Notre Dame Recruiting Impact: Decommitment of Geordon Porter

Things are really starting to heat up in the Notre Dame recruiting world both positively and negatively.  While there has been a lot of positive buzz for the Irish on the recruiting front in recent weeks, Notre Dame unfortunately lost another commitment on Saturday when 3-star wide receiver Geordon Porter decided to open up his recruiting a little over a month after initially committing to Notre Dame.

Here is what Porter tweeted out yesterday when announcing his decision to open up his recruiting.

pic.twitter.com/7jiiIoyFH4

— GP (@GeordonPorter) December 9, 2017

It was only just two weeks ago that Porter hosted the Notre Dame coaches – including Brian Kelly – for an in-home visit and it’s only been about five weeks since he committed to Notre Dame.

Great in house visit from my coaches at Notre Dame!! #GoIrish ?? @CoachBrianKelly pic.twitter.com/JuG8hTo32Q

— GP (@GeordonPorter) November 30, 2017

Recent developments with the coaching staffs at some Pac 12 schools and Notre Dame’s renewed interest in Braden Lenzy, however, could have played a role in Porter’s decision here.  Chip Kelly’s arrival at UCLA and Herm Edwards arrival at Arizona State – two of the other schools Porter strongly considered could have influenced his decision.

In terms of how this impacts Notre Dame’s class, the Irish are down to Kevin Austin and Micah Jones at wide receiver and are now in need of a speed threat once again.  Braden Lenzy was that speed guy originally back in the spring, but then he decommitted in favor of Oregon.  When Willie Taggart left Oregon for Florida State last week though, Lenzy opened his recruiting back up with Notre Dame firmly in the race.  In fact, Lenzy was on campus this weekend for an official visit.

In addition to Lenzy, Notre Dame’s receiver recruiting board currently features 5-star Amon-Ra St. Brown along with Lawrence Keys and Tommy Bush.  Of the four left, it’s very possible that Notre Dame still lands four receivers in this class.  At this point, any combination of the four remaining targets would be huge additions for Notre Dame.

While losing Porter – or any recruit at this point in the process – is tough, Notre Dame can still finish this class of very strong at the wide receiver position.  Let’s say Notre Dame lands Lenzy and Keys – and right now that might be the most likely duo – to go along with Jones and Austin.  That would give Notre Dame a quartet of receivers with a well rounded skillset.

Now, let’s say things get really crazy and Notre Dame is able to land Amon-Ra St. Brown plus either Lenzy or Keys.  Should that happen, we would be talking about one of the best wide receiver classes in many years for Notre Dame.  St. Brown is a potential game changer while Austin is an all-around legit prospect himself.  Add in the massive Micah Jones and the speed of either Lenzy or Keys are really you couldn’t ask for much more.

Notre Dame still has to land some of these players before we can say that they will fully recover from the loss of Porter late in the game, but at the very least, things look pretty promising for Notre Dame at the wide receiver position right now even with the decommitment.

This is the second decommitment for Notre Dame in a week with Porter joining Markese Stepp in decommitting from Notre Dame.  Unlike the decommit of Stepp though, Porter’s at least appears to be for different reasons.  In both cases, however, Notre Dame is set up fairly well – or as well as can be expected – to handle the loss.