Why Brandon Logan Is Poised to Be a Star at Notre Dame

Recent Notre Dame dual-sport athlete commit, Brandon Logan, is an elite baseball recruit but underrated as a football player. The football program has a history of success with late offers with a good athletic background, and Logan is next in line to outperform his recruiting ranking.

Decatur Central Hawks N'po Dodo (11) rushes away from Fort Wayne Snider Panthers Brandon Logan (4) on Friday, Nov. 24, 2023, during the IHSAA Class 3A football state championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The Fort Wayne Snider Panthers lead at the half against the Decatur Central Hawks, 7-6. / Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK

It happens every year. Fans are upset or discouraged about a few of the recruiting misses in the class, and the Irish coaching staff finds themselves a "diamond in the rough" to replace a four or five star recruit.

It is not the sexiest add to a class, but in many cases that player becomes a big-time contributor for Notre Dame.

Is it the senior breakout or senior film?

Is it that the recruit has focused on multiple sports and finally is concentrating more on football? Is it luck? The answer lies somewhere in all these questions, but it is an area of recruiting where Notre Dame has flourished in year's past. I would bet on Brandon Logan as that next guy.

Source: Safety Julian Love and the Seahawks reached agreement on a three/year extension worth up to $36 million. The deal was negotiated by Drew Rosenhaus, Jason Rosenhaus and Ryan Matha. pic.twitter.com/3RWfilS98X

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 24, 2024

Recent Success Stories

I went back to the 2016 class to prove this point, and it turns out that is a good place to start.

The 2016 class saw Notre Dame bring in 5 three star recruits (according to 247sports.com's composite rankings) that reached the NFL: S Jalen Elliott, CB Julian Love, QB Ian Book, DE Ade Ogundeji and DE Jamir Jones. Book and Ogundeji specifically were flips from G5 programs.

2017 is no different with several three-stars or late additions that turned into building blocks for the Irish in LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, DT Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, DT Kurt Hinish and LB Drew White. 2018 brought in guys like CB TaRiq Bracy, S DJ Brown, TE Tommy Tremble and DE Justin Ademilola.

2019 and 2020: LB Marist Liufau, CB Cam Hart and CB Clarence Lewis.

2021 and 2022: RB Logan Diggs, TE Mitchell Evans, DT Jason Onye and C Ashton Craig.

I won't dive into the 2023 and 2024 classes just yet because they are still so new, but there are examples from those classes that look like good bets to be hits as well.

I can think of many more examples of players that were late adds or undervalued by the recruiting ranks and other college programs but took off as seniors and ended up as four-stars. Think Joe Alt and Jack Kiser. Brandon Logan could eventually fit into that category as well.

What This Means

The main point?

While history backs the importance of recruiting rankings, some programs do a better job than others at evaluating and finding the underrated talent. Some programs don't even have to dip their toes into that pool of players - lucky them.

However, recent history proves that the backend of Notre Dame's classes have high hit rates, all things considered. Keep that in mind the next time the Irish coaching staff adds a player you don't care for because their offer list is small or you watched five minutes of hudl highlights on him.

Chances are, that player has a good chance at proving you wrong.

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