Notre Dame’s top 25 3-star recruits since 2010
In the world of recruiting, rankings clearly matter. It’s no shock that when you look at the best teams nationally, they’re the ones who usually ranked the highest in team recruiting rankings during the previous three or four years. Maybe the top team doesn’t always have the top class, but you can bet they’re in or right there with the top-five nationally.
Another key part of recruiting comes to finding those diamonds in the rough. That isn’t to knock three-star talents, but the hype around them clearly isn’t the same when a five-star prospect visits campus or commits to a program.
We decided to go back and rank the top three-star players Notre Dame brought to campus dating to the start of Brian Kelly’s run at Notre Dame that began with the 2010 recruiting class. Here are the top 25 of those such players in the last roughly dozen years.
The 247Sports composite was used in each player’s star rating for this piece.
Justin Yoon - Kicker
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The kicker from the 2015 class started immediately. Although he didn’t have the greatest range, he went down as the highest scoring and most accurate kicker in the history of the program.
Cam McDaniel - Running Back
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The Texas native played four seasons at Notre Dame, leading the Irish with 705 rushing yards in 2013. McDaniel totaled eight touchdowns in his college career and has the distinction of having the most photogenic picture ever taken of a football player in-game.
Corey Robinson - Wide Receiver
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Corey Robinson played three seasons at Notre Dame, becoming a big-time red zone threat in 2014 when he hauled in five scores. It was the touchdown that didn’t count that year that gets most remembered as he caught what was believed to be the game-winner at Florida State before it was called back for a highly questionable offensive pass interference.
Xavier Watts - Wide Receiver/Defensive Back
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Xavier Watts came to Notre Dame as a wide receiver in the 2020 class. All he’s done since arriving is anything he’s been asked. That includes switching to the defensive side of the ball to help a beat up secondary.
Tariq Bracy - Defensive Back
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Tariq Bracy took advantage of the COVID-19 exception and played five seasons at Notre Dame from 2018-2022. He totaled 154 career tackles and a pair of interceptions in blue and gold. He saved some of his best for last, recording a season-high eight tackles against South Carolina in the Gator Bowl, the final game of his Notre Dame career.
Clarence Lewis - Defensive Back
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Clarence Lewis arrived at Notre Dame in 2020 and made a fairly instant splash, getting a good amount of playing time that season. Lewis was named to The Athletic’s Freshman All-America second team that year and started every game as a sophomore. He’s defended 17 passes in his three seasons to date and intercepted a pair of passes.
Cam Hart - Defensive Back
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Hart will return for a fifth year in 2023 and is coming off a year that saw him record his first two interceptions of his collegiate career. Over the last two seasons he has started 20 games and figures to be a starting entering the 2023 season.
C'Bo Flemister - Running Back
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Flemister played in 24 games at Notre Dame, compiling 471 yards and 10 touchdowns on 110 carries (4.4 yards per carry). In 2020 he had his most productive season with the Irish, netting 299 yards on 58 carries (6.4 avg.). An overnight car accident from which Flemister fled the scene put him the doghouse entering 2021, and he eventually transferred to Pitt.
Chris Brown - Wide Receiver
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Chris Brown often gets remembered for making his huge catch as a true freshman at Oklahoma in 2012 but he had a very productive career at Notre Dame beyond that play. He hauled in over 100 career receptions for over 1,400 yards in his four years with the Irish.
Kevin Stepherson - Wide Receiver
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Stepherson is the ultimate “what could have been” at Notre Dame. Despite being a three-star recruit, he burst onto the scene scoring five touchdowns as a true freshman in 2016. A year later he scored five more in just seven games, but off the field issues cut his time at Notre Dame short. He never wore the blue and gold again following 2017.
Adetokumbo Ogundeji - Defensive Lineman
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Ogundeji recorded 80 total tackles (44 solo), 17 tackles for loss, 13 sacks, six forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries in 43 games at Notre Dame. His senior season in 2020 he totaled 23 tackles (15 solo), seven sacks, seven tackles for loss, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery in 12 games while also being a team captain.
