Notre Dame picked up its second commitment from the 2016 Irish Invasion on Saturday evening when Florida wide receiver Jordan Pouncey joined fellow Sunshine State native Jonathon MacCollister in committing to the Irish this weekend.
Like his fellow Floridian, Pouncey comes in as a 3-star prospect with an offer list that suggests he has the talent to be much more highly regarded before all is said and done. Prior to committing to Notre Dame, Pouncey picked up offers from Alabama, Florida, Auburn, Georgia, Michigan State, and Penn State among others.
Committed to The University of Notre Dame!!! #IRISHEL17E #LuckyBoyz #GoIrish 🍀🍀🍀🍀 pic.twitter.com/5bM2eEaPZr
— Jordan Pouncey (@_pouncey) June 19, 2016
Many felt Pouncey would be headed to Florida to follow in the footsteps of his cousins Mike and Maurkice both of whom were standout offensive linemen for the Gators now playing the NFL. The Gators just recently extended a long awaited offer to Pouncey and it looked as though the Gators would be the team to beat and that no time table was set for his decision.
Instead Jordan Pouncey will be headed to Notre Dame and he ended up deciding to do so shortly after receiving the offer from Florida.
As a junior at Winter Park HS outside of Orlando, Pouncey played both offense and defense as a receiver and defensive back resulting in schools recruiting him for different positions. Notre Dame recruited the speedy athlete as a wide receiver, however, and he becomes the first wide receiver in this year’s class to commit to Notre Dame.
It should be noted that both Florida and Alabama were recruiting Pouncey on the defensive side of the ball as a corner so a move to defense at some point wouldn’t be a surprise – Alabama and Nick Saban know a thing or two about cornerbacks.
It should also be noted that Pouncey is still very much a developing receiver. As a junior for Winter Park in 2015 he hauled in just 17 passes, but those 17 receptions went for a whopping 515 yards and seven of them ended with Pouncey in the end-zone. That’s an astounding average of 30.3 yards a catch. Those are the type of big plays that should remind Notre Dame fans of another #7 who recently played for the Irish.
For all of the talent Notre Dame has built at the wide receiver position, the Irish haven’t landed a legit “blow the top off a defense” type of receiver in the last few cycles. Pouncey while still raw has the ability to be that type of receiver. If he does grow into that type of player, his career would follow in the footsteps of Will Fuller who like Pouncey was not a very heavily recruited prospect before his senior season.
With Pouncey’s commitment, Notre Dame now has three commits from the state of Florida out of their 12 members in the class of 2017. Pouncey joins MacCollister and Notre Dame’s first commitment for the class of 2017 Dillon Gibbons. Autry Denson is assigned the state of Florida and in just his second season as an Irish assistant he is putting his Florida ties to use as the Irish class already has a Florida flare to it with several other highly ranked Florida prospects in their sights.
Nice recruiting by the Irish!