Notre Dame Football: Irish quietly own Top 5 2020 recruiting class

Notre Dame football recruiting has surged in recent weeks, boosting the Irish to their highest recruiting ranking in nearly a decade. Can they finish?

The battle for the top spot in the 2020 college football recruiting rankings includes some familiar names. Clemson and Alabama are No. 1 and No. 2, that’s no surprise. LSU and Ohio State sit at No. 3 and No. 4. Again, that’s become par for the course for some of the sports perennial contenders. But No. 5 is a bit of a surprise.

Notre Dame football currently owns the fifth-best 2020 recruiting class in the nation. Surging up the boards after three new commitments in the month of July, the Irish have entered a tier of elite recruiting that hasn’t been seen in South Bend for some time.

It’s not like Notre Dame has failed to bring in elite talent. They’ve had a Top 20 class every year since 2010 when they finished at No. 21. Following their 2010 finish, Notre Dame has averaged the No. 11 over the past nine years. A hundred college football programs would trade anything to recruit at that level, but there’s a noticeable talent gap between a Top 11 recruiting team and a Top 5 recruiting team — one need look no further than last year’s College Football Playoff Semifinal.

Notre Dame hasn’t finished with a top-5 class since 2013. That haul included 5-star Jaylon Smith, 4-star Mike McGlinchey, 4-star Will Fuller and others. Those are NFL-caliber players. That’s what it takes to compete at college football’s highest level. And, at least for now, Notre Dame looks to have rejoined the company of the select programs able to bring in that kind of talent.

The Irish are a long ways off from the Early Signing Period in December. National Signing Day will follow soon after. Notre Dame is in the midst of their best recruiting in nearly a decade. Maintaining their current trajectory will be paramount. If they can do that, it might not be so long before they return to the Playoff after all.