When a major program loses a key recruit, Rivals.com examines the extent of the blow to the school involved, analyzing it locally and nationally. To quantify the “sting” of each disengage, we assign a score from 1 to 10, with 1 being unimportant and 10 being a catastrophic hit.
THE STORY
Shortly after his visit to our Lady over the summer, four-star offensive tackle elie paige canceled his other visits and quickly committed to Notre Dame.
USC, Washington and state of michigan were supposed to get trips from the star of Phoenix (Arizona) Pinnacle, but he fell in love with the Irish and wanted to stop recruiting him.
However, a few months later, Paige backed out of her promise to Notre Dame and is back in the market with the Trojans as a possible winner here, as USC appears to have surged in its recruiting. Phoenix Pinnacle teammate, four-star tight end Duce Robinsonalso closely examines USC, among others.
Notre Dame is always laden with offensive line commitments and the Irish boast the third-best recruiting class in the country, but losing Paige wasn’t ideal as he’s a talented offensive lineman and a program can never get in the way. have too much.
*****
LOCAL REACTION
Paige was the lowest rated of Notre Dame’s four offensive engagements, but I really liked her potential. Luckily for the Irish, they still have four-star attacking tackles Charles Jagusah, Sam Pendleton and Sullivan Abcher and three-star offensive goaltender Joe Otting always verbally committed to the class. Notre Dame has no shortage of talented offensive linemen on its roster and shouldn’t be late, which takes the sting out of it for most.
The only concern is whether Paige’s disengagement opens the floodgates for the other class members to come out. The Irish are already in what appears to be an uphill battle to keep four-star security Peyton Bowen in the classroom, and schools have been actively targeting their commitments since the loss of marshal. The head coach Marcus Freeman could use a winning streak to help prevent an impressive class, which didn’t even drop from its No. 3 spot in the 2023 Class Rankings after the Paige news, from collapsing. – Tyler James, InsideNDSports.com
Sting factor: 5
*****
NATIONAL RESPONSE
It is truly a credit to coach Marcus Freeman that the Irish recruiting class can lose five-star defensive end Paige Keon KeeleyDB four stars Justyn Rhet and RB four stars Sedrick Irvin and still have the third best class nationally. The bleeding must stop here, as teams target Peyton Bowen, Jaiden Ausberry and others. As for Paige’s direct impact on this recruiting class, he would have been a very good addition as he has improved a lot over the past year, but the Irish are stacked along the offensive line. This group is still one of the best in the country without Paige and it wouldn’t be surprising if someone else joined on signing day. Even without another addition, Notre Dame’s OL squad are phenomenal and should dominate for years to come. – Adam Gorney, National Director of Recruitment
Sting factor: 4