(Notre Dame Football News) – Five-star defensive end Stephon Tuitt’s sudden switch to Georgia Tech didn’t last long, Irish coaches Brian Kelly, Bob Diaco, Chuck Martin & Mike Elston brought Tuitt back into the fold as part of one of the most impressive (if it holds) defensive front seven classes in recent memory. In elevating him to a fifth star Rivals said he has an NFL body, a bull rush, can stop the run and has the speed to chase plays down from behind. Williams, Tuitt and Lynch are the 16th, 22nd and 28th ranked players on Rivals. For perspective that’s more top 30 ranked defensive players than Notre Dame landed in the previous nine years combined.
Stephon Tuitt | DE
ESPN Grade 81 | Scout ***** | Rivals ***** Top 100
Hometown: Monroe, GA | Monroe High School
Height 6’5″ | Weight 255
Video of Tuitt as a Defensive End
He just physically manhandled the guy across from him shoving the defender straight back into the pocket. Tuitt showed some great technique with his hands but more than anything he used his size and strength to bury offensive linemen and collapse the pocket around the opposing quarterback. Physically, he looks more like a third-year college player than a current high school prospect. This massive athlete can really run as he is very light on his feet. He is also a very versatile prospect that could project as defensive tackle or offensive tackle at the next level. Tuitt has excellent overall body structure and very little bad body weight.
Tuitt is a big athlete with great range and speed off the edge. He is raw in technique and needs to add strength to play better against the run, but he has a very high ceiling. His size, athleticism, and versatility make him a top recruit in 2011. He makes a lot of plays now off raw ability, but once he is coached up, watch out.
Tuitt and current commit Aaron Lynch (Cape Coral, Fla./Island Coast) are a perfect compliment to each other. They can play opposite each other, and their skill sets compliment the other. Tuitt is a dominant run player who can rush the quarterback. Lynch is a dominant pass rusher who can play the run. I am of the opinion that both players are Top 5 national prospects at the DE position. Lynch is my No. 2 ranked DE in the country, with Tuitt falling in as my No. 4 DE in the country.
“He looks like a big power forward,” Lemming recalled from his meeting with Stephon and Tamara, Tuitt’s mother. “Notre Dame having him and (defensive end) Aaron Lynch (of Cape Coral, Fla.) in this class is huge for them. “Stephon is a Notre Dame type of kid.”
Rivals on Tuitt’s 5th Star (6:39 mark)
| 2012 | Rank | Name | Ht/Wt |
| ELIT | Kiel, Gunner | 6'4" - 220 | |
| ELIT | Neal, Davonte | 5'9" - 175 | |
| HIGH | Russell, KeiVarae | 6'0" - 170 | |
| HIGH | Baratti, Nick | 6'2" - 190 | |
| HIGH | Stanley, Ronnie | 6'7" - 285 | |
| HIGH | Day, Sheldon | 6'2" - 285 | |
| HIGH | Mahone, Will | 5'10" - 205 | |
| HIGH | Ferguson, Justin | 6'2" - 200 | |
| HIGH | Harrell, Mark | 6'5" - 270 | |
| MID | Daly, Scott | 6'3" - 230 | |
| MID | Okwara, Romeo | 6'4" - 225 | |
| MID | Prosise, CJ | 6'2" - 205 | |
| LOW | Turner, John | 6'2" - 200 | |
| 2011 | Rank | Name | Ht/Wt |
 Bio | ELIT | Atkinson, George | 6'2"-195 |
| Bio | ELIT | Golson, Everett | 6'0" - 185 |
| Bio | ELIT | Koyack, Ben | 6'5"-225 |
| Bio | ELIT | Lynch, Aaron | 6'5" - 250 |
| Bio | ELIT | Tuitt, Stephon | 6'5"-260 |
| Bio | ELIT | Williams, Ishaq | 6'6" - 240 |
| Bio | HIGH | Hardy, Eiler | 6'1"-175 |
| Bio | HIGH | Hegarty, Matt | 6'5"-265 |
| Bio | HIGH | Grace, Jarrett | 6'2"-230 |
| Bio | HIGH | Councell, Ben | 6'4"-225 |
| Bio | HIGH | Brindza, Kyle | 6'1"-190 |
| Bio | HIGH | Daniels, Davaris | 6'2" - 180 |
| Bio | HIGH | Hounshell, Chase | 6'6" - 260 |
| Bio | HIGH | Niklas, Troy | 6'6" - 245 |
| Bio | MID | Rabasa, Anthony | 6'3"-230 |
| Bio | MID | Springmann, Tony | 6'5"-270 |
| Bio | MID | Atkinson, Josh | 6'0"-180 |
| Bio | MID | McDaniel, Cam | 5'11" - 195 |
| Bio | MID | Martin, NIck | 6'5" - 260 |
| Bio | MID | Hanratty, Conor | 6'3"-290 |
| Bio | MID | Carrico, Brad | 6'4"-250 |
| Bio | MID | Brown, Jalen | 5'11"-175 |
| Bio | MID | Farley, Matthias | 6'1"-180 |
CW says:
The video shows #74 playing the offensive line. Can someone find video of him as a defensive end?
Ray McConaghy says:
Find out who #77 in the white jersey playing against him is. He stood Tuitt up and held his own on the line of scrimmage against the 22nd-best player in the country!
Brian says:
Try this one for the DE highlights
http://insider.espn.go.com/ncf/recruiting/player/videos?id=102994&_slug_=stephon-tuitt&action=upsell&appRedirect=http://insider.espn.go.com/ncf/recruiting/player/videos%3fid%3d102994%26_slug_%3dstephon-tuitt
Teo says:
Great news. Great news. Kelly continues to impress. . . .
