Notre Dame added its second commitment to its secondary for 2022 in three days Sunday night when Devin Moore announced his commitment to the Irish. Moore, one of the more underrated defensive backs in the country, joined Jayden Bellamy in committing to Notre Dame over the holiday weekend.,
Moore visited Notre Dame during its first big recruiting weekend in June and was a priority for Notre Dame for months. He picked Notre Dame over an impressive offer list that included Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Michigan, Stanford, and Miami.
Rankings-wise, 247 has Moore as a 3-star in their composite rankings, but Rivals has Moore as a 4-star prospect. His 247 ranking is just outside of 4-star range though, so it’s very possible that he earns a 4th star before all is said and done.
In nine games last year, Moore picked off 5 passes on defense and caught one pass on offense for a 77-yard touchdown. He also recorded 26 tackles with 2.5 TFL.
Like Jayden Bellamy, Moore has the versatility to play corner or safety, but with his height (6’3″), Notre Dame recruited him as a corner. Notre Dame now has three corners in this class with Moore joining Bellamy and Jaden Mickey. Moore earned all-state honors as a sophomore playing safety, then moved to corner as a junior and earned all-state honors again. Notre Dame values defensive backs with that kind of versatility.
It will be interesting to follow the developments of both Bellamy and Moore. Both could play safety or corner and with the influx of corners over the last two cycles, there will naturally need to be some roster movement in the future to round out the safety depth chart.
With three defensive backs committed for 2022, Notre Dame could be down to safeties Jake Pope and Xavier Nwankpa. Notre Dame would love to add them both to the mix though Pope is much more likely at this point than Nwankpa. Pope is likely to make his decision in the coming week with Notre Dame the reported leader at the moment. The recruitment of Nwankpa likely won’t end as soon, but Notre Dame is still very much in the thick of it.
Mike Mickens, Chris O’Leary, and Marcus Freeman have done a great job filling out the defensive backfield this year with the three commitments already on board and could take it to another level if they were to add Pope and Nwankpa. Benjamin Moore, a 4-star corner, visited in June as well but is rumored to be leaning to Washington. Between the class of 2021 and the commitments for 2022, Notre Dame has added nine defensive backs to the roster (assuming all 2022 commitments sign).
