Grading The 2022 Notre Dame Recruiting Class - Offense Edition
Notre Dame has wrapped up its early signing class and it will likely finish as one of the nation's ten best classes. There is still a chance for Notre Dame to add to the class by the time we get to February, but there are grades to hand out based on what the staff has accomplished so far in the class.
We begin with the offensive class, and the grades are based on a combination of meeting need, scheme fit and talent of the players.
QUARTERBACK
Grade: C+
Signee: Steve Angeli
Angeli is a solid football player that has a Sean Clifford (Penn State), Jack Coan (Notre Dame) type of projection. He's reportedly a high character young man with good quarterback size, a quick release and he's a gamer. What he lacks in big time arm strength he makes up for with a good overall feel for the game.
The smoothest path to a championship is having an elite quarterback, and Angeli isn't an elite quarterback. A case could also be made that Notre Dame needed a second quarterback since it only returns two quarterbacks to the roster in 2022 after losing Coan to graduation and Brendan Clark to injury/transfer.
RUNNING BACK
Grade: B+
Signee: Jadarian Price
Notre Dame made a push early for Price even though at the time it was still in very good position with players like Nicholas Singleton, Dallan Hayden and Gavin Sawchuk. At the time Price didn't stack up with those players from a ranking standpoint and he had a good junior season but he didn't grade out as high as those other prospects.
The risk the staff took by taking Price with other top players on the board paid off when Price went out and had an outstanding senior season, rushing for 1,803 yards (9.3 YPC) and 18 touchdowns while showing an outstanding burst, excellent athleticism and top notch vision and feel for the game.
The B+ is partly due to the fact the staff seemed to push for a second back, but it fell short in those pickups. Make no mistake, Price is a young man that could have an excellent college career and could be part of an elite backfield with players like Chris Tyree, Logan Diggs and Audric Estime. By himself this is a big, big pickup.
WIDE RECEIVER
Grade: B-
Signee: Tobias Merriweather
A case could be made that the grade should be lower because Notre Dame fell at least two players short in the class. With so much personnel loss in the last offseason (five transfers) and the possibility of losing even more players from the current roster the staff needed impact talent and it needed numbers. After losing CJ Williams (USC) and Amorion Walker (Michigan) in the days leading up to signing day it's clear that Del Alexander and Tommy Rees came up woefully short.
There will be time to recover by the February signing day, but the grade is dinged in a big, big way because of the poor finish and a questionable handling of how the position was recruited from the beginning.
The reason I still give it a B- is because of how good I view Merriweather to be. He grades out on my board as a Top 50 caliber recruit, and he has the same grade on the SI All-American rankings (No. 46 nationally). Merriweather is a potentially dynamic player that can play all over the field, he can stretch the field, he can make plays after the catch and he can win contested throws. As he fills out his frame his game is going to explode.
TIGHT END
Grade: A
Signees: Eli Raridon, Holden Staes
If there's a conversation about the best tight end class in the country the Notre Dame haul better be in that conversation. Raridon is a Top 100 caliber prospect and Staes is grades out as a Top 200 prospect with Top 50 potential. This is a very, very talented pair of tight ends.
Notre Dame certainly met its needs in the class, and it landed impact talent. Just as important is that Raridon and Staes complement each other very, very well. They both can do a little bit of everything, but their strengths are a bit different, which means they can be used together as much as they can be used as part of a rotation.
This was a home run haul for John McNulty.
OFFENSIVE LINE
Grade: A
Signees: Ty Chan, Ashton Craig, Billy Schrauth, Joey Tanona, Aamil Wagner
Notre Dame needed numbers in this class, but more important it needed depth of talent, and that's exactly what the staff got with this five-man class. No matter who you view as the fifth-best prospect in this line haul I'll be willing to bet he's better than any other fifth-best prospect in the last decade. Perhaps the top level talent isn't quite as good, but the depth of talent is excellent.
This matters because five really good players that fit together can be an elite unit even if it lacks one elite player. Rees and Jeff Quinn had some bumps in the road, but at the end of the day the class turned out very good. Landing Schrauth at the end was what sealed the deal. This is not an A class without Schrauth, so getting him late in the process was huge.
On top of the individual talent this group met position needs. Notre Dame needed at least two tackles and it accomplished that with Chan and Wagner. A case could be made, however, that the other three signees could also play tackle, which is how I like seeing line classes put together. This is a five-man group that can naturally and comfortably form a starting line if the need arose, and that's harder to do than you think.
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Irish Breakdown Content
Notre Dame 2021 Roster
Notre Dame 2021 Schedule
Notre Dame 2022 Commits Big Board: Offense
Notre Dame 2022 Commits Big Board: Defense
Notre Dame 2022 Scholarship Offers
Notre Dame 2022 Class Big Board
Notre Dame 2023 Class Big Board
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