Notre Dame Just Made a MASSIVE Recruiting Statement
Ryan Roberts reacts to Notre Dame landing 2027 offensive line recruit Albert Simien and how this class may be Notre Dame's best ever
Video Transcript
Well, there you have it, Notre Dame fans.
The Fighting Irish have landed elite 2027 offensive lineman, Albert Simeon, out of Lake Charles, Louisiana, Sam Houston.
Wanna talk about the impact of Simeon for the Notre Dame 2027 class, talk a little bit about the historic offensive line recruiting that we're seeing under Joe Rudolph, and what could be next for the Fighting Irish.
Breaking down.
What's up, everybody?
Ryan Roberts from A to Z Sports breaking down everything Notre Dame Football.
Folks, huge day on Friday as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish land a commitment from elite five-star offensive lineman, Albert Simeon, who is rated on the 247Sports composite ranking as a five-star player, the number 14 overall player in the 2027 class, and number two interior offensive lineman.
So many reasons that make this one massive recruitment and commitment for the Fighting Irish, and I wanna talk about every part of this with y'all.
First and foremost, Albert Simeon is a fantastic football player, which shouldn't be much of a surprise when you consider the offer list, when you consider the recruiting rankings.
I mean, you had to beat LSU, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, and a lot of other really s- good schools like Nebraska for a player like Albert Simeon.
So high demand, high rankings, and this is a player, if you pop on the film, he plays left tackle for Sam Houston.
And at 6'4", 280-plus pounds, he's got the length where I actually think he could play offensive tackle on the college level, and he could probably be a really good one, potentially.
But man, I am dreaming of him as a physical force, as an interior offensive lineman.
As a guard, I really think that he has All-American upside and probably early rounds potential on the interior offensive line.
Like, he is that talented.
But I do see there a world in a stylistic comparison to, like, Ike Mkwanu, who played at NC State, was a first-round draft pick by the Carolina Panthers a few years ago, where he can be like a power-oriented offensive tackle, that if you have a specific system, I think he can play left tackle and he can be a plus player there.
But ultimately, I do think that where that five-star upside comes in at, that's on the interior offensive line.
There's a reason why so many people wanted him, so many teams coveted him.
This is an elite, elite football player.
And I think that he meshes with this offensive line class for Notre Dame really well, 'cause the way I look at this is you have commitments now from on top of Simeon, Olu Olugbolola out of New Jersey, who is all of 6'6", about 290, 295 right now.
He is a left tackle of the future type in terms of body type, length, explosiveness, upside, all those types of things.
That's probably your left tackle in the class.
To make the fit make even more sense, James Halter, who's a top 100 player out of Central Catholic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he is, plays right tackle for his high school right now.
So that might be your future at right tackle.
But his testing numbers, if you've seen any of him from camps, he is an explosive athlete who also has 34-inch arms, so lots of love about him.
Then you have Richie Flanagan, who is, of course, is a Notre Dame legacy, who's a little bit of a smaller guy, about 6'3", 270 pounds or so.
His future looks destined to probably play either guard or center on the college level.
And then you have Jackson Hill, who's a little bit of that swing player in terms of, like, he plays offensive tackle in high school, but I could see him being a guard.
He kinda gives me some, like I, actually, I don't even know if I wanna make, like, a, a crazy comparison.
But, like, he has the upside, I think, to potentially be a right tackle, could be an interior offensive lineman.
I just think that he, if he develops properly, will just be probably your fourth or fifth best offensive lineman on a unit but, like, an important player that depending on if player X gets hurt, player Y is unavailable, whatever, Jackson Hill has some versatility to play a couple different spots.
And then you have Albert Simeon, who I think is your stud on the interior and probably your stud of that group just in general.
To think now that you have two five-star offensive linemen in this class with Olu and now Albert Simeon, that m- has the makings of maybe the best offensive line class of my lifetime, and I'm 34 years old.
And just kinda think back to some of the great offensive line groups that they've had.
Obviously, Notre Dame has always recruited and developed offensive linemen at an extremely high level.
And I'll ask you all in the chat, make sure you hit the like button and subscribe while you're going down there, what is the best offensive line class of your lifetime, or the one that you remember personally if there's historical context that you have back to Lou Holtz days or even before that?
Would love to hear how you think that this class stacks up against the rest.
Now, it pushes your class to a top two class in the country.
It already has been rising on, like, rivals as the number two class behind Texas A&M.
