National Signing Day got off to a bang for Notre Dame this morning when Daniel Cage, a 4-star DT from Ohio, sent in his signed LOI to Notre Dame hours before originally being scheduled to announce his decision. Notre Dame, officially allowed to mention a recruit’s name once the LOI is in, confirmed.
DL Daniel Cage from Ohio is officially in the #GoldenArmy14 Bio and video to come.
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) February 5, 2014
Notre Dame’s quest to add more depth to the defensive line in the class of 2014 continued with the addition of Cage who selected Notre Dame over Michigan State giving Notre Dame even more depth in the front seven of the #GoldenArmy14. Ever since losing Matt Dickerson to UCLA in January, Notre Dame seemed set on adding two defensive tackles to this year’s class. With the addition of Cage, the Notre Dame coaching staff has been able to do just that after adding Pete Mokwuah last week.
Cage is a 4-star prospect on 247Sports but a 3-star recruit on Rivals. Prior to narrowing his decision between Notre Dame and Michigan State, Cage picked up scholarship offers from Florida, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Missouri, Nebraska, and Tennessee. Cage joins a defensive class for Notre Dame that already had 12 recruits on the defensive side of the ball.
With Cage and Mokwuah on board, Notre Dame has at minimum four defensive linemen in this year’s class along with Andrew Trumbetti (DE) and Jay Hayes (DT). Additionally Grant Blankenship, Jonathan Bonner, and Jhonny Williams could all potentially grow into defensive line for Notre Dame at some point in their careers as well. If there are indeed strength in numbers, the Irish defensive line will be set for the next few years with their haul at defensive line this year.
Notre Dame is still in running for defensive tackle Courtney Garnett as well. Garnett committed to Oklahoma last week but visited Notre Dame last weekend anyway and was reportedly torn between the two schools heading into today. He is scheduled to announce his decision at noon ET today.
A little later this morning Notre Dame is hoping to add Louisiana cornerback Terrence Alexander to the class of 2014 as well. Alexander is set to announce his decision at 10:30 AM ET and is reportedly selecting between Notre Dame and Stanford.
Later today Notre Dame will look to continue to add to it’s class with JuJu Smith set to announce his decision at 4:00 ET and Michiah Quick scheduled to announce his decision a little bit later at 6:30 ET. Should the Irish add either of two remaining recruits on their board, it would cap off a banner Signing Day for the Irish. Even if they are unable to add to their current class, the Irish have done well for themselves with the 24 member of the #GoldenArmy14.
Slightly off-topic to this story, I just feel the need to raise what a humongous year 2014 shall be. We succeed, and last year’s disciplined-mediocrity was an aberration. We fail, and we are in some serious, serious stuff, (; as our whole focus for the past # years with BK will prove to be a delusion. I will feel betrayed. I will feel taken. Let us hope that BK continues to develop his players (a stated objective of his reign/tenure) and I’d really, really like to see this story conclude (and, of course, continue) with a good ending.