Recruiting!

Rivals has taken on the ridiculous task of ranking the top 250 high school football payers in the nation. As ridiculous as the whole endeavor is, it's not going to stop me from using it to become overly optimistic about Notre Dame's future!

According to Rivals, 14 of the top 209 players in the country have committed to Notre Dame. There is a good balance of offensive and defensive players, and perhaps most importantly, Notre Dame will likely bring in its most impressive collection of defensive linemen and linebackers in well over a decade.

Here are the players' national ranks.



Offense:
#17: Kyle Rudolph, TE
#20: Dayne Crist, QB
#116: Lane Cleland, OT
#167: Joseph Fauria, TE
#202: John Goodman, WR
#206: Braxston Cave, OG/OC
Unranked: Mike Golic, OG/C

Defense:
#29: Ethan Johnson, DE
#70: Steve Filer, ILB/OLB
#78: Omar Hunter, NT
#90: Darius Fleming, OLB
#117: Jamoris Salughter, S
#147: Robert Blanton, CB
#160: Sean Cwynar, DE/DT
#194: Anthony McDonald, ILB
Unranked: Dan McCarthy, S
Unranked: Brandon Newman, NT
Unranked: Hafis Williams, DE/DT
Unranked: David Posluszny, ILB/OLB

All in all, it's quite an impressive collection of talent. Perhaps more impressive will be the coaching staff's ability to keep the class together in spite of Notre Dame's on-field struggles this year.

I'll leave it to Big Jim to determine the players most likely to fill out the remainder of the class. It's not like Classics graduate students are particularly busy.