(UHND.com) — Charlie’s Weis first home game did not produce all bad results after the Irish have received their second commitment from a weekend visitor in the form of Las Vegas safety Jashaad Gaines. Gaines joined fellow safety Leonard Gordon as a recent commit from Notre Dame’s first home game of the year.
Gaines, a 6 foot, 205 pound safety prospect from Las Vegas followed in his sister Tulyah’s path to South Bend. Tulyah is a sophomore guard for the Fighting Irish Women’s basketball team.
Jashaad had never visited Notre Dame before this past weekend, but the excitement in Notre Dame stadium in the Irish’s overtime thriller was enough to get Gaines to pull the trigger and commit to the Irish. He was pursued by other big schools such as Oklahoma and Nebraska receiving offers from both.
The hard hitting safety missed time in his junior year with a partially torn ACL, but has been at full strength this season.
Jashaad was one of three safety prospects on campus this past weekend along with fellow commit Leonard Gordon and Chicago area prospect Sergio Brown. Notre Dame was expected to recruit 2 safety prospects this recruiting season, but that does not mean that Sergio Brown is out of the picture for the Irish by any means.
With his size, Gaines could grow into the Apache position which is a hybrid of linebacker and safety. At 6-0, 205 with 4.6 speed, his size and speed are similar to Maurice Crum’s coming out of high school. Crum however was listed to be 220 during his senior year.
Brown, at 6-2, 195, with listed 4.4 speed may very well still end up at Notre Dame. He has the talent of talent that I just can’t see being turned down by the Irish coaching staff.
The other safety in the mix, Leonard Gordon, was the first known commitment from this past weekend. Gordon is listed at 5-11, 195, with 4.7 speed, and was recruited by Penn State, Louisville, and LSU among local schools Kentucky and Vanderbilt.
The Irish seem to be in great shape in the secondary with this class with 3 commits already. Brown and corner back Darrin Walls are the top 2 targets left on the board in the secondary. Walls has seen the Irish play twice on official visits to Pitt and Michigan. He will get to see them play once more when he visits Notre Dame for the USC game.
Throw into the mix the Irish’s first commitment in the secondary, Raeshon McNeil and Notre Dame is sitting pretty right now. A defensive backfield in this class of McNeil, Gordon, Gaines, Brown, and Walls would just about as good as the Irish could have hoped for.
