Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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2016 RECRUITING ISSUE But both Kelly and Elston noted that it's about more than flash and glam‑ our. Without relationships, recruiting can be a futile effort. "Once we identified what every‑ body's role was and their lane, ev‑ erybody's going to be evaluated on a daily basis. Stay in your lane," Elston said. "Everybody was going in the right direction, and we started to see much improvement. "The strategy we had this year was to expose the family and the players to as many coaches as we possibly can, especially Coach Kelly. It allowed us to build these relationships so strong. "No one was even nervous about who was going to sign and not sign. Not even one called to say, 'Coach, I'm thinking about taking a visit here or taking a visit there.' The relationship with multiple coaches was so strong that it just never happened." Remarkably, Notre Dame signed 23 players without suffering a single decommitment throughout the entire recruiting process. That's a rarity in today's college football no matter how well a staff recruits. "First and foremost, all coaches, the entire staff, had a consistent message, and that message was one of who we are and what we're about and never swaying from that," Kelly explained. ✦ 2016 NOTRE DAME SIGNEES Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Hometown (High School) Ian Book QB 6-0 190 El Dorado Hills, Calif. (Oak Ridge) Parker Boudreaux OL 6-3 300 Winter Garden, Fla. (Bishop Moore) Chase Claypool WR 6-4 215 Abbotsford, British Columbia (Abbotsford) Liam Eichenberg OL 6-6 280 Cleveland (St. Ignatius) Jalen Elliott DB 6-0 189 Richmond, Va. (Lloyd C. Bird) Daelin Hayes LB 6-3 239 Belleville, Mich. (Skyline) Jamir Jones LB 6-3 220 Rochester, N.Y. (Aquinas Institute) Jonathan Jones LB 6-0 200 Ocoee, Fla. (Oak Ridge) Tony Jones Jr. RB 5-10 219 St. Petersburg, Fla. (IMG Academy) Khalid Kareem DL 6-4 245 Pontiac, Mich. (Harrison) Tommy Kraemer OL 6-5 310 Cincinnati (Elder) Julian Love DB 5-11 175 Westchester, Ill. (Nazareth Academy) Deon McIntosh RB 5-11 180 Pompano Beach, Fla. (Cardinal Gibbons) Javon McKinley WR 6-3 205 Corona, Calif. (Centennial) D.J. Morgan DB 6-2 190 Norwalk, Calif. (St. John Bosco) Adetokunbo Ogundeji DL 6-5 216 West Bloomfield, Mich. (Walled Lake) Julian Okwara DL 6-4 216 Charlotte, N.C. (Ardrey Kell) Spencer Perry DB 6-2 204 Newnan, Ga. (IMG Academy) Troy Pride Jr. DB 5-11 175 Greer, S.C. (Greer) John Shannon LS 6-2 220 Lake Forest, Ill. (Loyola Academy) Kevin Stepherson WR 5-11 171 Jacksonville, Fla. (First Coast) Devin Studstill DB 6-0 189 Riviera Beach, Fla. (Palm Beach Gardens) Donté Vaughn DB 6-3 190 Memphis, Tenn. (Whitehaven)