Notre Dame Football Recruiting – New Focus, New Direction.

Another day, another defensive end offer.

It is really becoming clear that the Irish are truly focusing on going about recruiting in a more efficient, effective and aggressive way. They are offering a considerable amount of recruits from the position groups in which they are thin.

Last recruiting cycle, the Irish were sitting with 15 commits while having at least 20 open spots, in January – not a situation you want to be in when you want to be in the playoff discussion.

Thanks to the efforts of the new staff, the Irish managed to finish strong. This recruiting season, they are getting after recruits early and in big numbers. They’re casting that “wide net” that you hear about.

Are the days of Irish recruiting nerds pulling their hair out as they’re wondering why a top 100 defensive end recruit with Duke, Stanford, Vanderbilt and Northwestern offers is going without an ND offer, over?

It looks like they might be slowly getting there.

Must Read: Sinclair's Hot 5 Big Board - Notre Dame Recruiting

Notre Dame has needs at wide receiver, cornerback and along the defensive line, in a big way. They have offered an amount of talented recruits at those positions by this time in the game, that we hadn’t seen in the past.

As a result, Notre Dame has a top 3 ’18 recruiting class and are in the discussion with many impressive, high impact-type recruits, early in the game.

Brian Polian and DelVaughn Alexander are teaming up in the west to bring in talented skill positions players, which is great. Every talented California receiver or defensive back who hold an Irish offer, that I’ve spoken to, have told me that they have heard from both coaches.

In Florida, recruits are hearing from both Denson and Alexander, or whoever their position coach is. This is also very effective, especially in the case of super-talented wide receiver – Kevin Austin Jr.

Another great thing I’m hearing is that Brian Kelly is involved in the recruitment of many of their top targets. For example, intriguing receiver Tommy Bush of Texas has told me that he has heard from Brian Kelly, Chip Long, DelVaughn Alexander and more members of the staff.

These collaborative efforts are putting the Irish in great position with these recruits. They’re feeling wanted, which should raise the likelihood of them visiting, thus raising the odds of them signing their Letter of Intent to Notre Dame on February 1, 2018.

Another important note, the new recruiting staff have brought with them, strong relationships with many talented recruits that they were after while on staff at their previous programs.

For example, Mike Elko and Clark Lea have known North Carolina linebackers Dax Hollifield, Alan Tisdale and Payton WIlson (just to name a few) for a significant amount of time.

Chip Long brought with him a strong relationship with current commit Cole Mabry, among others. DelVaughn Alexander has strong ties with several top receivers from across the country.

Brian Polian has built relationship with several talented recruits from a variety of important position groups, especially from the west. These relationships are huge.

I’m impressed with, and excited about the Notre Dame football staff’s focus and direction in their recruiting efforts. I believe the ’18 class is going to be truly dynamic in the end.

Now, can they win in ’18?

I’ll be talking about that in depth, soon.