In years to come, Irish fans may want to remember the last week of July 2017.
Notre Dame landed the commitment of a second four-star linebacker in the span of three days when Jack Lamb (Great Oaks High School, Temecula, Calif.) chose the Irish over UCLA on Thursday. Lamb follows Shayne Simon (St. Peter’s Prep; Jersey City, N.J.), who picked Notre Dame over Michigan on Tuesday. For that matter, rivals.com three-star running back Jahmir Smith (Lee County H.S.; Sanford, N.C.) started the successful recruiting week with a Sunday evening commitment.
“My family has taught me that if you want to be great at something, you have to make yourself uncomfortable,” Lamb wrote on Twitter. “It is my goal to one day be a great football player, a great student, and a great contributor to my community. Getting out of my comfort zone means moving to a new place, seeing new things, and being challenged in ways I have yet to be challenged.
“In an effort to accomplish my goals, and to begin a new chapter in my life I have selected The University of Notre Dame as my future home.”
God. Country. Notre Dame. ☘️☘️☘️ 110% Committed #IrishBouND18 #GoIrish pic.twitter.com/BqGFhtNePm
— Jack Lamb (@JackLamb_) July 28, 2017
Lamb held offers from most of the Pac 12, as well as Oklahoma, Vanderbilt and many others, including his father’s alma mater, Penn State. An Under Armour All-American, rivals.com rates Lamb the No. 4 inside linebacker in the class, the No. 11 prospect in California and the No. 97 overall recruit in the country.
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At 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, he will have a chance to contribute immediately at inside linebacker for the Irish. Notre Dame may not have many, if any, worries about its defense’s second-line in 2017, but it will have a lot of question marks once senior captains Nyles Morgan and Greer Martini finish their collegiate careers this season.
Fellow senior captain Drue Tranquill will have another year of eligibility remaining, however, he mans the rover position, handling quite a different set of responsibilities than the other linebackers face. Junior Asmar Bilal backs up Tranquill and will presumably stay at rover for at least another season to provide some depth while freshman Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah learns the system.
From there, only junior Te’von Coney has seen any action at linebacker for Notre Dame, with sophomore linebacker Jonathan Jones and freshmen David White and Drew Adams providing the current version of depth. A possible early enrollee in the spring of 2018, Lamb would be only a semester behind White and Adams when it comes to time spent learning defensive coordinator Mike Elko’s scheme, working in a collegiate weight room and adjusting to a college course load.
Lamb will have competition from his own class, though. While Simon will likely join Owusu-Koramoah in learning the rover position, rivals.com four-star Matthew Bauer (Cathedral Prep School; Erie, Pa.) and consensus three-star Ovie Oghoufo (Harrison H.S.; Farmington Hills, Mich.) each committed to the Irish about a year ago exactly. (Bauer on Aug. 3, 2016 and Oghoufo on July 22, 2016.)
Including Lamb, Simon, the two long-time linebacker pledges and Smith, Notre Dame’s class of 2018 is now at 15 recruits, with space open for at least a handful more. The current priorities likely remain cornerbacks, a receiver (consensus four-star Kevin Austin [North Broward; Coconut Creek, Fla.] is scheduled to announce Aug. 11) and some linemen on both sides of the ball.
