Notre Dame Football: Irish becoming the favorite for elite 2022 OLB

Notre Dame football is trending with expert picks for one of the top outside linebackers in the class of 2022 in four-star recruit Joshua Burnham. 

In the 2021 recruiting class, Notre Dame football went into the state of Michigan and landed one of the top players in offensive lineman Rocco Spindler.

And now, in the class of 2022, there is a possibility that the Fighting Irish could land another top talent from the state of Michigan, as four-star outside linebacker Joshua Burnham, the No. 2 player in that state, has been trending with crystal ball projections to Notre Dame football.

A few weeks ago, Burnham, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound outside linebacker, released his top three list, which included Michigan, Notre Dame and Wisconsin.

At that point, the Wolverines controlled all of his crystal ball projections and with programs such as Ohio State and Alabama left off the list, U-M felt like a solid favorite.

But as things often do in recruiting, it sort of changed in an instant. The reason for the change was the fact Michigan linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary, the last holdover from the previous defensive staff, took a job with Tennessee just days before spring practice.

Recruiting is about relationships and while Notre Dame football and Michigan each have new defensive coordinators, Marcus Freeman seems to be doing a better job of recruiting Burnham.

Following the commitment of five-star cornerback Will Johnson to the Wolverines on Sunday, Notre Dame football started trending with Burnham Monday morning as Steve Wiltfong, a top recruiting analyst for 247 sports nationally, flipped his pick from Michigan to ND.

Some others such as Tom Loy of Irish Illustrated followed. Michigan still has more crystal ball picks altogether, but it’s clear that Michigan has something to worry about with Burnham.

Once Jean-Mary was out of the picture, Michigan knew it was going to have some work to do and now that’s more apparent than ever.

The key thing here might be timing.

Burnham has already narrowed his list of teams down to three and once a recruit does that, a commitment usually isn’t far off, although not always the case.

I’d expect the full-court press from both Notre Dame football and Michigan. This has the feeling of another recruiting battle between the two historic rivals but right now, the Irish look to have the lead as a possible decision looms for the No. 111 player in the 2022 recruiting class according to the 247 sports composite rankings.

Burnham does have some offensive ability and played quarterback in high school. However, most see him as an outside linebacker and he’s ranked ninth at that position.

There’s no question he’s a priority target for both programs and he would be a huge building block for the Irish and their 2022 recruiting class.