Notre Dame Football Lands 4-Star CB Kalon Gervin!

Notre Dame’s Junior Day this past weekend might have had a small list of uncommitted players, but it is already paying dividends for the Irish.  Fresh off his weekend visit, 4-star cornerback Kalon Gervin has committed to Notre Dame giving the Irish yet another 4-star prospect in the early stages of the class of 2018.

Things moved extremely fast for Notre Dame with Gervin.  The Irish offered the talented cornerback just a week ago today.  He quickly set up a visit for this weekend’s Junior Day.  A week later, Gervin is the 7th commitment in the Notre Dame class of 2018 and the first member of the defensive backfield.

https://twitter.com/KalonGervin/status/831138578474336257

Kalon Gervin held offers from Florida, LSU, Michigan, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Oregon, Penn State, and Wisconsin among a host of other Power 5 conference offers before picking up the offer from Notre Dame.  An offer that he ended up jumping on.

Landing a talented cornerback like Kalon Gervin this early in the class of 2018 is huge for Notre Dame after striking out in 2017.  Notre Dame had early commitments last year from Paulson Adebo and Elijah Hicks before the two ultimately ended up decommitting and signing with Stanford and Cal respectively.

Because of last year’s defections, don’t expect Notre Dame coaches to slow down in their recruiting of Gervin or other cornerbacks.  In fact, expect the opposite.  Notre Dame needs to bring in a few corners this year and will continue to recruit Gervin hard so that they do not run into the same situation that they had a year ago.

Notre Dame’s first six commitments for 2018 – all of whom were on campus for Junior Day – deserve a big time assist here as the group has bonded very quickly and have been relentless recruiters for Notre Dame.  Indiana native Markese Stepp especially has been all over fellow recruits on social media since he committed to Notre Dame.

Stepp was quick to congratulate his future teammates after Gervin made his announcement earlier this morning.

https://twitter.com/markese_stepp/status/831141561014636544

We’ve talked quite a bit about the lack of effort put into recruiting from former defensive coordinator Brian Vangorder during his failed tenure at Notre Dame.  With that in mind, seeing the following tweet from new defensive coordinator Mike Elko is very, very encouraging.

#IrishBouND18 ?????. The D-Boys just got better this morning!

— Coach Mike Elko (@CoachMikeElko) February 13, 2017

Oh and until the season gets here, apologies in advance for all the love I will be throwing Elko’s way, but if I haven’t have made it pretty clear by now, I couldn’t be happier with who will be guiding the Irish defense.

With Gervin’s commitment, Notre Dame has moved into 3rd position in the 247 Sports Team Rankings in these very early stages of the class of 2018.  Gervin is the fifth 4-star commitment out of seven current commits in the class of 2018 for the Irish according to the 247 Sports composite rankings.  Rivals ranks him in their top 100 overall recruits while he comes in at #164 overall in the 247 Composite.

Many will scoff at the rankings now and say “who cares until they sign” but it’s very important to build momentum now with this class.  On the heels of the 2018 season, it could be very easy for recruits to take a wait and see approach with Notre Dame, but right now the Irish recruiting train isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.

Early reports are that Notre Dame did well with other recruits in attendance this weekend as well and that future commitments from the group are very possible.