Friday Night Notes: Notre Dame finds Love, Clemson…

Friday Night Notes: Notre Dame finds Love, Clemson reclaims big OT commitment, plus more

USA TODAY High School Sports‘ Friday Night Notes is a weekly high school recruiting recap that looks at the latest news from around the country—from the Class of 2023 to ’24 and beyond.

Notre Dame hosted Stanford last Saturday and lost the game 16-14. The Fighting Irish got quite a consolation prize, though. They were hosting one of the top recruits in the class of 2023 for an official visit: Christian Brothers College (Mo.) running back Jeremiyah Love.

Love must have been impressed by whatever he saw during his trip to South Bend. He has committed to playing college ball for Notre Dame, taking some of the sting out of Saturday’s loss.

Love (6-foot-0, 190 pounds) is ranked the third-best athlete in the class of 2023 and No. 66 overall, according to 247Sports. He had offers from 33 other schools, including Michigan, Alabama and Texas A&M.

That makes for 23 hard commits for Notre Dame’s class of 2023, which is currently ranked No. 3 in the nation, just a few points behind Georgia. Love is the second running back in the class, joining three-star prospect Dylan Edwards from Derby (Kansas).

Moving on, here’s what else we’ve got in the notebook…

Zechariah Owens recommits to Clemson

A verbal commitment is hardly the end of the road, though. Until they actually sign (national signing day is February 1, 2023), these players are free to change their minds.

Several highly-touted prospects have decommitted recently, including Zechariah Owens from Clemson. It didn’t take long for Owens to go back, though. Less than a week after his decision, Owens has re-committed to playing for Clemson. He made the announcement Tuesday on social media:

Feels great to be back can’t wait to be home in January #ALLIN🐅 pic.twitter.com/hcyhUupx5Z

— Zechariah”FLAPJACK” Owens (@fl6pjack) October 18, 2022

Owens (6-foot-7, 365 pounds) is ranked No. 18 at his position and No. 191 overall. He also had interest from Florida State and Miami, among others.

Clemson now has 20 commits for the class of 2023 – they have passed Florida and rank No. 8 in this recruiting cycle.

Florida commit flips to Mississippi State

Another reason why the Gators dropped a spot is that they also had to deal with a decommitment this week. After losing 45-35 to LSU, Florida received another blow on Sunday when F.W. Buchholz (Fla.) athlete Creed Whittemore (5-foot-11, 175 pounds) decommitted and flipped to Mississippi State. Whittemore’s brother Trent plays wide receiver for Florida, so this seemed like a natural fit. A recent visit to the Bulldogs apparently helped Steve Spurrier Jr. to convince Creed to make the jump, though.

The versatile Whittemore is a quality addition to Mike Leach’s program. Mississippi State has 16 total commitments and ranks No. 36 in this cycle.