Notre Dame Recruiting: Litchfield Ajavon Commits to Irish

Notre Dame Recruiting landed another big-time target on Saturday.

The Notre Dame recruiting class keeps growing. Litchfield Ajavon — a safety from Virginia in the 2019 class — has committed to Notre Dame. This name should be very familiar if you follow Irish recruiting. Ajavon has been a priority target for quite awhile now and he officially announced Notre Dame as his choice this afternoon. He was on campus last week and that was pretty much what wrapped this recruitment up in my opinion. He just seemed to love everything about Notre Dame. He’s the perfect fit, both on and off the field, and there was no need to hold off his decision any longer.

At the moment, Ajavon holds 17 offers from a ton of high-profile teams. He also released a Top 6 outside of Notre Dame — consisting of Clemson, Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin, Georgia and Virginia Tech — before today’s decision.

What you should know about Ajavon the player:

The 6’1, 185-pound safety is the quarterback of the defense. He’s extremely smart and savvy and knows where he should be at all times in the secondary. This kid can hit too, and he’s not afraid of contact.

His aggressive nature is only going to help him continue to learn the position better and build on his technique. He’s not a burner, but at safety you really don’t need to have 4.4 speed. He closes well enough when the ball is in the air — and as I mentioned earlier — he’s smart and reads coverages extremely well.

If there’s a slight knock on his game, it’s his consistency in tackling. That’s something he must — and likely will — improve on going into his senior year of high school.

With Ajavon on board, the Irish now have five commits coming out of a big Spring game weekend for recruiting. That’s four players on the defensive side and one on the offense.

Defensive back coaches Terry Joseph and Todd Lyght did a great job closing this up in April. Obviously Brian Kelly’s relationship with Ajavon was big as well, but his long standing relationship with defensive coordinator Clark Lea — even before Lea came to Notre Dame last season — was a major key in this recruitment. I expect the staff to go after one more safety recruit. If the right player wants in, I wouldn’t count out two more, either.

With offensive lineman John Olmstead committing yesterday and Litchfield Ajavon today, we’re excited to see who is next.

Get ready Irish Nation! I have a feeling there might be another addition soon…

Next: Olmstead Commits to Irish

Avajon’s Recruiting Service (Rankings):*

• 247(Composite) — 4 star (.9228), No.196 overall, No.12 S, No. 6 player in Virginia

247Sports — 3 star (87 rating), No.536 overall, No.41 S, No. 11 player in Virginia

• Rivals — 4 star (5.9 rating), No. 79 overall, No. 5 S, No. 3 player in Virginia

• ESPN — 4 star (81 rating), No. 211 overall, No. 14 S, No. 6 player in Virginia

*rankings subject to change

Here’s Ajavon’s official announcement via Twitter: