Wild Monday Night Caps Off Productive Junior Day Weekend For Notre Dame
Early returns out of South Bend for this past weekend’s Junior Day were that the recruiting event was a hit for Notre Dame, but that might have been an understatement.
Monday night, the Irish picked up commitments from Indianapolis Cathedral four-star outside linebacker Pete Werner, Pittsburgh Central Catholic three-star defensive tackle Kurt Hinish and Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas two-star linebacker Drew White. That came just one day after Pittsburgh Central Catholic Rivals100 linebacker David Adams gave a pledge to play for the Irish. It was the most public commits for Brian Kelly and his staff in a 24-hour period since 2012, when Notre Dame landed verbal commitments from Malik Zaire, Mike McGlinchey, Colin McGovern and Hunter Bivin during the same weekend.
“Great night!” Kelly tweeted with his signature #WeAreND celebration.
“Why stop now,” assistant director of football recruiting Aaryn Kearny added.
Adams, who is ranked by Rivals.com as the nation’s No. 4 inside linebacker, entered the weekend as a prospect that was on commitment watch. However, that wasn’t exactly the case with Werner, Hinish and White.
Werner arrived in South Bend on Saturday without a leader in his recruitment, but he had previously told Blue & Gold Illustrated that there was plenty of interest in Stanford, a school that he noted had a strong package for student-athletes both on and off the field. It didn’t take long for Kelly and recruiting coordinator Mike Elston to convince the No. 19 outside linebacker prospect in the country that Notre Dame was an in-state option that checked off all the same boxes.
That was also the case with Hinish. The nation’s No. 32 defensive tackle grew up in a Penn State household, but after talking with Elston and defensive line coach Keith Gilmore he saw what Notre Dame was all about and that pushed the Irish in front of the Nittany Lions.
“It’s a great football school with great academics. You really can’t top it. It’s like the Mecca of college football,” Hinish told Rivals.com’s Adam Friedman. “I really believe that I’m going to grow up as a man at Notre Dame.”
White, who was offered by Notre Dame on Saturday, said Sunday that he wasn’t planning on making a commitment until he visited a few more schools, but it didn’t take him long to change his mind.
“I loved it,” White said when asked about Notre Dame. “It’s different than other schools. It’s private. It’s Catholic. So it’s different — but it has all of that little things that stand out, especially with the sports being intertwined with the academics.”
While the Junior Day will in large part be remembered by the commitments made from Werner, Hinish, White, Adams and Cedar Hill (Texas) High three-star quarterback Avery Davis, who gave a pledge to Notre Dame on Saturday, that was only part of what made the weekend productive for the Irish.
Notre Dame not only managed to grow its recruiting class to nine before the start of the upcoming spring evolution period, but the coaches were also able to make moves on a number of other top targets that were on campus for the first time.
Early Monday, Las Vegas Bishop Gorman four-star defensive tackle and Ohio State commit Haskell Garrett was spotted leaving the Guglielmino Athletics Complex after watching the Irish’s fourth practice of spring camp. His father told Blue & Gold Illustrated that the family got an “eye-opening” experience while on campus and plans to give the Irish a look moving forward.
That’s similar to what the parents of Cheshire (Conn.) Academy four-star wide receiver Tarik Black said. They explained that they loved everything about the weekend visit, from the academic presentation to the team’s practice, which happened to also echo the statements from the dads of Rancho Cucamonga (Calif.) High Rivals100 cornerback and USC commit Thomas Graham, Atlanta Westlake Rivals250 cornerback AJ Terrell and Atlanta Pace Academy four-star wide receiver Trey Blount.
“We loved it. We might be coming back soon just to commit,” one parent of a top target said.
That pledge won’t come on what was a wild Monday for the Irish, but those words only add perspective to how well the Junior Day went for Notre Dame.