What Caleb Offord brings to Notre Dame Football

The Notre Dame football staff landed another big commit this week.

Defensive back Caleb Offord out of Mississippi was on campus for the Irish invasion a few weeks back after being offered just less than a month before. He was seemingly all in after spending time in South Bend with the Notre Dame football players and coaches.

He quickly set up his official visit for the end of June and didn’t want to wait any longer. It looked to be only a matter of time after he received an offer, especially with Offord being so high on a top education along with the Irish’s need at the cornerback position.

He’s had this commitment date planned for July 4th for awhile and stuck to it, but it could of easily been done weeks ago. Either way, it would of been a shock if he wasn’t Irish, and in the end, he just found a perfect fit in South Bend for both athletics and academics.

Offord holds 13 offers at the moment, including those from from Kentucky, Arkansas and Duke.

https://twitter.com/caleb_offord/status/1142937890265141248?s=21

What will Offord bring to South Bend?

The 6’1″, 175-pound cornerback will bring physicality and knowledge to the defensive back room. Along with that, he has great length and long arms, which is always a big advantage for corners.

He has solid speed, running a 4.61-second 40 at The Opening regional camp in May, and has really fluid hips. Offord has good change of direction and uses his length to make a ton of plays.

On film, he seems like a ball hawk and someone who absolutely is looking to make big plays for his defense. Whether that’s making plays in the run game and tackling in open space or pin pointing the ball like a receiver while defending, he is a playmaker in the secondary and someone you want on your team.

Aside from the physical gifts, he has a high football IQ and excels at dissecting plays for his defense. He seems to know what’s coming his way the majority of the time, which you always love to see from a high school player at his position. Of course he will have to continue adding strength and weight to his frame to be able to wrap up his opponents more easily, but you have to love his potential and obvious cornerback skills.

With Offord’s commitment, he joins Clarence Lewis and Landen Bartleson as the defensive back commits in the class so far. There are now nine commits on offense and seven on defense for the Irish class. Don’t expect the staff to be done with the defensive back group though. I’d expect possibly another addition to this class when it’s all said and done, specifically a pure safety prospect.

As for Offord, I think people will look back at the class and consider him to be one of the most underrated recruits in terms of rankings. Really solid get for the staff.