After four college seasons, the book is nearly closed on Notre Dame’s 2020 recruiting class. Only five players remain, although four — safety Xavier Watts, defensive tackle Rylie Mills, Vyper Jordan Botelho and offensive tackle Tosh Baker — are projected 2024 starters.
In his re-ranking of each school’s 2020 class — based on a scoring system that awarded 0-5 points to each player depending on what they accomplished — The Athletic’s Max Olson slotted the Irish at 12th. Georgia, Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State, Missouri, Iowa, Clemson, TCU, Texas, LSU and Tulane were the programs ranked higher.
The headliner of Notre Dame’s class of 2020, both at the time and in hindsight, was tight end Michael Mayer. He broke several records in his prolific three-year career.
“This class might not be considered one of the strongest of the Brian Kelly era at Notre Dame, but it still helped the Irish win a lot of games,” Olson wrote. “Mayer quickly emerged as one of college football’s best tight ends, becoming a two-time All-American and a second-round draft pick. Watts enjoyed an incredible breakout season as a Nagurski Award winner and unanimous All-American in 2023.”
For Olson’s full story, click here.
Notre Dame tweets of the day
One of the greatest to ever don the blue and gold, in any sport.
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Quote of the day
“I think that whole family, the competitive drive that they have is really unique. And it’s not just on game days. It’s competitive drive to get better. So they’re working on their skills. They’re working on all the things that you need to do to be a great player. It’s the competitive drive that knows that in a game like this you’re not going to be able to do it by yourself so you better bring everybody along with you and they do that on an everyday basis.
It would be hard to overstate the impact that the Kavanagh family has had on our program, in all honesty, and Pat and Chris, the past couple of years: We’re sitting here, right?”
— Notre Dame head men’s lacrosse coach Kevin Corrigan on the Kavanagh brothers
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The post Newsstand: The Athletic re-ranks 2020 Notre Dame recruiting class appeared first on On3.