You’ve got to hand it to Brian Kelly and his assistants. A year after reeling in the trio of Ishaq Williams, Stephon Tuitt, and Aaron Lynch in dramatic fashion, the Irish are close to landing two of the nation’s most heralded recruits, amidst even more extraordinary circumstances than last year.
With the spring semester set to start tomorrow, the Irish might have pulled a rabbit out of the hat: five-star quarterback Gunner Kiel might be headed to Notre Dame after all. Multiple website -- though first reported by Steve Wiltfong of 247Sports.com -- are reporting that Kiel hasn’t enrolled in classes at LSU and instead will stay home in Indiana, giving Kelly and the Irish offense the No. 1 quarterback on their board in the most miraculous of fashions.
Less than three weeks ago, Kiel turned down the Irish and instead chose to enroll early at LSU, giving the nation’s top team one of the country’s best quarterbacks. Kiel impressed at the US Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio, where nearly every report had Kiel ready to head to Baton Rouge where he’d give Les Miles a pro-style quarterback (something badly needed after watching the BCS National Championship game). But someone forgot to tell the Irish coaching staff that Kiel had decided where he’d spend the next four years, and even amidst a coaching transition that gutted the offensive side of the ball, the Irish did enough to make today’s flurry of reporting possible.
We won’t know if Kiel’s attending Notre Dame until he’s actually enrolled in classes, and while there’s plenty of smoke surrounding the story, there’s nothing definitive yet coming from the Kiel family. In a 36 hour period Irish fans went from being apoplectic about a recruiting class that was seemingly crumbling, with Ronald Darby opening things up and Taylor Decker choosing Ohio State, to potentially ecstatic as the Irish have potentially added the best quarterback in the class. And that might not even be the most important feat of the week, with the defensive side of the ball potentially hitting both short term and long term jackpots.
As the Pac-12’s recruiting landscape dramatically altered with Tosh Lupoi leaving Cal and heading to Steve Sarkisian’s Washington staff, Notre Dame looked more and more like the potential landing spot for Arik Armstead, one of the nation’s premiere defensive linemen. Armstead also likely comes with his older brother Armond, a former starter for USC that sat out this season after the school wouldn’t medically clear him after an undisclosed issue. Armond will have one year of eligibility remaining, and he visited Notre Dame Sunday and Monday with his father to meet with the coaching staff to discuss his role in the team’s future. Arik joined Armond at Auburn earlier this weekend, where the younger Armstead took his final recruiting visit before heading to a classroom this week. What classroom is still to be determined.
Arik’s enrolled at Cal, Notre Dame and Auburn, filling out the necessary paperwork so he can simply arrive on campus and attend classes. He’s reportedly eliminated Cal after the move of Lupoi to Washington, a shocking twist when you consider Cal was the odds-on favorite to land the two-sport star. The brothers reportedly will enroll as a package, and are waiting for the family to reunite tonight before making a decision.
There’s a chance that all of this doesn’t end well for the Irish, and all this glitter doesn’t turn into recruiting gold for the Irish. But more importantly, after a week of getting beat up by the Notre Dame faithful for the changes in the coaching staff and the perceived weakness in this recruiting class, it’s another stark reminder that Kelly has assembled a group of coaches that continually fight until the very end for players they truly want. (For instance, even though Jordan Westerkamp reconfirmed his commitment to Nebraska, that hasn’t stopped Notre Dame from going after him.)
While that dogged determination hasn’t brought enough wins to campus yet, it’s helping to build a program that’ll likely deliver more in the near future, especially if Monday’s magic turns out to be as promising as it seems.
UPDATE: 1:20 a.m. ET -- Douglas Farmer of Notre Dame’s school newspaper The Observer reports that Gunner Kiel is officially enrolled. He’s on campus and set to move into O’Neill Hall.