Brian Kelly held his annual Signing Day press conference on Wednesday during which he gave a full run down of each and every member of the 24 recruit class the Irish signed. Here are some highlights on what Kelly had to say about the haul of elite talent he and his staff collected on the offensive side of the ball with this year’s class.
Tristen Hoge – OC
What separates Tristen for us is a true center. So this is a unique player in the sense that he’s already been groomed for this position at the offensive center position. Shotgun snapped his entire high school career and really feel like we’ve got a guy that has got a great upside coming in at the center position.
Josh Adams – RB
He has not played a lot of football, and at 6‑2, 210 pounds, we think he can be with the speed that he possesses, we think he can be whatever he wants to be. We can’t wait to develop him. Great speed, great size, and has the ability with our weight training to be that kind of big, physical back that we are looking for.
Miles Boykin – WR
Can use his body extremely well. Great catching radius. Can go up with the football. He can separate. We just think that he gives you a great match‑up on the perimeter. Sometimes when you don’t have that 6‑4 quarterback and you can’t see those drives and digs, you’ve got to get the ball outside and he gives us a great target and we are looking forward to working with miles.
Jalen Guyton – WR
We see him as a versatile player that can play the X, the Z or the W. We can move him around. He’s got that kind of versatility, and that’s what Allen did with him, as well. They moved him around. In his senior year, he played mostly the W position. But we love his versatility. We love his ability to catch the football in traffic and his toughness, great size at 6‑1, 185 and he’s got the frame to get stronger.
Aliz’e Jones – TE
We think he’s‑‑ in our evaluations, we’ve been recruiting him since his sophomore year. We think he’s the finest tight end in the country and we think that we’ve had some great tight ends here and we think he’s going to be another one of the great tight ends that have played here at Notre Dame.
Trevor Ruhland – OL
What really we loved about Trevor is his toughness. Two‑way player, never came off the field, and we were looking for an interior guy that really fit our style of play and somebody that was going to play every play and never takes a play off, goes to the echo of the whistle and maybe past the whistle.
CJ Sanders – WR
He’s a guy that can open up the game for you with one missed tackle, because you won’t be able to catch him. Elite speed and as I said, a true slot receiver, one that we haven’t had, really, since Robby Toma. He’s got really good instincts and a guy that we’re looking forward to really developing.
Equanimeous St. Brown – WR
So another very rangy wide receiver who can run. He can get in and out of his break, another match‑up guy that I think you’re going to have problems with now. You’ve got Miles Boykin and Equanimeous with great size, and then a very dynamic player in C.J. Sanders, and then Jalen Guyton, probably one of the most productive receivers at the highest level.
Dexter Williams – RB
We were looking to get a second back in this class, and we felt like Dexter gave us that break away back that we wanted, and his second‑level speed. But his quickness into the hole and then acceleration, one of the things that separated him from the other backs that we recruited. And we love his family, his mom and dad were extremely supportive of him leaving Florida and coming up here.
Brandon Wimbush – QB
He’s got a great skill set. I love his footwork. What we liked early on when we watched him, it changed in his senior year. He became more disciplined at everything he did. His coaching staff did a great job of really working on his footwork. He’s got a strong arm. He’s a great one runner he’s a duel threat, he possesses all the tools to run the offense at its highest level, so just a special player.
Justin Yoon – K
Somebody that will impact us probably more than maybe any one player on this roster is Justin Yoon. Justin out of Milton Academy is going to be our kicker and he’ll come in and start right away. We think he’s the best kicker in the country. We’ve got a chance to evaluate all the kickers that are out there.
Great haul of skill players and fit to run the ND offense. The Star rankings go away now and don’t matter anyway, its all about heart and determination at this stage. Hopefully they’ll play a possession-type offensive scheme and grind teams down allowing for the still young defense to gel. Great players on both sides of the ball and we now have depth too! GoIrish! 2015 NCG!
Jeff you are hilarious. Lets just say I wanted more out of this class. That I look at SC loading up on 5 stars and I want that for us too… That I think that if we didn’t poop the bed vs Ville and Nwestern that we would have a top 5 class and not doing so frustrates me… According to you I shouldn’t be rooting for ND? How does this make any logical or football sense? Yes there are some good players but nothing that gets us over the hump. What hump? The hump of a couple guys getting hurt and the season is over in humiliating emasculating fashion like last year. I feel the strategy the staff utilized to recruit the safety position was faulty, and it was. We struck out on signing day at that position because of it. I have always and will always love ND, but I cannot and will not refrain from wanting more. We haven’t won a championship since 1988, making excuses and sugar coating helps nobody. The worst thing a fan base can do is blindly accept whatever happens. That is a dangerous place to be. Expectations get lower, malaise sets in and before you know it we are all ok with 8-4 seasons. Pushing for more, expecting more and wanting more is what gets you where you need to go. I despise those “diehard fans” who are ok with us just “trying hard” and “giving it all we got”… This is a business of winning, not coming close and trying hard.
If the pessimists grumble and growl over this class we don`t need them rooting with us anyway! we are goanna come out with a vengeance this year all the way to a national title. Something I haven’t seen since my junior year of high school when we beat the mountaineers. Go IRISH!!!!! WE ARE ND!!!!!!!!
Stoked!!! Great haul…
I agree with you Michael. However, the eternal pessimists will jump in about how this class isn’t ranked 1 or 2. Or littered with 5 Star players. Or how they do a better job recruiting on NCAA football for their Playstation and Xbox consoles 🙂
Recruiting guru Mike Frank in an interview yesterday called this haul of offensive recruits the best collection of O’ skill players in Kelly’s five years. Congratulations to BK, his staff, and the student-athlete hosts for attracting and securing so many elite quality recruits. Even life-long hardened pessimists, many who post here regularly, have to feel hopeful about this group and NDs football program’s future.