After getting great news to start the day, Notre Dame god some bad news Wednesday morning when cornberback Terrence Alexander committed to Stanford over Notre Dame and Ole Miss.
Notre Dame got into the mix fairly late in the process, and wasn’t able to gain enough ground to fight off rival Stanford for the signature of one of the nation’s best prep cornerbacks. Earlier today Notre Dame did, however, receive a signed LOI from defensive tackle Daniel Cage to give Notre Dame 23 members to the class of 2014 with two more prospects left on the board. Of the 23 members of the class, 13 of them now reside on the defensive side of the ball.
Alexander would have been third overall member of the secondary along with Drue Tranquill and Nick Watskins. Rivals ranks Alexander as a 3-star prospect, but 247Sports has the Louisiana native as a 4-star recruit and the #28 cornerback in the class of 2014.
Notre Dame had a strong official visit earlier this month and an in-home visit from Brian Kelly last week and made up enough ground to the point that many prognosticators had predicted Alexander to Notre Dame up until yesterday, but in the end, the Irish were not able to overcome their late start in their pursuit of Alexander.
Other than Ole Miss and Stanford, Alexander had also picked up offers from Arizona State, Louisville, Nebraska, Ohio State, and Tennessee among others.
With Alexander’s decision in, Notre Dame is now 1 for 3 on Signing Day 2014. The Irish secured the services of Daniel Cage but lost out on Courtney Garnett along with Alexander. Garnett signed with Oklahoma earlier today. He had committed to the Sooners last week, but a weekend visit to South Bend had Garnett torn up until today before he ultimately decided to stick with the Sooners – the team that had been recruiting him the longest and built the deepest relationship.
Like with Alexander, Notre Dame was playing catch-up with both Cage and Garnett following the decommitment of Matt Dickerson. Since then Notre Dame already added Pete Mokwuah last week and was able to lock down Daniel Cage earlier today for an impressive haul along the defensive line.
Notre Dame’s eyes now turn to the Golden State where the Irish are also still holding out hope that they will be able to add additional members to secondary and wide receiver corps later today with safety JuJu Smith set to announce between Notre Dame, Oregon, and USC at 4:00 PM ET and Michiah Quick set to announce between Notre Dame and Oklahoma at 6:30 ET. The Irish, however, are considered to be a heavy underdog in the race for Smith.
Notre Dame’s chances appear to be much greater for Michiah Quick though. Notre Dame will be battling head to head with Oklahoma for a second time today for Quick. Hopefully the Irish are able to get the better of the Sooners this time.
our young talent at both cornerback (Luke, Butler, Kinlaw, Watkins) and Safety (Redfield, Shumate, Baratti, Tranquill) puts us in good shape there. 2015 seems to be a year when we need to get some additioinal bodies at CB and S. Our cupboard is not at all bare in the secondary. And we have enough athleticism to correct the safety misplays we saw in 2013.