If you thought the ridiculous run of commitments for the Notre Dame class of 2018 was about to slow down, you thought wrong. Less than a week after picking up commitment #10, Notre Dame picked up it’s 11th commitment of the year in the form a consensus 4-star athlete Braden Lenzy.
Lenzy, a native of Oregon, visited Notre Dame two weeks ago in what has become a legendary Junior Day. That weekend has now netted Notre Dame commitments from Lenzy, Derrik Allen (S), Kalon Gervin (CB), Michah Jones (WR), and Cole Manbry (OT).
As all recruits do today, Lenzy announced his commitment to Notre Dame over Twitter earlier tonight.
https://twitter.com/blspeedy21/status/834579680430694400
Braden Lenzy (6’0″, 175 lbs) is ranked as the 10th ranked athlete in the 247Sports Composite Rankings and the #177 ranked prospect overall – Notre Dame’s 6th commitment in the top 200 already in this fledgling class of 2018.
Notre Dame recruited the Oregon native athelte as a wide receiver, but Lenzy has the ability to play on either side of the football on the collegiate level as a receiver or a corner. As a wide receiver, Lenzy is a straight speed demon in the mold of a Will Fuller. He ran the 100 meters in 10.86 seconds last year.
Prior to committing to Notre Dame, Lenzy held offers from west coast powers USC, Stanford, and Oregon. Michigan State, Cal, Colorado, UCLA, and Purude have all offered as well.
Like 2016 freshman Troy Pride Jr, Lenzy will also run track at Notre Dame in addition to playing football. With Lenzy’s speed, his skills could also be put to use on special teams as a kick returner very easily.
Lanzy is the second wide receiver in the class of 2018 at this point. Last week Micah Jones became commitment #10 for Notre Dame. Unlike Lenzy, however, Jones is more a big & tall wide receiver as opposed to a speed guy at 6’5″, 195 lbs. While Jones projects as a “W” receiver, Lenzy is likely slotted for the “Z” aka the slot. His speed and run after the catch ability makes his game tailor made for what Notre Dame would like to get out of that position.
Notre Dame likely is still not done at the position either with high profile targets like Amon-Ra St. Brown and Brian Hightowwer still very much interested in the Irish along with a host of other elite prospects in a very deep year for the wide receiver position.
The string of commitments has Notre Dame’s class ranked #2 in the country by both 247Sports and Rivals behind only Penn State. With 11 commitments already, Notre Dame is also already likely more than half way full for the class of 2018. NDInsider’s Tyler James told us earlier today that Notre Dame would likely only take 20 commitments this year though that number is always fluid with transfers, injuries, and early departures impossible to predict.
Now if their high school talent can transfer effectively to the college field, we might be back. Only time will tell. It at least looks like the coaching staff is making an effort to bring back the program. Go IRISH!!
Anyone know about “Lazarus” from the Bible? This recruiting CLASS (both meanings) shows that BK is rolling-back the rock of NotAdame’s “toe-tag’d” (dead) football program yet again. Let’s win some damn football games now, right? GoIRISH!
I think bj roomed with him at ND.
Very nice pickup with a potential for making a high impact with that type of speed. Impressive getting this kid out of Duck territory.
Notre Dame once again shows why it is an ‘elite’ org.
Recruiting, while important (even extremely important) is only the first step. Hopefully BK and co. can develop them into a dominant team.
I’m not confident in BK at this point, but I do like a lot of the assistant coaches they have now thus far, so hopefully that’s enough to turn this around.
I’ll remain hopeful, with a healthy dose of skepticism for next year. Go Irish!
http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/college/notre-dame/2017/02/21/swarbrick-kelly-has-addressed-programs-troubles/98176594/
This guy is delusional, narcissistic and loves losing.
This has nothing to do with the story. Let Lenzy have his moment.
Totally agree! So much negativity. Excited to watch this kid.
Bruce,
Well I’m always delusional, but never a lover of losing!
Give coach Kelly one final chance. If we had been able to either put one more score on the board or give up one less score in each loss this year we would not be having this discussion.
The new assistant coaches look great from the outside: Let’s see what they can do in 2017. If we start 1-2 or 2-2 in 2017,, then I say let all of BJ’s dreams come true. But if we make a run at a playoff berth in 2017, as I hope we will, watch out for the IRISH for the foreseeable future.
PS- somebody must have shown these 2018 recruits the stone etching over the side door to Notre Dame Basilica…”God, Country, Notre Dame in Glory Everlasting”…it seems to be their motto! Well, you guys could not have picked a better one!
Bruce G. Curme ’77 ’82
I’m sort of in the same boat. I would have preferred to move on. However the fact is BK will be back next year. I have 2 choices. Hope he defies my expectations and they make the playoffs (or at the very least win a NY Day 6 Bowl), or hope they lose just so they get a new coach.
Frankly, I’d rather option 1. Option 2 means starting over, and many of these great recruits we are getting for 2018 decommit and we are back to square 1.
Option 1 means BK turned things around and we don’t have to start over. That would be my preference.
I’m happy to see the many new assistants on BK’s staff (I actually believe Swarbick may have forced BK’s hand somewhat to go outside his normal box–I don’t believe those changes occurred just because). The Blue-Gold game should be interesting.