Irish Recruits Rise and Fall in Latest Scout & Rivals Rankings

Dayne Crist - Notre Dame Fighting Irish Quarterback
(Photo from Marin Media)

Both Rivals.com and Scout.com released their new Top 100’s on Tuesday with changes based on observations at the Army and Under Armour All American games. Here’s a look at how Notre Dame commitments have moved up and down in the rankings with some comments after each. Rivals hasn’t released their new individual position rankings yet so I did not include them here.

Rivals.com Updated 100 Notre Dame Commits

prospect Old Rank New Rank Old Stars New Stars
Kyle Rudolph 17 20 5 5
Dayne Crist 22 25 5 5
Ethan Johnson 32 32 4 4
Deion Walker 35 NR 5 4
Jonas Gray 59 72 4 4
Steve Filer 77 NR 4 4
Michael Floyd 82 27 4 5
Darius Fleming 98 89 4 4
Trevor Robinson 99 37 4 4
  • Walker dropping as far as he did is really a shame because all he did to hurt his stock at the Under Armour game was get injured in practice. What really hurt him, however, was how well some of the other wide receivers in the country like our own Mike Floyd performed in the two All Americans. While Walker was limited in what he could do, the other top notch wide receivers in the country showcased their wares to the country and his rankings fell because of it.
  • Speaking of Floyd, his stellar performance in the Army All American game skyrocketed his stock and he is now a five star prospect on Rivals. He moved up 45 spots after his two touchdown outing in San Antonio.
  • Robinson’s week of practice in San Antonio shot his stock up as well. He was a standout all week and the result is a 62 spot increase to #37 overall.
  • Not surprised Filer fell out of the top 100. Filer played in a 3-4 defense in high school and had to learn the 4-3 in a week of practice at the Army game.
  • Like Walker, all Gray really did to hurt his cause was get injured at the Army game and then saw other backs standout. Gray reportedly looked very impressive early on in San Antonio before his ankle injury.
  • I’m actually a little surprised that Ethan Johnson stayed as high as he is considering he was hurt for this past season.
  • What did Dayne Crist exactly to drop at all in the rankings? I don’t know either.

Scout.com Updated Top 100 & Position Rankings for Notre Dame Commits

Prospect Old Position Rank New Position Rank Old Overal Rank New Overall Rank Old Stars New Stars
Robert Blanton 10 15 NR NR 4 4
Braxston Cave 6 2 NR NR 3 4
Lane Clelland 7 18 NR NR 4 3
Dayne Crist 3 3 45 44 5 5
Sean Cywnar 15 14 NR NR 4 4
Joseph Fauria 12 11 NR NR 4 4
Steve Filer 4 4 87 72 4 4
Darius Fleming 7 2 NR 56 4 4
Michael Floyd 8 5 48 16 5 5
Mike Golic 30 30 NR NR 3 3
John Goodman 30 21 NR NR 4 4
Jonas Gray 17 21 NR NR 4 4
Ethan Johnson 4 4 41 49 5 5
Dan McCarthy 10 8 NR NR 4 4
Anthony McDonald 6 8 NR NR 4 4
Brandon Newman 24 16 NR NR 3 4
David Posluszny 26 26 NR NR 3 3
Trevor Robinson 6 6 99 NR 4 4
Kyle Rudolph 1 1 20 21 5 5
Jamoris Slaughter 11 11 NR NR 4 4
Deion Walker 7 11 40 58 5 4
Hafis Williams 34 34 NR NR 3 3
  • Brandon Newman added a 4th star after a pretty impressive week in San Antonio. Not much was expected of him at the Army game, but he surprised a lot of people and showed he might have quite a bit more potential than most of us originally thought.
  • Braxston Cave put Omar Hunter on his behind a couple of times at the Under Armour game and capped off his impressive performance by getting a 4th star from Scout and getting moved up to the #2 ranking amongst centers.
  • Not surprised to see Clelland drop after the Army game. He got overpowered at times while playing at his wrestling weight and nursing an injury. I wouldn’t put too much stock into his drop.
  • Surprised to see Filer rise in the rankings after a rough week at the Army game. Rivals dropped him out of the top 100 all together, but Scout moved him up 15 spots.
  • Floyd was already a 5 star give, but his performance in San Antonio pushed all the way up to 16th overall and he is now the highest rated Notre Dame commitment.
  • Fleming had a great at the Army game and he shot up to 56th overall after previously being unranked.
  • John Goodman moved up to 21st among wide receivers, but he is still probably a little under rated. In a normal year, Goodman would be ranked much higher, but the overall talent at wide receiver this year is crazy.
  • Surprised to see Trevor Robinson drop out of the Top 100 after moving up so much in the Rivals rankings. Robinson didn’t have a great game performance in San Antonio, but he was one of the most impressive OL down there all week.
  • Just like in Rivals, Walker dropped to a four star prospect. That still makes absolutely NO sense to me, but at least Scout kept him in their top 100 albeit 18 spots lower than his previous ranking.
  • I find it a little interesting that Gray is only the 21st ranked RB on Scout, but is in the top 100 overall on Rivals.

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6 Comments

  1. Patrick,In the last 5 years Notre Dame has been ranked in the top 10 of recruiting class 3 straight years(all under Weis) and finished out of the top 10 twice. The third time they have been ranked in the top 10 is this offseason and obviously the 2008 season has not occurred yet.

  2. I’ve never put much faith in these rankings. How many times over the last 5 years has ND been ranked in the Top 10 in recruiting and failed to finish in the Top 10 in final rankings? Many times.

    Sure, they may be talented, but cultivating that talent is much more important. I remember when C.J. Leak was supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread. Notre Dame fans were giddy with the anticipation of him coming to South Bend. So, what did he do? Signed with Wake Forest and disappeared from the face of the earth.

    Predicting talent is very difficult to do – take Ryan Grant for example. At ND he was a capable back, but hardly a gamebreaker or All-American. Yet now (even after being cut by the Giants), he is partly responsible for the resurgent Packers. Who would have predicted that?

    Get back to me in 4 years and I’ll comment on how good this class really is.

  3. It is absolutely amazing to me that Deion Walker was on the “Hot List 11” after the first two days of practice at the Under Armour game and then was hurt – and as a result fell from the #35 position to 179!! I can’t help but think that someone is managing the rankings so that no one team gets too far ahead in the overall rankings. It really almost makes a mockery of the whole rankings effort.

  4. frank,

    1. fortunately, charlie and corwin and their staffs pay very little attention to these ratings.

    2. they based their recruiting on extensive analyses of game films and very close contacts with every recruit, with their families, and with their high school coaching staffs.

    3. they had their 2008 recruits picked and offered long before any of these services came out with their star ratings.

    4. with their backgrounds, we trust the judgments of charlie and corwin and their staffs much more than the judgments of the people who hand out these ratings.

    5. sure, they do their best and provide some useful information. however, they are not football coaches and the latest adjustments depend on performances at various all star games, which are played under conditions which do not even come close to real game conditions.

    6. players who get injured before these all star games are played, like walker and slaughter, or who are playing positions to which they are not accustomed, like blanton, get severely penalized by the ratings services.

    6. in charlie and corwin and their staffs we trust.

    thanks for the information,

    bob gilleran

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