Bennett Jackson - Defensive Back
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Jackson was a mainstay on Notre Dame’s defense from 2010-2013. He finished his career with 107 tackles in blue and gold, six interceptions and recorded five tackles for loss his senior season.
Jack Kiser - Linebacker
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Kiser entered Notre Dame as a three-star (247Sports) talent out of downstate Pioneer High School. In 2022, Kiser finished second on the Irish with 58 total tackles, 28 of which were solo. He played in all 13 games, making six starts and was a key contributor on one of the top special teams units in the country, playing on punt, punt block and kickoff units.
Tommy Rees - Quarterback
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Long before he was an offensive coordinator, Rees was a three-star recruit from Illinois. Rees went on to play four seasons at Notre Dame and to throw for more than 7,600 yards in his career while also tossing 61 career touchdown passes.
Logan Diggs - Running Back
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Diggs had a fairly quiet recruiting process. The Louisiana native didn’t even get offered by his home-state school of LSU until days before the early signing period. Diggs rushed for over 1,000 yards in his first two seasons and will run behind one of the nation’s top offensive lines as a junior in 2023.
Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa - Defensive Lineman
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Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa spent from 2017-2021 at Notre Dame and recorded 81 tackles in his career, including 17 tackles for loss.
Kurt Hinish - Defensive Tackle
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When he left Notre Dame following the 2021 season, nobody had played more games for the Fighting Irish than Hinish. In his career, Hinish recorded 81 tackles, 7.5 sacks, 20 TFLs and one forced fumble.
Drew White - Linebacker
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After seeing very limited time in 2017 and 2018, White made a splash when he received his chance in 2019. White recorded 80 tackles that season and finished with 191 in his career for the Fighting Irish.
Matthias Farley - Defensive Back
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Farley didn’t come with a lot of hype but certainly played like a top talent. In 52 games, Farley made 26 starts across four seasons at Notre Dame. He recorded 192 tackles, 3.5 sacks, eight interceptions, 13 passes defensed and one forced fumble.
Tommy Tremble - Tight End
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At a place that has produced seemingly as many professional tight ends as anywhere, Tremble may have been the best blocker the program has ever seen. His numbers weren’t overly impressive with the Irish but that’s because he shared the position with loads of talent, including a young Michael Mayer. That talent is why the Panthers took him on the draft’s second day in 2021.
Nick Martin - Offensive Lineman
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Martin was a regular starter at Notre Dame, playing as a center until his senior year when he switched to guard after three games. He was drafted by the Texans in 2015 and has been in the NFL ever since.
Romeo Okwara - Defensive Line
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Before turning into quite the pass rusher with the Detroit Lions, Romeo Okwara developed during his four years at Notre Dame. The former three-star recruit saw the field little as a freshman but by his senior season in 2015, recorded nine sacks and 13.5 tackles for loss. His younger brother Julian didn’t make the list. He was a four-star prospect on the 247Sports composite.
Ian Book - Quarterback
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Ian Book won more games as a starting quarterback than any other quarterback in Notre Dame history. That’s a nod to Book, who was a Washington State commitment to Mike Leach before flipping to Notre Dame. Book’s ability to move and improvise made up for never having the biggest arm. Book led Notre Dame to its highest successes in recent memory, twice quarterbacking it to the College Football Playoff.
Julian Love - Defensive Back
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Julian Love was somehow just a three-star recruit when he signed his national letter of intent with Notre Dame in 2016. He made a splash almost immediately and by the time he was a junior, he had earned All-American status. He declared for the draft after just three seasons in blue and gold and has been on the New York Giants ever since.
Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah - Linebacker
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Few have hit harder than Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, and that wasn’t the only thing he did well at Notre Dame. He got after quarterbacks, he was a fierce tackler, he was excellent in coverage. It’s no surprise he won the Butkus Award in 2020 as the nation’s top collegiate linebacker in helping guide Notre Dame to a College Football Playoff appearance.