The Piper says:
Its quite humorous that those who criticized Kelly about his “lack of experience recruiting the elite athletes” have suddenly disappeared. After we got Hegarty, Prestwood and Koyack, the comment was that “they were typical of the recruit that ND gets. Kelly hasn’t done anything yet.”
Well Tuitt and Lynch are 2 recruits Notre Dame has struggled to get their hands on in past yrs. In fact, the # of big-time defensive recruits we’ve gotten in the last 8yrs can be counted on one hand: Manti Te’o, Ethan Johnson, Darrin Walls, Gary Gray, and Victor Abiamiri.
Kelly has now scored 2 “elite” “non-ND” type defensive players. I think we should give credit where credit is due….Kelly has proven many doubters wrong with these commitments.
Also of note…With Weis, we were always star chasing – going after guys that were ranked in the Top250 by Rivals, Lemming, ESPN, whether they seemed like fits for our program or not. With Kelly I know the coach sees how the players fit the program, so the hit ratio will probably be higher. Lastly, Kelly as a head coach knows better than Weis and friends did about having backups. You have to continually bring in ~18-25 recruit classes to maintain success. So when somebody says no, you have to have backups there to say yes.
Confidence in our long term success builds every day with Kelly.
Joseph Rymasz says:
Serve notice to the rest of the college football, HERE COME THE IRISH OF NOTRE DAME. See you in September.
GoldenDomer08 says:
Piper, the reason you don’t hear from the guys like myself that doubted he could recruit elite players, is because BK had to prove us wrong. I didn’t see much last year closing out the recruiting class, so I had some doubts. When we started losing players during the dark weeks of ND’s season…I once again had doubts. Now I see him taking care of business and getting elite players……I am happy to be proven wrong by BK AND STAFF.
I think you may have forgotten a couple of guys on that one hand and need an extra hand or two….Stockton, Calabrese, Nix, Blanton, Slaughter, Motta, and Hairston (all 4* players). The best part of the elite players mentioned besides Abiamiri and Walls is that they will be playing with the studs from this years class.
Weis was a good recruiter, but was not a good head coach. Stop stating the obvious. I still have problems with BK for not accepting that he shouldn’t have thrown the ball against Tulsa….that cost them the game. Michigan game letting Montana throw on the last play of the half instead of kicking an easy field goal. BK may have cost the Irish a couple games last year. All in all I think ND picked the right guy going forward. BK has proven me wrong on the recruiting road. I hope he continues to prove me wrong and continue to turn this program to where it belongs!!
Go Irish!!
Whitecoat says:
Yes this is great irish news. I have always criticized our coaches for taking 3 star players until this year. Just by chance, I watched Boise State and TCU, and Auburn, all successful football programs, and I copied down some of their key players names. Boise did not have one 4-star on Rivals even the QB was a 3 star. Martin from Boise a 2-star????? And Fairley from Auburn, was a 3-star. So was that great LB from MSU, Greg??? a 3-star. So it is the development that Kelly talks about, and he’ll develop the 5 stars to remain 5-stars when they leave ND, as well as brining up the 3 stars to 4 when they leave.
Example. Hanratty and Martin. I think Martin is the better of the two right now, beasts for the offense. But if Kelly can develop these two into 4-star players quickly, look out! Others in the group that I was initially surprised about Kelly recruiting, I now will watch to see how he does!!
Whitecoat ’62
Jim Kress says:
This is HILARIOUS! He’s got 14 more filp flop opportunities (assuming only 1 per day).
The mind of a teenager is a frightenting thing to behold …
JOE MEYER says:
NEED ALL THE READERS OUT THERE HELP. HAS ANYONE HEARD OF A UNIVERSITY LOSING A RECRUIT AND THEN REGAINING THEM??? THIS IS A FIRST FOR ME. HOW DOES ONE DO THIS? IT IS UNREAL AND SHOWS A SKILL IN RECRUITING THAT I HAVE NEVER SEEN. CAN ONE SAY KELLY’S SECOND YEAR OF RECRUITING IS OFF THE CHART. HAS HE MEASURED UP TO EVERYONES EXPECTATION AND GONE BEYOND??? IF ALL ARE SIGNED WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fitz says:
Man, this program is gonna be so special in the years to come! Even in the best seasons of the last couple decades we were always a team with a good offense and lousy defense. Now, the way things are going we’re gonna have an SEC caliber smash mouth defense in place, coupled with a high octane spread offense that can pile up the points. If that’s not a recipe for BCS success I don’t know what is! Kelly is a genius. Rudolph really looks like a dolt now for being the one person jumping ship even though when you add it up he didn’t even play a full 2 seasons for us being so injury prone. I bet now he wishes he’d waited to see what Michael Floyd did. On an unrelated note I heard Jimmy Clausen after skipping his senior year at ND and leaving us high and dry because fatty told him to is back at ND to finish his degree. Let me be the first to welcome Jimmy back with a tremendous: get bent!
Go Irish!
Scranton Dave says:
Fitz- Both Clausen and Rudolph made good decisions coming out. Rudolph is the best TE in a weak TE class and has an outside shot at being picked in the first round. As far as Clausen, just about everyone had him in the first round, (even though he went in the 2nd) and I would never blame anyone for coming out when they are a first round pick. I applaud Clausen for coming back to get his degree. Dont be so negative Fitz.
terry says:
Rudolph is injury prone, we’ve got at least 3 tight ends headed by Eifert, Clausen was right to leave when he did and showed character returning here to get his degree, as he promised his parents – why should he “get bent” for doing that?
“Leaving us high and dry” – WTF is meant by that?
I can’t wait to see this team in 2012, but I guess I’ll have to.
Aiisling says:
Brian Kelly is showing more and more promise of returning ND to the team they ought to have remained all this time! Can’t wait to see what happens in the 2011 season!
Gooooooooo Irish!