You can scratch one big-time visitor off the list for the monster month of June official visits, but it isn’t necessarily a bad thing for Notre Dame. 5-star defensive athlete Samuel M’Pemba has rescheduled his official visit from June 17th to November 5th for Notre Dame’s showdown with Clemson.
On the surface, it might initially sound bad for Notre Dame that the visit got rescheduled, but it could be a good thing for Notre Dame. While the June weather in South Bend sure beats whatever the forecast will bring in November for the Florida native, comparing Notre Dame in June to the likes of Georgia, potentially, on a gameday, would have put Notre Dame at a disadvantage.
All signs point to M’Pemba’s recruitment to stretch well into the fall, and no matter what happens with any more commitments between now and then, there will be a spot for M’Pemba in this class if he wants one.
M’Pemba will still visit Oregon and Tennessee officially in June, but the most significant threat in this one appears to be Georgia. A recent unofficial visit put the Bulldogs firmly in the race, and he is now set to revisit Athens unofficially in June. He has also unofficially visited Notre Dame twice – once in the fall for the Cincinnati game and then again in March.
Notre Dame is recruiting M’Pemba as an edge player who would likely start his career as a ROVER but could easily grow into a VYPER since he already checks in at 245 lbs. Notre Dame is assembling a historic defensive line class with commitments already from Keon Keeley, Brennan Vernon, Devan Houstan, and Boubacar Traore – all of whom are top-250 overall recruits. Notre Dame is also considered the leader for Jason Moore, a top 50 DE from Maryland who is visiting this month.
Even with M’Pemba rescheduling his visit to the fall, June will be a busy month on the Notre Dame campus with several huge weekends of official visits starting next weekend when the Irish staff is hosting ten 4-star or higher prospects – eight of whom are uncommitted at the moment.
