'27 RB Lathan Whisenton commits to ND
https://247sports.com/player/lathan-whisenton-46142921/
Recent visitor, good testing/track numbers.
Florida, Texas, SMU were in the running as well.
FongBomb in for Isaiah Rogers 4* #9RB #146 Overall
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"F--- everyone who isn't us."
#Team128
Lest I be labeled as a recruiting Debbie Downer, I will
by BillyGoat 
, At Thanksgiving with Joe Bethersontin, Friday, March 27, 2026, 10:36 (5 days ago) @ Chris
note that this kid's highlights are exactly what I want to see from our recruits. I have seen highlight videos from guys we've recruited where it isn't obvious which kid on the field is the ND-quality recruit. With Rogers, it's pretty freeking clear. And then he does to his competition what I'd expect a ND-caliber recruit to do to the competition. Especially in Massachusetts.
I have no idea if he's better or worse than Whisenton or anything like that. And if Whisenton is on par with this dude, then we have definitely reloaded our RB position at the level to which we have been accustomed. And that's a very good thing.
How dare you sneer at MA high school football!
by San Pedro , More than 100 feet from Bob Davies, Friday, March 27, 2026, 11:21 (5 days ago) @ BillyGoat
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Tremendous name.
by San Pedro , More than 100 feet from Bob Davies, Thursday, March 26, 2026, 07:13 (6 days ago) @ Jeremy (WeIsND)
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10.54 100m… same exact best 100m time as Jeremiyah Love
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That's a great sign. Speed kills.
by San Pedro , More than 100 feet from Bob Davies, Thursday, March 26, 2026, 10:49 (6 days ago) @ atxND
I tend to focus more on shuttle/40 times for RBs, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with a chap who can put the pedal down after 10 yards and scoot away.
Can someone refresh my memory?
I don't think J. Love coming out of HS was viewed as a 'hold your breath' back whenever he touched the ball.
IIRC, he was like 185, but he appeared more physical than elusive. He had track speed but he didn't have either the explosion or decisivemess as a runner that he later developed.
Am I wrong in my recollections?
He was definitely a burner and spoken of as such.
by San Pedro , More than 100 feet from Bob Davies, Thursday, March 26, 2026, 13:25 (6 days ago) @ hobbs
People loved his athleticism and perceived him as a home run threat type of guy. As you say, he greatly improved his twitchiness in small spaces throughout his career. I would not say he was thought of as a Chris Berman "whoop!" style runner until his sophomore year.
"Jitterbuggyness"
by ReginaldVelJohnson , Thursday, March 26, 2026, 20:56 (6 days ago) @ San Pedro
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Heh.
by San Pedro , More than 100 feet from Bob Davies, Friday, March 27, 2026, 08:01 (5 days ago) @ ReginaldVelJohnson
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Think he was seen as explosive
But it wasn't clear whether he was a great "running back" vs. a great athlete/track star.
In all honesty, I think that debate was continuing even as recently as this past fall (when some of us were talking about whether Price was a better all-around back than Love).
Not 100% sure when it became clear that he was something different. There were a few flashes his freshman year, but he never really had a chance to open up the engine until his second season.
Exactly. Regarded as an elite athlete. I think some DCErs
by BillyGoat , At Thanksgiving with Joe Bethersontin, Thursday, March 26, 2026, 12:06 (6 days ago) @ Jeremy (WeIsND)
thought early on he might end up at WR.
In to complain about 3 star
low hanging fruit ranking and "settling".
[arms folded]
he's a composite 4*?
by HumanRobot , Cybertron, Thursday, March 26, 2026, 07:59 (6 days ago) @ hobbs
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Freeman's got so much riz they need to call him Aura Parseghian
Carbon fiber?
by San Pedro , More than 100 feet from Bob Davies, Thursday, March 26, 2026, 08:05 (6 days ago) @ HumanRobot
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TimberTech
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"F--- everyone who isn't us."
#Team128
The great thing about this kid
by San Pedro , More than 100 feet from Bob Davies, Thursday, March 26, 2026, 10:50 (6 days ago) @ Chris
is the money we are going to save on Thompson's Water Seal.
I generally agree. But in a year where we are putting
by BillyGoat , At Thanksgiving with Joe Bethersontin, Thursday, March 26, 2026, 06:43 (6 days ago) @ hobbs
the top two RBs into the NFL draft, isn't it a little disappointing that our first RB commit is from a guy ranked 19th at his position and without a national list of elite offers?
Why would pencilneck rankings take precedence
over Seider's? Given others we're currently involved with, ND wouldn't push for and take the commitment if they didn't consider him a top-5 back in this class. Freeman doesn't do low-hanging fruit like Kelly did.
Whistenton has scored over 40 TDs in Texas prep over the past two years and posted a 10.5 100. If fans wanted a potential HR hitter in the backfield to ultimately backfill the loss of Love & Price, they got one here.
Freeman has indeed been prone to permitting his
by BillyGoat , At Thanksgiving with Joe Bethersontin, Thursday, March 26, 2026, 13:14 (6 days ago) @ KGB
RB coaches to take early reaches at RB. Irvin was one. I swear there was another.
I'm totally fine taking this kid. I think he looks like a good prospect. As I said elsewhere, I view him as a guy who maintains our very strong roster. And that's a very good thing. I'm just trying (badly, perhaps) to say I'm a little surprised we got a RB who only maintains our very good status quo, in light of Love and Price. Nobody is talking about this kid like he's the next Reggie Bush or Sony Michel or whatever.
A healthy dose of questioning recruiting site "expertise"
by Joe I , Thursday, March 26, 2026, 08:43 (6 days ago) @ BillyGoat
is warranted. As mentioned by others, looking at what other teams have offered seems to be far more predictive of a recruit's true upside.
Bird in hand theory?
In 2021, we accepted the commitment of Sedrick Irvin Jr., a pretty good pick up with good bloodlines. This allowed ND a season to monitor his progress and the prevailing RB landscape.
In 2022, Irvin decommitted and we landed some dude named Jeremiyah Love.
Not saying that's the case here, but it can be good to lock in a talent player at the floor level.
Not even close to the case
I mean, Jamie's comp for him is Omarion Hampton. He absolutely is talented enough to be the lead back in this class.
I agree he's talented enough to be the lead back in
by BillyGoat , At Thanksgiving with Joe Bethersontin, Thursday, March 26, 2026, 09:38 (6 days ago) @ BPH
the class. And I agree that his overall resume is very strong. But based on his credentials, he seems like another Williams, Kedron Young, or Nolan James. And that's great. Those guys are all on track to be quality starting-ish players for us. I haven't heard anybody argue that "The Whis Palace" is neck-and-neck with Spell to be regarded as the top back in the class. Or that we stole a top choice away from Texas or OSU.
But I have a long track record over the years of being skeptical about spring rankings and ratings and also of trusting staff evaluations (especially this staff). And I'll stand on both those things. The strength of our roster means that it is increasingly difficult to add guys who appear to move the talent needle on paper. All I'm saying is that we don't seem to have done that here. We've bolstered our current position which is really really good.
No. It's early in the recruiting ranking cycle
and these rankings are fluid.
IMO. Whisenton has enough peer offers to assuage any feeling of settling. He had offers from Texas, A&M (Tech, Baylor & SMU), Oklahoma, Oregon and Florida.
Finally Seider's rep & track record buys him some runway with me.
Is his profile as a RB as good as the DL and DB
by BillyGoat , At Thanksgiving with Joe Bethersontin, Thursday, March 26, 2026, 07:29 (6 days ago) @ hobbs
recruits we are chasing?