Notre Dame Recruiting Machine Spitting Pure Fire

The Notre Dame recruiting office has been upping their game on the graphics front for a while now, but this week they outdid themselves.  Numerous Notre Dame recruiting targets tweeted out pictures on Tuesday of mocked up football cards with career stats, projected accolades, and even a little trash talk to some traditional rivals.

Derrik Allen, one of Notre Dame’s biggest commitments to date,  was the first to tweet out his card.

??? @NDFootball pic.twitter.com/jJ5TTOP0Ig

— Derrik Allen (@DsmoothAllen) June 13, 2017

According to this card, Allen will collect nearly 300 career tackles, win the Thorpe Award, and Notre Dame will beat Michigan 48-10 next season.  Allen will have 2 INTs in that game if this card holds true.  Reminder, that would be Allen’s collegiate debut.

One of the best parts of this card, however, is the last line.  “He earned his Bachelor’s degree from the College of Science with an emphasis in Computer Engineering.”  Even when making mock football cards touting a players NFL potential, they still included a line about Allen earning his degree.  Nice touch.  Very nice touch.

Allen wasn’t the only one to tweet out a card though.  Fellow defensive back Houston Griffith posted one Tuesday afternoon too.

https://twitter.com/___HG3/status/874376923492864000

Don’t look now, but Griffith is going to win the Thorpe Award in 2022 too!  Griffith is only going to have one INT against Michigan next year though.  Slacker.

Inconsistencies aside, these cards are phenomenal and just another example in a long line of the Notre Dame recruiting department getting very creative with their efforts.  Not only do these cards looks really good – where were football cards this cool when I was a kid – but they are the kind of tactic that will get recruits attention.

Notre Dame’s Been Doing This All Year

This isn’t the first time they have use some creative graphics though.  Back in April numerous Notre Dame targets and commitments tweeted out pictures of them holding NFL jerseys as though they had just been drafted by their favorite teams.

Here’s one example from one of Notre Dame’s top defensive end targets – Thomas Booker.

That Carolina Blue sure looks nice..☘️#DraftDay #IrishBouND18 ? pic.twitter.com/BbxXeDFiQS

— Thomas Booker (@TheThomasBooker) April 27, 2017

Recruiting has certainly changed a lot over the years and Notre Dame is finally at a point where it is at the forefront in some areas as opposed playing catchup.

Recruiting coordinator Mike Elston deserves a lot of credit here.  A lot of the improvements and advancements in Notre Dame’s recruiting efforts have come on his watch after he took over for Tony Alford.  While Alford was a strong individual recruiter and brought some great talent to Notre Dame during his time here, he was not nearly as creative as Elston has proven to be.

And just for good measure, here is another example from Booker from last month of a graphic he was sent.  In case it’s not clear to you yet, Mike Elston has Notre Dame playing chess while some other programs are still playing checks on the recruiting front.

Maryland to South Bend?
443➡️574? #GoIrish ☘️? pic.twitter.com/60eFOWHsXv

— Thomas Booker (@TheThomasBooker) May 17, 2017