ZEKE AND DESTROY IN THE BEND

Notre Dame picked up a huge commitment yesterday when 4 star linebacker Zeke Motta decided on the Fighting Irish despite Florida and Auburn making strong pushes to get the Florida prep product. Zeke is the 16th commitment to the current Irish class and is a punishing, future "SAM" linebacker who should thrive in Jon Tenuta's blitzing defense. Motta took his official visit last week against Stanford and came away with a great feeling of belonging among the Notre Dame community.

In fact ND fan Garrett Banghart created a "Zeke and Destroy" signed that really hit it off for Motta when he saw it. Motta came away impressed with how much the fans knew about him and how much they wanted him to be a part of Notre Dame's future.

BlueandGold.com was the first publication to break the news on Motta's commitment...
“My official visit to Notre Dame was just great. The academics are so good, the football program is great and the fan base had so much to do with my trip being so pleasurable for my Dad and me,” Motta said.

Motta will be an early enrollment in January along with defensive tackle Tyler Stockton. This should bring a little bit of satisfaction among ND fans since Urban Meyer has been known to steal ND defensive prospects the past couple of seasons. Motta doesn't plan on taking any other visits and seems 100% committed at this point.

More good news for the Irish on the defensive recruiting side broke today when it was confirmed that Hawaii product and the #1 inside linebacker in the country Manti Te'o is set to visit Notre Dame when they play Pitt on November 1st. Te'o has already visited UCLA back in September and will also visit USC and BYU. If the Irish can land Te'o it would an enormous coup for the Irish staff and be another significant step towards building a faster defense for the future. Personally I like Maryland product and 5 star linebackerJelani Jenkins better because his film to me is more impressive but I have a feeling he will end up at Penn State. Landing either one of Te'o or Jenkins at the inside linebacker spot would be the "signature" recruit for the defensive side of the ball with the offense already landing 5 star runningback Cierre Wood.

Pete Sampson of IrishIllustrated.com is also reporting that 4 star safety and Tallahassee product Jawanza Starling is interested in setting up an official visit to Notre Dame. Right now it appears the Irish are well on their way to bringing in a great defensive class but they still need to get some more d-linemen to compete for elite status when it comes to Saturdays in the Fall. One of either Chris Bonds, Davon Custis, and Gabe Ikard is absolutely necessary with the preference to bring in two of them. Ikard had a great visit but the Oklahoma product will visit Dallas this weekend for the Red River Shootout and both of those teams are very much still in it. Bonds will be a tough get since he is from South Carolina and it is always hard to pull recruits from SEC country. He is also coming off major knee surgery. Custis is from Columbus, Ohio but appears to be the best bet right now. He had an unofficial visit during the Michigan game and apparently the Irish staff made quite an impression with him and his family. He is planning on making another visit, this time official, within the next few weeks.