But I think that that's kinda where I wanna transition this thing is obviously you have the opportunity under Marcus Freeman to solidify a elite 2027 class, and Albert Simeon's a big part of that.
You also beat Texas A&M for this one.
And just kinda quick context of this battle, LSU, I think, finished third in this one.
There's been a lot of talk about LSU rising in this recruitment.
Guys, I-- Just some backstory here.
I talked to someone that was close to Albert Simeon about a month and a half ago, and at that point they were like, "This is Texas A&M, Notre Dame.
I don't think LSU has a chance."
Like, they don't have a chance.
I don't know where this LSU bump has been coming from.
I truly don't.
Even folks around Baton Rouge didn't think that they had a chance in this one for several weeks.
So I don't know where the LSU thing came from, just don't know.
I have no idea.
All I know is that this was a Texas A&M-Notre Dame battle, and if you guys have been following recruiting, you know that Texas A&M's getting a little bit annoying on the recruiting trail.
And it's not a bad thing, just a little bit of competition.
But obviously with how the Kayden Henderson elite five-star linebacker of Tampa Jay Jesuit, after how that recruitment went and some of the negative recruiting that happened on the back end for the Aggies, you wanted to win this one.
And Notre Dame had an opportunity to make a little bit of a statement with Albert Simeon, which they did.
And, and they were ultimately able to win out, which I think, again, is a testament to Joe Rudolph, a testament to Marcus Freeman, a testament to this entire offensive recruiting staff and this staff just in general.
The fact that you were able to get this one done, because going into the official visit last weekend for Albert Simeon It was pretty 50/50, man.
Like, there was some people that were optimistic on Notre Dame's side, but they really had to have a big visit.
I think the timing and, and placement of that visit right before he ultimately makes his decision afterwards, I think that was huge.
And having the late d- the late official visit in general I think was paramount for this.
And I really do think that we need to take a second here, and 'cause I know that there's a lot of, there's a lot of conflicting feelings about Joe Rudolph and the fan base.
I think most people would agree, though, whether you think he's a good coach, a really good coach, an average coach, whatever you think that the quality is there, I know that there's some questionable decision-making in terms of where he's putting guys positionally.
But there is no doubt he is an outstanding recruiter, man.
The fact that this, these players could walk into a room next year that in theory could have Charles Jagasaw, Gerby Lambert, Will Black, like the talent in that offensive line room, you know, throw in Grayson McHugh, like the talent in that offensive line room, Tyler Merrill, so many good offensive linemen in that room.
And there's a, th- there's an argument that, again, this could be one of the elite offensive line call, halls, excuse me, in Notre Dame history.
And then the last thing, the last thing.
There was never that p- there was never that feeling that LSU was a serious contender, back to my original conversation point here.
Because, one, they d- Simeon, the Simeon household was not a pro-LSU household growing up.
They didn't watch LSU football every Saturday, like it just wasn't their thing.
They're also a high academic family, so I think that always was gonna go into the conversation.
And then there's a lot of pro-Notre Dame on the Simeon side of things, right, for helping Albert make this decision.
I think that was big.
But we cannot understate, forget about the Texas A&M thing for a second.
You cannot understate getting a five-star player out of the state of Louisiana.
Like the Deep South here, being able to go and get that type of football player is huge, man.
And it's, it's huge especially when you combine it with you've went into Pennsylvania to get Abraham Sisay.
You went down to New Jersey and got Olu Olubolola, who you were kind of late in getting in with.
You've gotten like, Xavier Hassan out of North Carolina.
You got Chet Monds, who I think is gonna be one of the biggest risers in this class, a talented running back group.
Like this is just David Folaron's show.
After a lot of back and forth, you were able to close the deal there.
The impact that we're seeing on the recruiting trail to Marcus Freeman, this is difference.
And it, it-- 'cause someone just said, "Oh, oh," I, I literally saw a Notre Dame chat the other day that was like, "Oh, Charlie Weis recruited like this."
No, no, no.
Charlie Weis recruited offensively like this, sort of, but he did not recruit the defensive side of the football.
These are well-balanced, incredible recruiting classes that we are seeing.
There's gonna be a fun conversation at the end, potentially, depending on how a couple things shake out, of whether 2027 or 2026 was the better recruiting class for Notre Dame.
You can't recruit at this level at Notre Dame, we were once told.
Well, Marcus Freeman has changed that, and the Albert Simeon commitment is the latest testament to the impact that we are seeing in that recruiting.
