OL Pat Coogan Commits to Notre Dame Football’s Class of 2021
Notre Dame added their second commitment for the class of 2021 since the COVID-19 pandemic brought about an early and prolonged dead period on Wednesday when OL Pat Coogan committed to the Irish.
Notre Dame was a little late to offer Pat Coogan, but his recruitment blew up over the last few weeks since the Irish extended an offer. Since then, Ohio State, LSU, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma have all offered as well. Michigan and Stanford were already heavily involved before Notre Dame officially got into the mix on March 26 with their offer.
Coogan set up a tentative official visit to Notre Dame for the weekend of June 12 but decided that he didn’t have to wait for the visit (assuming it happens) to commit to Notre Dame.
David Abiara was the first commitment that Notre Dame picked up since recruiting moved entirely offline in March. The Irish class of 2021 had previously lost wide receiver Deion Colzie and offensive lineman Greg Crippen. Notre Dame now has eight commitments total for 2021.
Notre Dame had always been Coogan’s dream offer, but he held off on committing for a few weeks to let it all sink in. It would have been understandable for him to hold off on committing until after taking visits to Notre Dame or any of the other programs that have recently been offered. Still, it looks like playing for the team he grew up rooting for made the visits unnecessary to commit.
Coogan is a three-star recruit on all of the services, but with his string of offers from programs like LSU and Ohio State in addition to his offer from Notre Dame, he has the kind of offer list that suggests he could end up with a fourth star before all is said and done in the final rankings.
Most recruiting services rank Coogan as a tackle, but Notre Dame has recruited him to play guard on the Irish offensive line. He also has some position flexibility with the ability to play center.
Notre Dame now has two offensive linemen in the class of 2012 with Coogan joining Notre Dame ace recruiter Blake Fisher who took to Twitter to welcome his new classmate.
Extremely proud of you man!! Can’t wait to play alongside you!☘️? https://t.co/by8wviKLDL
— Blake Fisher (@bfisher54_) April 16, 2020
With Fisher and Coogan, Notre Dame has a rock-solid foundation along the offensive line with more elite targets left on the board, such as top-100 lineman Rocco Spindler and four-star Caleb Johnson who is also tentatively scheduled to visit Notre Dame in June if visits can take place by then.
Frank Vitovitch has been Co-Owner and Editor in Chief of UHND.com since joining forces with Kyle Flavin in 1999. Since that time, he has written over 2,000 articles covering Notre Dame football, recruiting, and basketball. He also works with all staff and external writers on all articles published on UHND.com. Frank's love for Notre Dame football started at a young age watching Rocket Ismail give opposing coaches ulcers in the late 1980's. By day Frank works in marketing and holds a degree in Digital Media from Drexel University. Frank's work has been cited by online/print editions of NBC Sports, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated and has been quoted on air by ESPN's Collin Cowherd. He's conducted interviews with Notre Dame legends Rocket Ismail, Randy Kinder, Lee Becton, Reggie Brooks, Michael Stonebreaker, and Ned Bolcar among others over his 20+ years of covering Notre Dame football. He's also been published in the print edition of USA Today Sports Weekly and the USA Today College Football Preview multiple times. Other Published Works/Citations for Frank Three Reasons Notre Dame Will Beat Alabama - USA Today Notre Dame Suspends WR Kevin Stepherson, RB C.J. Holmes Indefinitely - Bleacher Report Notre Dame / Ohio State Fiesta Bowl Preview - Eleven Warriors Brace Yourself: The Fighting Irish are Relevant Again - Sports on Earth Interviews with the Enemy: A Q&A with Frank Vitovitch of UHND - Yahoo! Sports Five Good Minutes: Notre Dame Football Preview With UHND.com - BC Interruption Vicious Electronic Questioning with UHND - MGO Blog
You must get the difference makers at the skill positions to be able to beat Clemson, Ohio State, Alabama,LSU etc. They need to land Shipley, Spiller, Thornton etc. These are the talent level players the above schools are landing. Look at Notredame last year. What would their offense have produced if they would of had Jerry Jeudy and KJ Dobbins to go along with Claypool Lenzy Kmet ,Finke, Keys. They would have averaged over 40 points a game and been in the playoffs. Course maybe not with Long. Hopefully Reese is really good.