Notre Dame avoided some National Signing Day drama early on Wednesday when Prince Kollie signed with Notre Dame after briefly having some second thoughts following the eventual departure of Clark Lea to Vanderbilt. It looks like the Irish won’t avoid the second dose of drama that they were hoping to. Logan Diggs, Notre Dame’s lone running back commitment, announced that he would be signing in February instead of the Early Signing Period.
Diggs has been committed to Notre Dame since the summer, but at the time, home-state LSU had not offered. That changed earlier this month when the Tigers made an 11th-hour offer, hoping to flip the Irish commit. It seems the Tigers offer – and potentially Notre Dame’s late offer to Audric Estime – have given Diggs something to think about.
As of today, Notre Dame has zero running backs signed for 2021, although Brian Kelly said on Wednesday that they expect to add two running backs to the class. If Diggs is to be one of those two backs, we might not know for sure until February.
A lot can change in a few days, so expect the Notre Dame coaching staff to keep working on Diggs in an attempt to get him to sign this week before the early signing period closes.
Notre Dame offered Estime, a Michigan State commit, earlier this week, causing him to delay his signing as well, although there is still some optimism that he could sign with Notre Dame by Friday,
As expected, the Irish lost out on Donovan Edwards, who signed with Michigan. Notre Dame tried to make a push for Edwards after their failed all-in approach with Will Shipley in the spring but was never able to make up the ground they lost while they let it be known that they were putting all of their eggs into the Shipley basket.
Notre Dame still has California running back Byron Caldwell on their board as well, but Estime and Diggs still seem like the two most realistic backs for the Irish – even if they have to wait a while longer.
Hopefully Notredame gets both of these kids but I would be thrilled with just the Michigan State commit. I just wish Notredame can hit a better percentage of wide receiver commits being explosive playmakers. As Kelly said last year we need to put a Michael Floyd on the field with a Will Fuller. That’s what Alabama,Ohio State and Clemson do every year. Then your offense can go from 38 points a game to 45 to 50 points a game. Lenzy, Keys,Jordan Johnson, Kevin Austin. These guys need to play to their star rankings. Maybe Del Alexander needs to be on the hot seat.