The month of June has not delivered the rush of commitments that many expected for Notre Dame – at least not yet anyway – but Notre Dame did pick up another commitment over the weekend from ascending offensive lineman Ashton Craig. The 3-star lineman camped at Notre Dame for the Irish Invasion and earned an offer prior to his official visit this weekend.
Notre Dame recruited Craig primarily as a center, but he offers a lot of position flexibility. He played right tackle and defensive end as a junior last year, but could also play guard. Jamie Uyeyama from Irish Sports Daily compared Craig to Jarrett Patterson in a post on ISD yesterday, and the comp really is spot on.
While Craig is listed as a 3-star prospect, he has some interesting offers including Michigan, Iowa, Florida State, Nebraska, and Northwestern. Craig also camped at Ohio State in June and was trending towards being offered by the Buckeyes as well before his commitment to Notre Dame over the weekend.
The thing that jumps out about Craig is his athleticism. In addition to playing on both sides of the ball for Lawrenceburg HS in Indiana, he also plays basketball. Anyone who has read my posts over the years knows I love it when offensive linemen are athletic enough to star on their school’s basketball teams as well.
Craig is very much an ascending player at the moment. He gained a lot of good weight for his junior year and benefited greatly from being able to camp at schools this spring. His performance at the Irish Invasion elevated him up Notre Dame’s recruiting board to the point of being offered before he visited this past weekend.
Notre Dame now has three commitments along the offensive line for 2022 with hopes of adding two more. Craig joined four-star lineman Ty Chan and Joey Tanona. Who those two linemen are, remains to be seen.
A few weeks ago, it looked like Notre Dame might go into Wisconsin and pry away some of the state’s top linemen, but since then, things haven’t been trending in Notre Dame’s direction. Bill Schrauth, a long-time Notre Dame lean, still hasn’t committed to Notre Dame and his recruitment looks like it’s trending very much in Wisconsin’s favor. Carson Hinzman was looking like he could be the center in this class, but Craig’s offer came shortly after Hinzman’s visit. Joe Brunner visited two weeks ago too, but it looks like the Badgers could keep him in the state as well.
Notre Dame hosted the nation’s top-rated offensive lineman Zach Rice this weekend along with Craig and last weekend, the Irish hosted 4-star tackle Aamil Wagner. 4-star tackle Jake Taylor visited early this month as well. If Notre Dame were able to get one of these four highly-rated recruits to jump on board, it’s possible they could take just four linemen this cycle.
