'24 IN S Tae Johnson (Notre Dame Signee)

Irish4life

Irish4life

Well-known member
Messages
2,887
Reaction score
3,674
Brian Kelly would've given up on this kid as a sophomore. If Tae puts in the work in the classroom and gets the greenlight, that is an incredible win for Freeman. Showing that a kid from North Side can get into ND would do wonders for the program IMO.
 
BobbyMac

BobbyMac

Staff & Stuff
Staff member
Messages
33,950
Reaction score
9,295
Luckylucci said:
Loy really stepping out for this one, we'll see.

Loy recently posted that he still likes his CB for Johnson.

It's has to mean something. Though, he'll take a lot of heat if doesn't come to fruition.

247sports.com

FYI I still like my crystal ball here

FYI I still like my crystal ball here
247sports.com 247sports.com
Click to expand...

A good friend of mine who officiates in Northern Indiana brought up a great point regarding the psychology of recruiting from the recruits side. When this class started off, Tae was by far the #1 recruit in Indiana AND he was better known as a basketball player. Bottom line, the kid was THE dude. But then Mylan Graham passes him and signs with WRU and now Tae is the #2 WR in not only Indiana but his own hometown... and then Nitro Tuggle gets a UGa offer and he commits after blowing up and transfers to IMG to stay in the national limelight. Now Tae's the 3rd best wideout from the WR hotbed that is NE Indiana. Hell even an OT not good enough to win the LT spot on his HS team passed him in the rankings and committed to WRU.

How does Tae save face? How does he remind everyone he's the real dude in Indiana? By going to Notre Dame so he can claim the highroad of academics being too important to him to settle for a football factory.
 
R

Reaper97

Banned
Messages
3,109
Reaction score
4,226
BobbyMac said:
A good friend of mine who officiates in Northern Indiana brought up a great point regarding the psychology of recruiting from the recruits side. When this class started off, Tae was by far the #1 recruit in Indiana AND he was better known as a basketball player. Bottom line, the kid was THE dude. But then Mylan Graham passes him and signs with WRU and now Tae is the #2 WR in not only Indiana but his own hometown... and then Nitro Tuggle gets a UGa offer and he commits after blowing up and transfers to IMG to stay in the national limelight. Now Tae's the 3rd best wideout from the WR hotbed that is NE Indiana. Hell even an OT not good enough to win the LT spot on his HS team passed him in the rankings and committed to WRU.

How does Tae save face? How does he remind everyone he's the real dude in Indiana? By going to Notre Dame so he can claim the highroad of academics being too important to him to settle for a football factory.
Click to expand...
Ian Moore is not as good as Tae…or even his own OL teammate Burgess most likely.
There is a reason Heistand didn’t recruit him & I will leave it at that.
 
IrishSpartan

IrishSpartan

Well-known member
Messages
3,035
Reaction score
2,393
How is one semester enough time to fix something that everyone said was a no go grade wise. I’m happy about it but I don’t get it.
 
R

Reaper97

Banned
Messages
3,109
Reaction score
4,226
IrishSpartan said:
How is one semester enough time to fix something that everyone said was a no go grade wise. I’m happy about it but I don’t get it.
Click to expand...
It might have been what he needed.

If he needed 4 years of math & foreign language, for example, he could take 2 math courses & 2 foreign language courses, which would put him in position to get the others completed his senior year. That’s doable if you have summer courses or load up in one semester.
I had a teammate, 27 years ago, take Spanish 1 & French 1 in the same semester, then Spanish 2 & French 2 in the next semester. Getting 4 mandatory foreign language in a year.
 
NDMatt91

NDMatt91

Well-known member
Messages
3,533
Reaction score
3,453
IrishSpartan said:
How is one semester enough time to fix something that everyone said was a no go grade wise. I’m happy about it but I don’t get it.
Click to expand...
Granted this was back in 2005, but Paddy Mullen had a 2.2 GPA entering his Senior year of HS and apparently put in the work that was needed and showed enough improvement to get an offer.
 
