Notre Dame Football: Great Quality in 2016 Offensive Line Recruits

What is Notre Dame getting with its 2016 offensive line recruits?

As the Fighting Irish football team continues their off-season workouts and prepare for spring football, it’s a good time to review members of their 2016 recruiting class.

This week we will review the three players who made up their offensive line player group that includes: Tommy Kraemer, Liam Eichenberg, and Parker Boudreaux.

This was a very sizable catch which was high in quality. All three players are four star recruits who were all highly recruited during their final high school seasons.

Tommy Kraemer

Tommy Kraemer is a 6’5” 310 lbs. tackle from Elder High School in Cincinnati. Among his honors is being selected Gatorade Ohio Football Player of the Year. The three-year starter was also Division I all state by Associated Press and he made the Parade All American team. He concluded his high school career by being selected to play in the U.S. Army All American Bowl January 9, 2016 in San Antonio.

Kraemer is unique in that he verbally committed to Notre Dame in October of 2014, well before recruiting began for his class. Highly ranked players like Tommy usually like the attention they receive during the recruiting process and along with that comes the publicity from the colleges during the recruiting season. He not only verbally committed early, he became the first Fighting Irish 2016 commit five months before the second player committed. He was the leader of this class who worked to recruit other players for the Fighting Irish.

Liam Eichenberg

Liam Eichenberg is a 6’6” 280 lbs. tackle from St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland. He, like Kraemer, was also named to the Associated Press All Ohio Division I team. He also made the Max Preps All American first team and the USA Today All Ohio first team. He concluded his high school career by being selected to play in the Under Armour All American game January 2, 2016 in Orlando, Florida.

Liam received many offers from schools such as Alabama, Florida State, Miami, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Tennessee, and others. He is very athletic for someone his size and with his 6’6” frame he can add strong pounds that will enhance his run blocking skills. Scouts have stated he already does well in pass blocking.

Parker Boudreaux

Parker Boudreaux is a 6’3” 300 lb. tackle from Bishop Moore High School in Winter Garden, Florida who is expected to play offensive guard for the Fighting Irish. He started 40 games at Bishop Moore and like Eichenberg was a Max Preps All American. He was also selected first team all state in Florida. He concluded his high school career by being selected to play in the Blue-Grey All American Bowl a few months ago.

Some fans may remember how Parker announced his verbal commitment to Notre Dame. He fastened a belt around his waist and with the attached rope he pulled a yellow school bus that after it moved showed a Notre Dame logo on the ground. By the end of his recruitment, Parker had over 70 scholarship offers. He chose Notre Dame over finalist Clemson, Florida, and Oklahoma.

The Future

Besides being four-star recruits, Kraemer, Eichenberg, and Boudreaux realistically all have a chance to start one day for the Fighting Irish. They are that good. The great common denominator in the recruitment of all three was offensive line coach Harry Heistand. In researching this story, all three in one way or another stated that they trusted Heistand and that he was one of the main reasons they decided to attend Notre Dame.

Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer is known as a great recruiter and he wanted Ohio natives Kraemer and Eichenberg badly. Eichenberg has stated Ohio State was his early favorite, but that Heistand keep pushing for him throughout the recruiting process. The Ohio State coaching staff visited Kraemer’s home the final week before signing day trying to get him to change his mind. In the end, Eichenberg chose Notre Dame.

It is a tremendous sign that Notre Dame was able to recruit two highly rated players from Ohio who Ohio State wanted badly. This should encourage the Fighting Irish to continue to recruit Ohio prospects.

Next: The Curious Case Of Demetris Robertson

As an Ohioan, recruiting these two great players was great to see and hopefully more elite Ohio players will be recruited by the Fighting Irish in the future.