On Friday evening, Notre Dame added Pittsburgh Central Catholic defensive tackle Donovan Hinish to its 2022 class, which ranks No. 4 in the country per Rivals.
National Signing Day for the 2022 class is six months away, and there will be plenty of movement in the Rivals recruiting rankings from now until then. Notre Dame could finish in the top five or slide down to the teens. There is no telling the future, but as things stand today, Notre Dame has a top-five class.
Notre Dame has had the No. 4 class for several weeks now, and Hinish’s commitment gave the Irish 90 extra points to separate itself from Oklahoma. Notre Dame has 1,488 points compared to the Sooners’ 1,228. However, Notre Dame has 14 commitments in the class, which is five more than the Sooners have.
[embedded content]
Per Rivals, Notre Dame has the most verbal commitments in the country with its group of 14. It will be difficult to Notre Dame to remain in the top five, as a school like Alabama only has six commitments at this point in the cycle but is expected to finish in the top five, as it typically does.
Notre Dame’s class trails Ohio State, LSU and Georgia, respectively, in the Rivals rankings. Ohio State has two less commitments than Notre Dame but has a sizable lead in the rankings, as the Buckeyes have 1,868 points compared to the Irish’s 1,488. Ohio State has three five-star prospects committed, which holds a great deal of weight, while the Irish do not have a five-star commit.
Notre Dame has an average star ranking of 3.64, which ranks No. 6 among the schools currently in Rivals’ top 10. For comparison’s sake, only two programs finished in Rivals’ top 10 signed classes with lower than a 3.6 star ranking per commitment in the 2021 cycle — Michigan (No. 9, 3.57) and Notre Dame (No. 10, 3.44).
Notre Dame finishing with a top-five class is not out of the realm of possibility, but it seems more likely that Notre Dame finishes somewhere in the 7-11 range.
For more details on the Rivals rankings formula, click here.
Hinish committed to Notre Dame over other offers from Akron, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Coastal Carolina, Kent State, Pittsburgh, Toledo, UCF, Virginia Tech and Western Michigan. Notre Dame was offer No. 1 for Hinish back on Nov. 19, and the Irish instantly became the favorite to land his pledge.
Rivals lists Hinish with a 5.7 recruit ranking, the highest designation for a three-star prospect. He is ranked as the No. 15 prospect in Pennsylvania and the nation’s No. 33 defensive tackle.
Hinish was named to the 2020 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette WPIAL all-conference class 6A first-team defense and is a 2020 Pennsylvania coaches class 6A second-team defensive tackle. MaxPreps also lists Hinish on its 2020 all-state second team defense.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review lists Hinish as Western Pennsylvania’s No. 4 overall recruit in the 2022 class.
2022 Rivals Top 10 Team Rankings (as of June 4, 2021)
—-
• Talk about it inside The Lou Somogyi Board.
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
• Sign up for Blue & Gold’s news alerts and daily newsletter.
• Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @Rivals_Singer, @PatrickEngel_ and @ToddBurlage.
• Like us on Facebook.