NDMatt91

NDMatt91

Well-known member
Messages
3,533
Reaction score
3,453
For those familiar with Indiana HS football, do Dwenger and Luers not recruit like we see the privates in NJ and CA do? You'd think they'd be all over Mylan Graham and Tae. You'd think it'd also help them be able to qualify at schools like ND, NW, etc.
 
Sea Turtle

Sea Turtle

Slow and steady wins the race
Messages
5,645
Reaction score
3,488
I forget who it was but I heard a recruiting analyst saying that Indiana would have a TON of great safety and Corner prospects but they all play basketball because it's Indiana and they all think they are headed to the NBA.
 
IAIrish

IAIrish

The Dude Abides
Messages
1,664
Reaction score
2,074
Luckylucci said:
While I think Gallegos may have limited upside he’s also shown a propensity for playing Cover 1 deep middle which is the real need at S, IMO.

Obviously with Johnson we’d hopefully develop that to the point where he’s a legitimate NFL prospect. But, Gallegos has the know how to do so right now. I think there is value in that, with this class. I’d take Gallegos, Johnson, and then Lane. Be very happy with that class.

Edit: Though, I’d have a hard time saying no if a guy like Oliver Miles wanted in. All the athletes, please.
Click to expand...
This could be a game changer. He'd be #1 for me, especially with McClain far from a certainty.

I know the ISD guys love Gallegos, but he looks to have a frame that won't allow him to play with the type of size needed to hold up.... love those center fielder ball skills tho.
 
FWIrish4

FWIrish4

Well-known member
Messages
1,408
Reaction score
2,833
BobbyMac said:
A good friend of mine who officiates in Northern Indiana brought up a great point regarding the psychology of recruiting from the recruits side. When this class started off, Tae was by far the #1 recruit in Indiana AND he was better known as a basketball player. Bottom line, the kid was THE dude. But then Mylan Graham passes him and signs with WRU and now Tae is the #2 WR in not only Indiana but his own hometown... and then Nitro Tuggle gets a UGa offer and he commits after blowing up and transfers to IMG to stay in the national limelight. Now Tae's the 3rd best wideout from the WR hotbed that is NE Indiana. Hell even an OT not good enough to win the LT spot on his HS team passed him in the rankings and committed to WRU.

How does Tae save face? How does he remind everyone he's the real dude in Indiana? By going to Notre Dame so he can claim the highroad of academics being too important to him to settle for a football factory.
Click to expand...

This was something I was brewing on for a bit and glad you brought this to light. We had 3 4* athletes in northern IN and none of them could get into ND because of academics. This is great news that Tae’s put in the work and I’m confirming with my local sources as well.

But, this is something that’s lost when it comes to recruiting. 1) Indiana isn’t a hot bed and 2) when IN finally has 3 stud athletes within 2 hours of campus, it can barely squeak one of them in. Not sure what you want to call it (bad luck, timing, etc) but it makes recruiting so much damn harder than Ohio St and Georgia having automatic commitments within the top kids within their state borders.
 
I

INLaw

Hardcore chooch
Messages
4,537
Reaction score
4,095
FWIrish4 said:
This was something I was brewing on for a bit and glad you brought this to light. We had 3 4* athletes in northern IN and none of them could get into ND because of academics. This is great news that Tae’s put in the work and I’m confirming with my local sources as well.

But, this is something that’s lost when it comes to recruiting. 1) Indiana isn’t a hot bed and 2) when IN finally has 3 stud athletes within 2 hours of campus, it can barely squeak one of them in. Not sure what you want to call it (bad luck, timing, etc) but it makes recruiting so much damn harder than Ohio St and Georgia having automatic commitments within the top kids within their state borders.
Click to expand...
And yet can usually get region athletes and South Bend public school kids in so WTF is going on with FTW area public schools?
 
