(UHND.com) — Morrice Richardson visited Notre Dame this past weekend for the Navy game and on Tuesday he decided that Notre Dame was where he wanted to continue his education and football career. Richardson, a 6’3”, 235 lbs linebacker/defensive end prospect from Atlanta, is the 20th known commitment for the Irish and the first linebacker.
Richardson’s speed is listed anywhere from the 4.55 range to upwards of 4.75 on various recruiting websites, but regardless of his listed speed, Richardson moves well on the football field. He comes to Notre Dame as a 3 star prospect according to Scout.com and a 4 star prospect according to Rivals.com.
Richardson is projected as either a linebacker or defensive end on the college level. Should he play linebacker he would be the first linebacker of this year’s recruiting class. If he ends up at defensive end, he will join Kallen Wade and John Ryan at the end position in the class.
He’s got good quickness on the snap and could become a good pass rusher with his quickness and ability to get around blockers. He also has the speed to play linebacker at the college level and runs track for his Westlake High School team.
Whenever Notre Dame can go into the South and pull away one of its top prospects away from the likes of Georgia, Auburn, and Georgia Tech — all of whom were recruiting Richardson at one time or another — it’s a big win. The Irish haven’t won many battles like that in years past and it always tough to recruit the South because of all of the competition from the SEC as well as other factors such as weather.
Richardson had visited Notre Dame twice — once for the USC game as an unofficial visit and then once again this past weekend for the Navy game as an official visit so his commitment is not too surprising.
After a flurry of commitments in late September and early October, this is the first commit for the Irish in over a month and should be the start to the final push for the Irish recruiting efforts this year. With 20 commitments left, the Irish have 7 or 8 spots remaining depending on who uses early enrollment.
