Thomas Harper has been a little bit of a late bloomer.
Unwilling to strive soccer till his sophomore 12 months in highschool, unable to crack the Oklahoma State beginning lineup till his senior 12 months in school, the 5-foot-11 180-pound safety/nickel hybrid believes his greatest soccer may nonetheless be forward of him.
Notre Dame got here to the identical conclusion after watching tape of Harper, vetting Harper and having the transfer portal prospect in for a go to on Wednesday. And on Friday, the Knoxville, Tenn., product dedicated to be part of the Irish for his fifth and closing school season.
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Harper turns into the fifth transfer to commit to be part of a Notre Dame crew that went 9-4 this previous season in head coach Marcus Freeman’s first 12 months. He joins Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman, who committed Thursday after a two-day midweek go to, Virginia Tech broad receiver Kaleb Smith, Penn punter Ben Krimm and South Florida kicker Spender Shrader.
Spring-semester courses start Jan. 17 with winter conditioning shortly thereafter.
The Irish want high quality and amount on the safety place and is probably not completed purchasing. Arkansas safety Jalen Catalon is reportedly in play as effectively.
Notre Dame signed three 2023 recruits — Ben Minich, Adon Shuler and Brandyn Hillman — who will help its safety depth chart subsequent season, however the Irish may be gentle on expertise. Minich and Shuler can be mid-year enrollees and can take part in spring observe.
Senior Brandon Joseph, a 10-game starter in 2022, declared Sunday for the NFL Draft. Graduate senior Houston Griffith exhausted his school soccer eligibility this previous season by taking part in in a Notre Dame report 62 profession video games.
Graduate senior DJ Brown, a 10-game starter in 2022, participated in Notre Dame’s Senior Day ceremony earlier than the Boston College sport, however he has not publicly introduced if he can be returning for a sixth season.
If Brown leaves, the Irish would have been left with simply two safeties who’ve performed significant snaps: juniors Xavier Watts and Ramon Henderson.
After a highschool profession as a prolific broad receiver at Karns High in Knoxville, Harper performed in 42 video games in 4 seasons with the Cowboys. He lastly labored his manner into the beginning lineup as a senior in 2022, however he was restricted by undisclosed accidents.
Harper began in all seven of the video games during which he performed for Oklahoma State, and missed 5 video games earlier than coming into the portal forward of the Guaranteed Rate Bowl.
Harper, a former two-star recruit, totaled 30 tackles, three move breakups, one interception and 1.5 tackles for a loss in 2022. His profession included 93 tackles, eight move breakups, 5 tackles for loss, two interceptions, one compelled fumble and one recovered fumble.
Oklahoma State’s base protection included three safeties, so Harper typically had slot cornerback obligations as effectively. According to Pro Football Focus, Harper allowed 19 receptions on 32 passes (59.4%) thrown to gamers he coated. Those move catchers mixed for 185 yards and one landing. Harper’s 65.0 defensive grade from PFF was barely higher in 2022 than Watts (64.9) and Griffith (63.1) and a good quantity higher than Brown (57.9) and Henderson (52.4).
Harper didn’t play towards Notre Dame within the 2022 Fiesta Bowl. His older brother, Devin Harper, had 10 tackles and one sort out for loss within the 37-35 victory over the Irish. Devin was chosen within the sixth spherical of the NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys.
The Notre Dame Football Transfer Tracker particulars who’s in and who’s out from Notre Dame’s roster for the reason that begin of the 2022 season.
Rivals has rankings for many of Notre Dame’s incoming and outgoing transfers.
The Insider Lounge is monitoring which portal prospects Notre Dame has supplied.
The Rivals Transfer Tracker is the house for all of the transfer portal motion nationally.
The 2023 Notre Dame Scholarship Chart breaks down the roster by place group and 12 months of eligibility, and is being up to date with every ingoing or outgoing transaction.
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