A few less talked about 2027 prospects:
- Chris Whitehead, VA EDGE. Top 32 prospect right now, has some traction post visit. Jalen Elliott's High School. Crazy athlete for his size and great motor. 2027 DE Chris Whitehead Has Notre Dame As A Top School After Visit
- Terrance Smith, PA OT. Newly added to the 247 rankings at 133. Reminds me of a young Aamil Wagner, seems like a PSU, OSU, ND battle.
- Seneca Driver, KY TE. Newly added to the 247 rankings at 99. Posted about him before, he's Tony Driver's nephew. Tall with good ball skills on his HUDL. Seems pretty athletic for a sophomore at that height. Visited right after Pot of Gold. 2027 TE Seneca Driver Enjoys First Notre Dame Trip
- Xavier Hasan, NC CB. Newly added to 247 rankings at 46. Just seems right. Catholic HS that's top 10 in NC for football. 7 INTs, big play return man as well. Physical and diagnoses the screen game well.
Updates here on Driver and Hasan from Irish Invasion:
-Driver was among the highly touted TE group at Invasion. Eric Thomas recognized him as the best performer of the bunch, though he noted he had some drops. If ND takes 2 TEs from the II visitors I wouldn't be upset or surprised. Jaxon Dollar from NC is similar to Driver as a tall, vertical threat with freaky athleticism. Jack Brown from MO seems to have the most wiggle of the bunch and has positional flexibility as a DE, Trieu listed him as a top performer. Grant Haviland from GA plays for a loaded Milton team and played a bunch as a sophomore behind two SEC recruit seniors. JT Geraci from Don Bosco was chosen for the camp's "best of the best", he has the most filled out frame of the bunch and would pair will with one of the other high ceiling guys. I still like Driver the best but we have good options all around.
-Hasan had a good camp as well and made the final competition team. There were plenty of other quality DBs at the camp, some of whom received more notoriety from the media. I like Hasan and Allen Evans (Trinty HS, KY) the most as prospects for 2027 corners. ND competing with VT, Tennessee, and NC State for Hasan at the moment.
Gorney quote from Allen Evans: "I love the standard coach Freeman holds the team to. It’s a team-first philosophy that’s a lot like what we do at my current school and why we are able to have so much success - we check our egos at the door. Coach Mickens told me the things I need to work on to continue to improve my game and said he was surprised by my 4.45 forty time. The coaching staff said that the best step in my recruitment is getting my transcripts so they can evaluate me academically. I currently have a 4.0 so that should go fine. I also love how personal the staff is and how you could tell that they cared about developing the people there beyond just the athlete."