Notre Dame Football: Should Irish be worried about Dante Moore?

Five-star quarterback Dante Moore, Notre Dame football’s top recruiting target in 2023, is visiting Michigan and wants to visit Texas A&M. Should the Irish be worried? 

It wasn’t that long ago that the On3.com prediction machine gave Notre Dame football a nearly 90 percent chance of winning the recruitment of five-star quarterback Dante Moore.

Now, that percentage has dipped below 40 percent at 39.9 and it’s fair to say that Notre Dame football is losing some momentum in this recruitment.

Moore was on campus last month and the Irish were hoping to get him to commit, but that didn’t happen and things have been trending away from Notre Dame, bit by bit, ever since.

To be fair, Moore is a really quiet kid and doesn’t really talk much about his recruitment, so he can be hard to read. But we know that Dante Moore has recently visited LSU and saw Joe Burrow, as well as Oregon. He really seemed to enjoy his visit to Oregon and tweeted a photo of a Duck a couple of days later when there was supposed to be some sort of announcement.

LSU now has a 23-percent chance of getting Moore according to the On3 prediction machine, while Oregon is up at 17 percent. Michigan is still down at 2 percent but the Wolverines are rising ever so slightly and could rise a lot more after the QB visits Ann Arbor this weekend.

https://twitter.com/TheWolverineOn3/status/1526709018567352320

Moore confirmed his visit to Michigan with multiple media outs. It is just an unofficial visit, still, you can bet the Wolverines will roll out the red carpet for their top target also.

How concerned should Notre Dame football be?

The Detroit King prospect ranks eighth overall according to the On3 consensus rankings and is the fourth-ranked quarterback. He’s an elite passer and would be a game-changing addition for any of the programs after him.

And there is reason for Notre Dame to be concerned and not just about Michigan but also Texas A&M. They are another threat about to rise in this recruitment, especially if Moore visits College Station which he told Allen Trieu of 247 sports that he wants to do “soon”.

The official visits will be important to watch but the Aggies are big-time when it comes to NIL and they have been reeling in tons of five-star prospects.

You also can’t count out Michigan in this race. This latest visit by Dante Moore is a perfect opportunity for Jim Harbaugh to re-assert himself in this recruitment and that’s the one thing that can make a big difference from a Michigan perspective.

While Marcus Freeman is constantly in contact with Moore, as is OC Tommy Rees and those guys have a great relationship, Harbaugh offered Moore personally when he was in 8th grade.

The NFL flirtation of Harbaugh didn’t help and neither did Josh Gattis leaving for Miami, who is also listed as fourth right now according to the prediction machine.

But if Harbaugh can reassure Moore that he’s in Ann Arbor for the long haul and rekindle their relationship a little bit, that’s something Notre Dame football should be worried about.

The Irish have essentially gone all-in on Moore, although Avery Johnson is a name to know on the backburner, and there is still a lot of work to do to win Moore’s commitment.

But right now, the one thing Notre Dame football doesn’t seem to have is momentum.