Notre Dame Football: What adding 2022 safety Nolan Ziegler means for the Irish

Notre Dame football added a safety to the class of 2022: Nolan Ziegler of Grand Rapids, Michigan committed to the Irish Saturday morning.

On Saturday morning, Notre Dame football landed a legacy in 2022 Catholic Central safety Nolan Ziegler from Grand Rapids, Michigan. He’s had multiple family members attend Notre Dame, along with his grandfather who won a national championship while being coached by Ara Parseghian.

Once Ziegler got this offer from the Irish it was all but over, regardless how many times it was mentioned he wanted to slow down and enjoy the process. Notre Dame was going to be nearly impossible to beat if the staff pulled the trigger, and with the talent he has, it was obviously going to happen sooner rather than later.

And just like that, the staff offered the first week of August, and two weeks later, today, he officially pulled the trigger publicly. The “perfect fit“ is hard to find sometimes when talking about Notre Dame student-athletes, but with the history of his family linked to the Irish and the importance of academics you can’t get much closer to a perfect fit for Notre Dame, than Nolan Ziegler.

At the moment, Ziegler holds 12 offers from Michigan, Boston College and Virginia Tech to just name a few.

What will Ziegler bring to South Bend?

The 6’4,” 205-pound safety will bring size and versatility.  Ziegler plays both safety and linebacker at Catholic Central, which could transition really well for him and a possible perfect fit at the rover position when he gets to Notre Dame. He has great instincts, dissects a play fast and isn’t afraid to lay someone out and get in the backfield. His football IQ is what really stands out to me. He knows the game of football and you can see it when he’s roaming the field.

Ziegler is very athletic for his size as well and has a great frame that he will absolutely be able to fill into once he gets to campus and with Matt Balis in the weight room. His ceiling is extremely high and someone I’d expect to get even better than he already is before stepping foot on campus. Ziegler is considered a “three-star” on the recruiting ranks right now, but there’s no doubt that he will be moving up those ranks before his senior year and he’s someone that I’m thrilled to see grow.

With Ziegler’s commitment, he becomes the first defensive pledge in 2022 and will be joining offensive lineman Joey Tanona and tight end Jack Nickel as the trio to start off the class. This year in recruiting should be huge for linebackers in terms of numbers, and as I mentioned, Ziegler could be seen as a rover that could possibly count towards a linebacker number. Regardless if he is, I’d still expect multiple in the class, but Ziegler is the perfect start to that group.

It’s a great job by the staff to get him on board as quick as they did, which wasn’t surprising, but with a lot of talent this cycle in the Midwest — more specifically closer to South Bend — I’d expect the staff to pick up some really good talent soon.