(UHND.com) — Notre Dame received its 2nd verbal commitment for the class of 2007 Monday in the form of Chicago area linebacker Aaron Nagel. Stating that the Irish were his childhood favorite, Nagel picked Notre Dame over Big 10 schools such as Purdue, Northwestern, Michigan State, Illinois, and Indiana.
Nagel (6’1”, 215, 4.5) is the second commitment so far for Notre Dame, joining defensive end prospect Kerry Neal, at this early juncture of the recruiting season. He committed to the Irish this past weekend after being offered a scholarship by Weis during his visit.
According to Chicago based analyst Tom Lemming, Nagel has 5 star potential and will be an outside linebacker at the college level. At 215 lbs now, Nagel has some room to grow and will need to add some weight to be a linebacker at the college level.
Still, at 215 pounds, Nagel is already a ferocious hitter with good coverage skills and good enough speed to rush for 1,305 yards and 20 touchdowns as a junior at Lemont Township High School.
On the defensive side of the ball, Nagel collected 55 tackles, 4 interceptions, and 4 forced fumbles this past season. Nagel was also invited to the combine at this year’s Army All American Bowl and was impressive in the drills he participated in.
Despite the lack of “big time” offers for Nagel at this point fans shouldn’t get caught up in any hype as schools such as Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Nebraska were starting to recruit the talented linebacker pretty heavily recently.
Linebacker was a big need for this class and this is a great start for Weis and Notre Dame. Defense in general will be emphasized this year with offense receiving most of the attention last year.
Not too much was heard about either Neal or Nagel until recently but Weis saw enough of both on film to offer scholarships and that is as good of an indicator of their talent as you will find.
The commitment from Nagel, who sports s 4.4 GPA (on 4.0 scale), also shows the continued effort to recruit the Chicago area by Weis after it being a fairly untapped resource over the last few seasons for the Irish. Last season the Irish secured commitments from Sergio Brown and Demetrius Jones from the Chicago area and this year it appears the Irish will have a strong presence in the Chicago area again.