MacIrish75

MacIrish75

The New Logo is a Jinx
Messages
9,198
Reaction score
17,761
INLaw said:
And yet can usually get region athletes and South Bend public school kids in so WTF is going on with FTW area public schools?
Click to expand...
It really depends on which FW Community school you’re looking at. Academically, Northrop and Snider solid. Wayne probably running third. Southside and North bring up the rear. New Haven (Graham), although an East Allen school, could probably be lumped in with FWCS schools and they’d be towards the middle also.
 
stlnd01

stlnd01

Was away. Now returned.
Messages
13,388
Reaction score
10,249
FWIrish4 said:
This was something I was brewing on for a bit and glad you brought this to light. We had 3 4* athletes in northern IN and none of them could get into ND because of academics. This is great news that Tae’s put in the work and I’m confirming with my local sources as well.

But, this is something that’s lost when it comes to recruiting. 1) Indiana isn’t a hot bed and 2) when IN finally has 3 stud athletes within 2 hours of campus, it can barely squeak one of them in. Not sure what you want to call it (bad luck, timing, etc) but it makes recruiting so much damn harder than Ohio St and Georgia having automatic commitments within the top kids within their state borders.
Click to expand...
It's not just about geographic proximity and "putting up a fence" around your home state for us though.

Notre Dame is not to Indiana what Ohio State is to Ohio and UGA is to Georgia. It's a relatively small private school where most of the students come from elsewhere and leave after graduation. Whereas if you're a young football player growing up anywhere in Ohio you're going to be surrounded by Ohio State alums/fans your whole life. Yeah there are probably more Notre Dame people in Indiana than there would be for most other schools but it's not really the same. If anything our home turf is more naturally Chicagoland (which may explain why we seem to do better with kids from The Region).

Then throw in the academics, etc. It doesn't surprise me that a lot of Fort Wayne kids would head east to Ohio, rather than west to South Bend. And I'd have zero expectations about recruits from Indy or points south.
 
FWIrish4

FWIrish4

Well-known member
Messages
1,408
Reaction score
2,833
stlnd01 said:
It's not just about geographic proximity and "putting up a fence" around your home state for us though.

Notre Dame is not to Indiana what Ohio State is to Ohio and UGA is to Georgia. It's a relatively small private school where most of the students come from elsewhere and leave after graduation. Whereas if you're a young football player growing up anywhere in Ohio you're going to be surrounded by Ohio State alums/fans your whole life. Yeah there are probably more Notre Dame people in Indiana than there would be for most other schools but it's not really the same. If anything our home turf is more naturally Chicagoland (which may explain why we seem to do better with kids from The Region).

Then throw in the academics, etc. It doesn't surprise me that a lot of Fort Wayne kids would head east to Ohio, rather than west to South Bend. And I'd have zero expectations about recruits from Indy or points south.
Click to expand...
No, I agree. This was the point I was trying to make. Recruiting is harder for us for these reasons, you just said it better haha.
 
FWIrish4

FWIrish4

Well-known member
Messages
1,408
Reaction score
2,833
INLaw said:
And yet can usually get region athletes and South Bend public school kids in so WTF is going on with FTW area public schools?
Click to expand...
Mylan is a Mylan problem, regardless where he went to school. New Haven is fine, not great, and I say that as an alum. VJ Beachum went to New Haven and did fine at ND. Granted VJ and I are a decade plus from there and a lot’s changed in that time though.

STL put it very well above. Kids in FW are not surrounded by ND grads, unless they go to Dwenger/Luers. There’s no strong gravitation towards ND. Proximity wise, we’re just as close to UM, MSU, Purdue, IU and OSU. Also, they’ve seen kids from their schools go to those other B1G schools mentioned so they’re just more familiar.

Not sure with Nitro’s situation, but Northwood is a very good community school.
 
N

NDFAN2008

Well-known member
Messages
7,330
Reaction score
5,655
If we land him I feel a lot better with our safety situation especially considering our starters this year will all be back next year. We need 4 safeties in this class both of our corner commits could grow into safeties too
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top