Welcome to Irish Illustrated tracking the trail.

I'm Drew Mentock, joined by our Nardium Recruiting expert, Eric Thomas.

Thanks to everyone for joining us to discuss the latest in Nardium recruiting.

In our second segment, we will also answer some subscribers' questions, but first, we wanted to dive into the most recent news from the trail.

Since our last episode, Notre Dame has picked up four more commitments, given the Irish 16 prospects in the class of 2026.

According to 247 sports, Notre Dame currently has the number two overall ranked class in the country.

More importantly, the team's average recruiting ranking is 92.21, which ranks the Irish

third among programs with at least 10 commitments this far. That's certainly helped by

Notre Dame's most recent addition. On Wednesday, Blue Chip running back, Jonas Walton picked Notre Dame over offers from

Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, Stanford, and others. Eric, what stands out to you about Walton,

who's listed at 5'9 and 205 pounds, and does he fit into the class better than the other four-star

backs Notre Dame had offered, like Brian Bonner,

Messiah Mickens, and to Zephen Walker.

Yeah, it's a good question.

So for Walton, the first thing that stands out is just the overall versatility as like an every down back.

Not only is he a player who you see when you watch his highlight tape like he he can

you know bounce the ball outside which you know can be a negative if it's

undiscipline but he can bounce the ball outside for big plays he can take it between the

tackles for big plays he's also an excellent pass catcher and past blocker um there are actually

reps on walton's tape where at five nine two hundred 205 pounds, he's lined up as a tight end

and basically sealing the end block for other running backs. Now, he's not past blocking

in these situations, so it's a little bit different. But the fact that they have that level of

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