The State(s) of Notre Dame Recruiting 2015

You will hear Brian Kelly say often that Notre Dame recruits nationally.  He said it within minutes of his Signing Day press conference on Wednesday alone.  The map above shows that Kelly is speaking the truth whenever he says it because the Notre Dame class of 2015 spread the country with prospects in almost every region of the nation.

Notre Dame’s 24 members class come from 13 different states – Indiana (4), Illinois (3), Ohio (3), California (2), Nevada (2), Florida (2), Louisiana (2), Pennsylvania (1), Texas (1), Idaho (1), Massachusetts (1), New Jersey (1), and Maryland (1).

Not surprisingly, the Midwest is the most dense region in terms of Notre Dame recruits.  We know that the Irish owned the state of Indiana this year with four of the 24 members of this year’s class coming from Notre Dame’s home state – Josh Barajas, Asmar Bilal, Mykelti Williams, and Brandon Tiassum.

The Irish performed well in both Ohio and Illinois as well with a trio of recruits from each.  In Ohio, Notre Dame landed corners Nick Coleman and Shaun Crawford and defensive lineman Elijah Taylor.  The Irish faced the most competition for Crawford who was at one time committed to Michigan.  In Illinois Notre Dame nabbed Miles Boykin, Trevor Ruhland, and Micah Dew-Treadway.  All together, that’s 10 out of the 24 recruits in this year’s class from just Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio.

In the Northeast, the Irish added another four members to the #ShamrockSoliders15.  Notre Dame found its quarterback of the future in Brandon Wimbush from Jersey City, New Jersey – a one time commitment to Penn State.  In Pennsylvania, they grabbed one of the two running backs in the class in Josh Adams.  Justin Yoon, a player who could start from day one as the place kicker, comes to Notre Dame from Massachusetts.  Lastly, corner Ashton White hails from Maryland.

Notre Dame picked up four more members of this year’s class from the Southeast with a pair of recruits from Louisiana and another pair from Florida.  In Louisiana, Bo Wallace could be the pass rushing force Notre Dame has been missing while Jerry Tillery could be the next dominant defensive lineman for the Irish.  Notre Dame had a dogfight on its hands to keep Tillery from staying in-state despite his very early commitment.  Out of Florida, Notre Dame landed an elite running back in Dexter Williams in addition to early enrollee linebacker Tevon Coney who Kelly said on Wednesday could play very early.

Credit, as always, goes to recruiting coordinator Tony Alford for Notre Dame’s success in Florida.  Notre Dame needed a second running back and by Notre Dame securing Dexter Williams in this year’s class they now have three running backs on the roster from the state of Florida.  The Irish had to withstand a hard charge from Miami, the school where Williams was originally committed, to get its 2nd back and had to fight off both Florida and Miami at different times to get Coney to enroll early as planned.  Most of the credit for getting all three goes straight to Alford.

The west coast was kind to Notre Dame as well with two recruits each from Nevada and California.  The Bishop Gorman High School combo of Aliz’e Jones and Nicco Fertitta will travel from Las Vegas to South Bend for the collegiate careers.  Notre Dame will now have three members of the 2015 Irish from Bishop Gorman with Fertitta and Jones joining Ronnie Stanley.  In California, the Irish added elite wide receivers CJ Sanders and Equanimeous St Brown.

Notre Dame only added a single recruit from the Pacific Northwest and just one from Texas as well.  The Pacific Northwest is not usually a hot bed for Notre Dame, but the one recruit they did get from the region, Tristen Hoge, brings All-American talent and potential.

If there is one knock on the geographical makeup of this class it would be landing just a single recruit from the Lone Star State.  Notre Dame has performed pretty well in the state after being a non-factor in the state for years, but this year Notre Dame only added Jalen Guyton from Texas.  Notre Dame added three recruits in each of the last two years. Grant Blankenship, Kolin Hill, and Nick Watkins a year ago and Torii Hunter Jr, Corey Robinson, and Durham Smythe two years ago.

Kerry Cooks, who was lured away by the University of Oklahoma recently, was Notre Dame’s primary recruiter in Texas.  With Cooks gone, Notre Dame is going to need to add someone to the staff with some ties in Texas for the Irish to regain the momentum they had been gaining in the state in recent years.