniels or Williams. This class epitomized both the highs and lows.

The overall hype from February 2011 didn’t quite match the production, mainly because of a higher than normal attrition rate.