Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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28 MARCH 2018 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2018 FOOTBALL RECRUITING ISSUE runs with his head down and shows good body lean." BGI: What are your thoughts on Phil Jurkovec? Farrell: "He looked so good during the regular season. He's very evasive and a good decision maker and ac- curate, though his mechanics are ugly. Then when you see him in other set- tings, he just doesn't look good. "I'm going to assume he's a gamer and base my thoughts on the game film. That's why we have him ranked so highly. I'm not going to pick him apart for his mechanics, his release and all that stuff he needs to work on. "I like the fact that he's evasive. He reminds me of Mississippi State quar- terback Nick Fitzgerald. He's a big kid that you don't expect to be able to run, but he can get yardage with his feet." Lemming: "I have seen him each of the past few years, and on film, he has pinpoint accuracy. I think a lot of people lowered him because he didn't look good in the Army game. I was part of that Army game early on and most of our quarterbacks never looked good. "The [AJ] McCarron kid may have been the worst quarterback we ever had in San Antonio, and he wound up winning two national titles for Ala- bama. You don't go by when you have to split reps with two or three other quarterbacks on your team. Then you get only a series or two to play. That's ridiculous. Overall, this kid can do it all. He's a leader, and he's smart. To top it all, he's tall, but he can run. "What he is lacking now is strength and weight, but that will get taken care of in the next year or so. Notre Dame has a great strength coach. Once Jurkovec gets up to 225 pounds or so he will be the real deal." BGI: Who was Notre Dame's biggest miss in this cycle? Farrell: "Nick Petit-Frere. That is a superstar offensive tackle who I think has as high a ceiling, or a higher ceil- ing, than Quenton Nelson or Mike McGlinchey. "They were down to the wire with him. They were one of his finalists, and they led at one point. That's the biggest loss for me, and I assume that's what everybody would say." Lemming: "Probably wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, who signed with USC. Or his teammate Solomon Tu- liaupupu. But linebacker wise they aren't hurting there, so Amon-Ra. "I don't even know if they missed on any of the great running backs. I don't think they had a shot at any of them. But they were in the mix for Amon-Ra and that was a tough loss. So was Nick Petit-Frere out of Tampa. I spent a couple hours with him. It wasn't new offensive line coach Jeff Quinn's fault because he did an excel- lent job on him. "Nick got close with Notre Dame's former offensive line coach Harry Hiestand. With Harry leaving for the NFL, it ruined all of Notre Dame's chances no matter what Quinn did." BGI: What are your thoughts on the three Notre Dame 2019 commits? Farrell: "Four-star quarterback Cade McNamara is an interesting kid. He's not very big, he also can do some things with his feet and he has a really good feel for the pocket. I think they started off landing a key position. "[Three-star athlete] KJ Wallace is a very athletic kid who can play mul- tiple positions. He's out of a key area as well because Notre Dame wants to start recruiting Georgia and the South- east more. "[Four-star] Jacob Lacey, it's hard to find defensive tackles that are gap shooters, and that's what he is. He can shoot the gap, he can get after the quarterback, and he's athletic, not just a run stuffer. It's a good start for them for sure." Lemming: "Cade isn't real big when you look at him. He's more [former NFL quarterback] Steve Young's size, but I'm very impressed with him. He's very confident, and you need to see that in your quarterback. People are knocking that he plays in Reno, but he's got great stats. He may have played against weaker competition, but so did Peyton Manning and a lot of others. The key is confidence and overall athletic skills. He certainly has the arm strength to play at Notre Dame. "I thought KJ was one of the better DBs in the Atlanta area, and that area is absolutely loaded with DBs. Even last year I gave him a four-star grade in my magazine. He plays cornerback, but probably will wind up playing safety in college. He has good speed, but he lacks elite speed. "I saw Lacey as a freshman in Ken- tucky and then again the next year. I spent some time watching him at practice, and his coach had nothing but rave reviews. He can stay low, constantly demands a double-team, displays great use of hands, and has a great first step and great attitude. He's exactly what Notre Dame needs on that defensive line. They don't have a lot of impact guys on the defensive line, and he can become one." ✦ Rivals 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. USC 4. Texas 5. Penn State 6. Miami (Fla.) 7. Alabama 8. Clemson Oklahoma 10. Florida State 11. Notre Dame 12. Auburn 13. LSU 14. Washington 15. Oregon 16. Texas A&M 17. UCLA 18. Florida 19. South Carolina 20. Tennessee 21. Nebraska 22. Virginia Tech 23. North Carolina 24. Michigan 25. Mississippi State 247Sports 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Texas 4. USC 5. Penn State 6. Clemson 7. Alabama 8. Miami (Fla.) 9. Oklahoma 10. Notre Dame 11. Florida State 12. Auburn 13. Washington 14. Florida 15. LSU 16. Oregon 17. Texas A&M 18. UCLA 19. South Carolina 20. Tennessee 21. Michigan 22. Nebraska 23. North Carolina 24. Virginia Tech 25. TCU ESPN 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Texas 4. Penn State 5. Clemson 6. Alabama 7. USC 8. Miami (Fla.) 9. Notre Dame 10. Oklahoma 11. Florida State 12. Auburn 13. Florida 14. LSU 15. Washington 16. Texas A&M 17. Oregon 18. South Carolina 19. UCLA 20. Michigan 21. Nebraska 22. Virginia Tech 23. Tennessee 24. Baylor 25. TCU 2018 TEAM RANKINGS As of Feb. 13