Notre Dame notched yet another win over Michigan on the recruiting trail on Thursday morning when elite offensive tackle Charles Jagusah selected the Irish over the Wolverines, his other finalist. The top-50 overall prospect is just another in a string of recruiting wins for Marcus Freeman over Jim Harbaugh and Michigan.
Charles Jagusah is the second-highest-rated commitment for the class of 2023 at the moment. On3 ranks him as the #41 overall prospect in the country and 4th rated offensive tackle. Only Keon Keeley, the #11 prospect in the country overall according to the On3 consensus, is ranked higher among Notre Dame’s 16 commitments. Jagusah is the highest-ranked offensive line commitment for Notre Dame since Tommy Kraemer since the recruiting services inexplicably had Blake Fisher outside of the top 50 two classes ago.
Jagusah is listed as a tackle on all of the recruiting service websites, but ISD’s Jamie Uyeyama made an interesting comparison to former Notre Dame guard Aaron Banks in his “Film Don’t Lie” post earlier today. Banks was a 2nd round pick after a career of playing guard for the Irish, even though there was talk of him switching to tackle later in his career. So if Notre Dame got another Aaron Banks in Charles Jagusah, the Irish got a great player today.
With Jagusah committed, Notre Dame has an entire five-member offensive line class committed for 2023. Jagusah joins a highly-touted group that includes Sam Pendleton and Sullivan Absher, who the Irish beat Clemson for, along with Elijah Paige and Joe Otting. With five committed, the Irish could be done recruiting the position for the cycle, although if Monroe Freeling wants to jump on board in the fall when he plans on ending his recruitment, the Irish will almost certainly find room for him.
Harry Hiestand certainly put together a heck of a group of commits in the first class since his return to the college game. When he left Notre Dame for the NFL a few years ago, it was reported that part of the reason for his departure was a desire to get off the recruiting trail. However, in his first go-round back on it, he excelled.
Jagusah is the second of an expected five commitments for Notre Dame this week. Last evening, class of 2024 wide receiver Cam Williams committed to Notre Dame – also over Michigan and other finalists. Next up for Notre Dame on commit watch is Micah Bell tomorrow, Rico Flores on Sunday, and Christian Gray on Monday. Notre Dame is expected to land both, but as we know in recruiting, nothing is over until it’s over.
In other news, is this the end of the Notre Dame-USC annual rivalry?
Not according to this recent post by Frank
https://www.uhnd.com/football/2022/06/30/report-notre-dame-usc-series-not-in-jeopardy-with-usc-move-to-b1g/
“When he left Notre Dame for the NFL a few years ago, it was reported that part of the reason for his departure was a desire to get off the recruiting trail.” Might another “part of the reason” have been the guy @ LSU isn’t at ND anymore ? Does anyone think Harry would’ve returned with BK still there ?
Fer gawd’s sake, quit with all the weird recruting hyperventilating.
Wait and see which ones eventually DO show up at ND —- there’ll still be plenty of time to annoint them all Heisman favorites then.