Five thoughts on defensive lineman Sean Sevillano’s Notre Dame commitment
Notre Dame added another verbal commitment to its 2024 recruiting class on Friday. 2024 three-star defensive lineman Sean Sevillano pledged to the Irish over Auburn, Miami (Fla.) and Ohio State.
The On3 Industry Ranking — a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services — considers Sevillano the No. 880 overall player, No. 82 defensive lineman and No. 121 prospect in Florida. He has an 86.22 rating.
In On3’s own rankings, the 6-foot-1 ½, 325-pound Sevillano is the No. 66 defensive lineman and No. 87 prospect in Florida. On3 gave him an 88 rating.
Sevillano’s On3 NIL Valuation annual value is $18,400.
Here are five thoughts on Notre Dame’s latest commitment.
1. NIne days after Owen Wafle left Notre Dame’s 2024 class, Sevillano joined it.
On May 24, the Irish and the three-star defensive tackle from Princeton (N.J.) Hun School, Wafle, parted ways. In essence, Wafle wanted to officially visit Michigan (which would violate Notre Dame’s no-opposing official visit policy, resulting in an automatic decommitment), and the Irish felt strongly about Sevillano. The Irish and Wafle compromised by going in different directions.
Meanwhile, Notre Dame had Sevillano on standby. And the coaching staff happily replaced the 6-2, 267-pound Wafle with the Clearwater (Fla.) Academy International rising senior, Sevillano.
Sure, there might be a world where the Irish could’ve signed Wafle and Sevillano. But there was no point in clogging the D-line depth chart if the Irish coaching staff felt stronger about Sevillano’s upside than Wafle in the long run.
Wafle is the No. 408 overall player, No. 38 defensive lineman and No. 7 prospect in New Jersey. He’s ranked about twice as high as Sevillano. But senior seasons haven’t happened, and there will be multiple ranking updates before the 2024 cycle ends.
Notre Dame doesn’t have a crystal ball identifying where both recruits will end up in the final rankings. However, its own eyes said it preferred Sevillano over Wafle, regardless of media industry rankings.
2. It isn’t exactly fair to compare Sevillano and Wafle’s offer lists. Wafle had been committed to Notre Dame for over a year, and other schools were not actively recruiting him. Still, it does help paint a clearer picture of how college programs view these two prospects.
Wafle has scholarship offers from Michigan, Oklahoma, Michigan State, Vanderbilt, Cincinnati, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Maryland, West Virginia, Duke, Syracuse, Rutgers and Boston College.
He has not publicly reported any offers since decommitting from Notre Dame.
Sevillano has picked up offers from Ohio State, Auburn, Miami (Fla.), Wisconsin, Cincinnati, Kansas, Stanford, Iowa State, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, West Virginia, Louisville, Duke, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech.
Oklahoma and Michigan are Wafle’s most eye-popping offers, while Sevillano has Ohio State and Auburn on his offer sheet.
Ohio State is one of college football’s bluebloods. And the Buckeyes are home to defensive line coach Larry Johnson — one of the game’s best. The 71-year-old Johnson has had 15 defensive linemen drafted in just his eight years at Ohio State.
Notre Dame defensive line coach Al Washington spent 2019-21 as the Buckeyes’ linebackers coach. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Washington felt slightly more comfortable with his Sevillano evaluation, considering Johnson also targeted him.
3. Sevillano will be a project when he arrives at Notre Dame in 2024.
At Clearwater (Fla.) Academy International, Sevillano faced lesser competition. His 22 sacks and 50 tackles for loss were evidence of that. Many of his stops in the backfield were layups for a player more physically gifted than his opponents.
Sevillano sometimes plays in a two-point stance over opposing interior offensive linemen, which isn’t realistic — or even plausible — for his position at the collegiate level. He even sometimes approaches the line of scrimmage similarly to a blitzing linebacker. That also won’t happen at Notre Dame.
The Irish accepting Sevillano’s verbal commitment is a bet on his projected upside, not necessarily his high school production.
4. Washington, Notre Dame’s second-year defensive line coach, continues supporting the additions of Canadian defensive linemen. Sevillano is originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He moved to the United States in the summer of 2021.
In the 2023 recruiting cycle, the Irish signed defensive lineman Devan Houstan (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada) and defensive end Armel Mukam (Quebec, Canada).
5. Sevillano’s commitment does not indicate Notre Dame’s standing one way or the other in 2024 five-star defensive tackle target Justin Scott’s recruitment. The 6-5, 310-pound Scott is still the top remaining 2024 target for the Irish.
Notre Dame is battling Georgia, Miami (Fla.), Michigan and Ohio State for The On3 Industry Ranking’s No. 8 overall player and No. 2 defensive lineman in 2024. The Irish have always been a top-three team in his recruitment.
Scott will officially visit Georgia, Miami, Michigan and Ohio State while he considers returning to Notre Dame before finalizing a commitment.
Notre Dame 2024 recruiting class info
Here is Notre Dame’s sorted by commitment date:
June 9, 2022 — Four-star QB CJ Carr, Saline (Mich.) High
June 24, 2022 — Four-star TE Jack Larsen, Charlotte (N.C.) Catholic
June 29, 2022 — Four-star WR Cam Williams, Glen Ellyn (Ill.) Glenbard South
Aug. 6, 2022 — Four-star OL Peter Jones, Malvern (Pa.) Prep
Nov. 9, 2022 — Three-star CB Karson Hobbs, Cincinnati Archbishop Moeller
Dec. 16, 2022 — Four-star RB Aneyas Williams, Hannibal (Mo.) High
Feb. 4, 2023 — Three-star CB Leonard Moore, Round Rock (Texas) High
March 29, 2023 — Four-star OL Anthonie Knapp, Roswell (Ga.) High
April 22, 2023 — Three-star vyper Cole Mullins, Hoschton (Ga.) Mill Creek
April 27, 2023 — Four-star wide receiver Isiah Canion, Warner Robins (Ga.) High
April 29, 2023 — Four-star EDGE Bryce Young, Charlotte (N.C.) Christian
May 1, 2023 — Three-star safety Kennedy Urlacher, Chandler (Ariz.) High
May 2, 2023 — Four-star wide receiver Micah Gilbert, Charlotte (N.C.) Christian
May 12, 2023 — Three-star linebacker Teddy Rezac, Omaha (Neb.) Westside
May 15, 2023 — Three-star linebacker Bodie Kahoun, Roanoke (Va.) Patrick Henry
May 24, 2023 — Four-star EDGE Loghan Thomas, Katy (Texas) Paetow
June 2, 2023 — Three-star defensive lineman Sean Seavillano, Clearwater (Fla.) Academy International
Here are Notre Dame’s 2024 commits by position:
1 — Quarterback
1 — Running Back
3 — Wide Receiver
1 — Tight End
2 — Offensive Line
4 — Defensive Line
2 — Linebacker
3 — Defensive Back
Here is a breakdown of the Irish commits by state:
1 — Arizona
1 — Florida
3 — Georgia
1 — Illinois
1 — Michigan
1 — Missouri
1 — Nebraska
3 — North Carolina
1 — Ohio
1 — Pennsylvania
2 — Texas
1 — Virginia
The post Five thoughts on defensive lineman Sean Sevillano’s Notre Dame commitment appeared first on On3.
