Notre Dame football: Realistic dream class-Defense

Kechaun Bennett – Suffield Academy (Suffield, Connecticut) – Target

David Abiara – Mansfield Legacy (Mansfield, Texas) – Target 

Jason Onye – Bishop Hendricksen (Warwick, Rhode Island) – Target 

Taking a look at the rankings, and one would wonder why this is considered a dream class scenario for the Irish, but put on the tape and look at some of the offers in place for these guys and your mind will probably change.

Abiara was on campus at Notre Dame not too long ago for Junior Day, and whispers out of his visit were that he was going to commit. However, he ended up releasing a top schools list instead, but the Irish are in terrific shape for the player that is probably their top target.

Abiara’s top offers include Alabama, Baylor, LSU, and Oklahoma among many others, but this looks like it will come down to Notre Dame and Oklahoma. He was scheduled to be on campus this weekend for the second time in two months.

Bennett is probably the least talked about of this trio, but as it currently stands he is ranked the highest on the 247sports.com composite rankings. The interest is certainly there on both sides, and before COVID-19 struck the sports world, Bennett would have also been on campus this month.

Like Abiara, Bennett already has an impressive offer list with Miami, Michigan, Penn State, and Virginia Tech to go along with Notre Dame, so the battle for his services won’t come easy. If the coaching staff truly pushes for his commitment, they can definitely land him.

Onye is a physical specimen standing at 6’5″ and nearly 250-pounds, and he should remind some Notre Dame fans of Ade Ogundeji as a recruit. While he might be raw, the potential is there for him to turn into an outstanding college football player, and not a guy that should be passed on. His offer list is very similar to Bennett’s, so Notre Dame will have to beat familiar opponents for both players.

It unclear how many defensive ends the staff is trying to take, and if they do take three it is possible they might desire someone with defensive interior flexibility – something none of these three will possess at the next level. Other defensive ends to track include Aaron Armitage and Colin Mobley.