Notre Dame football: Realistic 2021 dream class – Offense

Lorenzo Styles Jr. – Pickerington Central (Pickerington, Ohio) – Commit 

Deion Colzie – Athens Academy (Athens, Georgia)  – Target

Dont’e Thornton – Mount Saint Joseph (Baltimore, Maryland) – Target 

Unfortunately, the coaching staff received some bad news with the de-commitment of Deion Colzie today, but from everything I’ve seen he still considering Notre Dame – and that is essentially all that can be said right now.

He is one of the top players in the 2021 class regardless of position, and the staff will do their best to secure his commitment once again. For now, it certainly seems like Georgia is squarely in the mix for his signature as well.

Up until this point, the staff has been really picky about wide receiver – and Thornton not only looks like one of the staff’s top targets but also a very realistic target. If this were a dream class without realistic possibilities, Emeka Egbuka would be the main focus, but he won’t be coming to South Bend for college. Thornton, on the other hand, has expressed a ton of interest in the Irish and is a top 50 player in the 2021 class.

I am leaving Colzie on this realistic dream for now until I feel it might not be the case. Landing two players with the size and athleticism that Colzie and Thornton possess and pairing those traits with an elite second-level speed threat in Styles, and Notre Dame football is looking at its top wide receiver class in years – better than the class of Kevin Austin, Braden Lenzy, Lawrence Keys III, and Micah Jones.

Some might argue for this past class as well that saw the staff bring in 5-star recruit Jordan Johnson and underrated recruits Xavier Watts and Jay Brunelle, but if I were personally ranking all these recruits coming out of high school it would go: Colzie, Thornton, Austin, Johnson, Watts, Styles, Lenzy, Keys, Brunelle, Jones. That is how highly I think of the first two guys on this list.

There are other quality wide receivers that would make this class top-notch as well, but of the realistic targets, Thornton definitely offers a dream class scenario. Targets such as Andrel Anthony, Jayden Thomas, and Titus Mokiao-Atimalala are others to keep in mind if Thornton and/or Colzie choose other programs.