Notre Dame football: What WR Tobias Merriweather brings to the Irish
By Carlee North
The Notre Dame football program continues to stack talent for their 2022 recruiting class, this time picking up an elite wide receiver from Washington.
On Wednesday evening, Notre Dame football landed a big key piece to their recruiting class, with 2022 WR Tobias Merriweather, out of Washington committing to Notre Dame. The Irish were up against Stanford, who seemed to be the stiffest competition for the Irish late.
Merriweather and his family were on campus for his official visit in early June, and after that happened, it was going to be extremely tough to pass the Irish in his recruitment. He took his last official to Stanford and called it a day after visiting those top schools.
It was decision mode, and even after his final official, the Irish were still on top. This seemed to be done for over a month now, but he officially pulled the trigger publicly this evening. The combination Notre Dame has to offer both on the field and off was clearly what gave them that big advantage over Stanford.
The need at receiver made that decision seem even easier for Tobias as well. This one was all Irish ever since he stepped foot on campus, as at the moment, he holds 18 offers from the likes of Stanford, Michigan, Oregon, and many more.
What will Tobias Merriweather bring to the Notre Dame football team?
The 6’4 185-pound wide receiver is clearly going to bring size and also an elite catching radius. The ability to catch balls that are overthrown, under-thrown, and anywhere in between is a special ability he possesses. He has extremely soft hands and you rarely see the ball get away from him.
He will definitely add some more mass to his frame but his long legs are on full display when you watch him stride for stride on the field, as he is just so smooth in his motions. He’s deceptively quick out of his break and also throughout his route running, with a nice change of direction for his size.
I think his biggest attribute that’ll be on display in South Bend is how well he will be able to adjust in the air, he makes catches that someone his size aren’t suppose to make. He’s someone that I’m extremely high on and someone that should absolutely see the field early in South Bend if he’s able to add some upper body strength, which I don’t see being a problem.
He has all the abilities you want in your top wide receiver, and this was an outstanding west coast get for Del and Brian Kelly, which was also much needed for the offensive recruiting momentum.
With Merriweather making his commitment public, the 2022 class now has 20 pledges with 11 being on the defensive side and now nine on offense. He will be joining Amorion Walker at the moment in the receiver room, with the possibility of another one joining the group by the end of the weekend, if all goes as expected for the Irish staff.
If that does happen, just like that the wide-outs are looking very strong for this class, even if Walker decides to move on from the Irish, who has been taking multiple visits to other campuses recently, which the staff won’t be too thrilled about. We shall see but let’s now take away from Tobias Merriweather who could be a massive piece to the Irish offense and really National Championship runs the next 4 years.