Notre Dame scored a commitment from three-star defensive athlete Taebron Bennie-Powell on Wednesday after offering the West Chester, Ohio, prospect last week. Here’s what you need to know:
- Bennie-Powell is the 20th verbal commitment in Notre Dame’s 2024 recruiting class, which ranks fifth nationally according to 247Sports Composite ratings, behind Georgia, Michigan, Florida and Ohio State.
- Notre Dame was one of just five Power 5 programs to offer Bennie-Powell, joining West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Duke and Kentucky.
- His 0.8519 player rating in the 247Sports Composite makes him the lowest-rated member of Notre Dame’s class and would make him the lowest-rated defensive back to sign with the Irish since Nicco Fertitta in 2015.
Why Notre Dame was ahead of the game in Bennie-Powell’s recruitment
The Irish saw something in the 6-foot-3, 190-pound athlete that other programs did not.
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And there’s a reason why the Irish would trust any projection coming from Lakota West head coach Tom Bolden, who made his name as the head coach at Colerain outside Cincinnati. That’s the alma mater of former Irish linebacker Jarrett Grace, but it also produced several future Cincinnati Bearcats, with seven Colerain players staying home during Bolden’s time there. That group included linebackers Ivan Pace Jr. and Darrian Beavers, who were lightly recruited out of high school. Pace, who started his college career at Miami (Ohio), finished last season with 137 tackles and 21.5 tackles for loss and was a first-team All-American.
“I think there’s probably some of that,” said Lakota West defensive coordinator Tyler Huls of Bolden’s credibility with the Irish staff. “He’s seen it all. The Ivan Pace kid, Day One, he told people he was gonna be a dude and nobody bit on it. Look where he ended up.”
Pair Bolden’s track record with Notre Dame’s recruitment of safety Ben Minich last season, and it makes sense why the Irish would make an offer based on both Bennie-Powell’s camp performance and an endorsement from Bolden.
What kind of safety could Bennie-Powell be?
Bennie-Powell played outside linebacker last season for Lakota West and will transition to safety this summer. He was stuck behind Minich and Hartford, which made getting consistent work on the back end of the defense impossible. But Lakota West’s scheme asked Bennie-Powell to do a little bit of everything, jamming a tight end at the line of scrimmage on one play and covering a slot receiver one-on-one the next. For a lanky prospect with a size 15 shoe, per Huls, Bennie-Powell’s best football may be years ahead of him.
He’ll be a project for Notre Dame to finish.
“He’s got tremendous range when it comes to the ball in the air as a middle field safety,” Huls said. “But if you’re playing Cover Four, he can run the alley and hit. He’s a big kid. When he gets to college and has got position coaches with him nonstop, is watching film, really gets specialization that you don’t get at the high school level, who knows what his potential could be.”
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Bennie-Powell is the fourth defensive back in Notre Dame’s recruiting class and second safety, following three-star Kennedy Urlacher. The Irish could add another defensive back on Saturday when four-star Brauntae Johnson announces his college decision, with Notre Dame the favorite over Tennessee, Michigan State, Cincinnati and Purdue.
Backstory
Bennie-Powell worked out at the Irish summer evaluation camp earlier this month. He’s a former Lakota West High School teammate of Notre Dame freshman safety Minich. The school also produced two recent Ohio State signees: safety Malik Hartford and cornerback Jyaire Brown.
Only three programs have more verbal commitments in the Class of 2024 than the Irish: Michigan (22), Stanford (22) and Minnesota (23).
Required reading
(Photo: Tommy Gilligan / USA Today)
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