No one would have been surprised if you told them that an early enrollee freshman receiver would be turning heads early in spring practice a month ago. Some might have been surprised, however, had you told them it was Micah Gilbert, and not 5-star signee Cam Williams. Early on though, it is Gilbert, the less heralded of the two early enrollee receivers who is generating the most buzz.
From the first practice sessions the media was given access to, a buzz started to surround Gilbert, a 4-star recruit in his own right. The official Notre Dame football twitter account took it to a new level, however, with the following tweet earlier this week.
Everything a team’s official twitter account from a highlights perspective needs to be taken with a grain of salt, but it’s not exactly common for them to call out individual players quite like this – at least not within the first month of a player’s career.
Gilbert has arrived at Notre Dame polished and advanced as a route runner which has given him an opportunity to make plays early. With the mass exodus the receiver room at Notre Dame experienced, there are a lot of new faces all learning the offense at the same time – especially with senior Deion Colzie slowed by a hand injury. Gilbert seems to be making the most out of the opportunity early into his career even if the catches in the clips above don’t show him making catches over Ben Morrison who will miss the rest of the spring.
While Gilbert wasn’t a 5-star like Williams, he wasn’t exactly an under-the-radar prospect either. He checked in at #244 overall on the final 247 composite rankings. He racked up 1,105 yards on 76 catches with 10 touchdowns during his senior campaign at Charlotte Christian. Still, he also wasn’t on a lot of instant impact lists on signing day either so seeing him make some plays early on is very encouraging.
Making plays in the spring doesn’t guarantee playing time for any freshman, but usually when a freshman generates this much buzz in spring ball, they do find their way onto the field in some capacity in the fall. It will be interesting to see how all of the reps at receiver get split up if Gilbert keeps making plays and does force himself on the field. The Irish added three receivers from the portal – two of which are on campus already – and have freshman speedster Logan Saldate and transfer Beaux Collins arriving in the summer.
