Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM MARCH 2024 33 2024 FOOTBALL RECRUITING ISSUE and viewed by recruiting services and coaches alike as a can't-miss prospect, it's still not absolutely inevitable you're going to be a difference-maker for all three to five years. Some get there from the start. Others get there eventually. Some never do. It's imperative Viliamu- Asa stays within himself and does not succumb to expectations. The other three signees might be B's, so the overall grade comes down a smidge. Y'all get how this works by now. But Viliamu-Asa is to the 2024 defen- sive class what Williams or Lambert are to the 2024 offensive class. He's some- one who should be a starter sooner than later. The fact that Notre Dame kept him out of Columbus, Ohio, is massive. If it wasn't South Bend, it was sure looking like Ohio State. That program knows how to recruit, develop and put players in the NFL, so the Irish did something right in winning a toe-to-toe recruiting battle against the Buckeyes. On Paper Grade: A- DEFENSIVE BACK Signees: Four-star athlete Tae John- son of Fort Wayne (Ind.) North Side, three-star corner Leonard Moore of Round Rock (Texas) High, three-star Taebron Bennie-Powell of West Chester (Ohio) Lakota West, three-star corner Karson Hobbs of Cincinnati Archbishop Moeller and three-star safety Kennedy Urlacher of Chandler (Ariz.) High Synopsis: Johnson is the one to watch here. He's got the size, range and athleticism you're always looking for in an elite safety. And if the lowest-ranked guy in the group has the last name Ur- lacher, it can't be so bad, right? Seems like a good thing to bring in the son of a Hall of Famer. These five defensive back prospects come from four different states. Notre Dame showed it can grab the nearby prospects like Johnson, and the Irish went to the Southwest for Moore and Urlacher. If you wanted to show Notre Dame's range in recruiting with a single position group from the 2024 class, this is it. This is also a unit freshmen have proven capable of playing in from the start in recent history. Look at corners Benjamin Morrison, Jaden Mickey and Christian Gray. They were all factors in their freshman seasons. There is no bet- ter time for a safety to follow their lead. Notre Dame has 2023 Bronko Na- gurski Trophy winner Xavier Watts re- turning at safety for a graduate student season, and the Irish nabbed Rod Heard II from Northwestern in the transfer portal. But beyond them, there is noth- ing but underclassmen as depth. That includes Johnson, Bennie-Powell and Urlacher. We'll finish this section the way we started it; watch out for Johnson. He's getting to Notre Dame at a good time if he's trying to get on the field right away. It's not as simple as just showing up; the coaching staff will put Watts and Heard on the field for 90-plus percent of the snaps if those are the only safe- ties they can routinely trust. But who's stopping Johnson from doing what Morrison, Mickey and Gray pulled off as rookies? Freshman playing time isn't limited to certain positions. If you can play, you will play. The same goes for Johnson at safety. On Paper Grade: B- ✦ Safety Tae Johnson joins the Notre Dame defensive back corps at a time in which he could play his way onto the field in a meaningful role as soon as the season opener. PHOTO COURTESY ON3