Blue & Gold TV: Breakdown of Notre Dame quarterback targets

On Tuesday, Mike Singer and Tim Hyde of BlueandGold.com sat down to discuss four quarterback candidates Notre Dame is pursuing to be a part of its 2023 class.

Below is a summary of the four recruits and a collection of quotes from Hyde, which give Irish fans an idea of the top targets for head coach Marcus Freeman and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees.

Note: The On3 Consensus rankings were updated following the release of this video. The text below reflects those changes.

Detroit Martin Luther King’s Dante Moore

Moore is an On3 Consensus four-star recruit, but he is extremely close to earning five-star status. The No. 15 prospect in the class is the lowest-ranked five star, and Moore sits at No. 17. He is also the No. 4 quarterback and No. 1 player from Michigan in the 2023 class. Michigan is likely the team to beat for the 6-foot-2, 195-pound signal-caller; they lead the race in the On3 RPM at 41.9 percent. There are no expert predictions in for Moore at this time.

Hyde: “He’s a primetime, electric football player with an amazing arm. There are some plays where you don’t even see his arm move. It’s that quick, and there is an unbelievable zip on the ball.

“I love his base and his shoulders. There is not a lot of wasted movement with him, meaning the ball is up in the numbers, it’s up in the chest, ready to come out of that pocket immediately. He sets his feet before he throws, and he’s darn good. He really is everything they say about him.

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“He makes his wide receivers look really good, meaning he’s throwing the ball on the money. There aren’t a lot of plays where receivers are making the play for him on bad plays, which goes back to his accuracy. I think every time you see a slant in his highlight film, it hits the dude in the belly button, in the chest. It’s perfect.

“(Former Notre Dame quarterback) Jimmy Clausen would always have the ball up, ready to throw. When you see Dante in the pocket, he really looks like Jimmy a lot of the time, the way he gets rid of that ball. There are a lot of similarities between Jimmy Clausen and Dante Moore.

“If he’s an early enrollee, I would tell the guy ‘You’re the No. 2 quarterback. Go beat out (Tyler) Buchner for 2023.’ I think he’s that good. He could be the No. 2 guy the first time he steps on campus.”

Birmingham (Ala.) Briarwood Christian’s Christopher Vizzina

Vizzina’s stock is going up, as the latest On3 Consensus rankings have the signal-caller listed as the No. 7 quarterback, No. 8 player in Alabama and No. 72 prospect overall in the 2023 class. Clemson leads in the On3 RPM category with a 70.1 percent chance of landing the 6-foot-3, 194-pound quarterback. Hyde and Singer believe the comparisons between Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen and Vizzina are not unfounded.

Hyde: “He looks the part. He looks like a quarterback — big, strong, athletic. He’s your perfect gunslinger in the pocket, but defenses have to respect his his legs as well. I love the way he throws on the run. Briarwood Christian rolls him out at ton, and he’s smooth.

“(Clemson head coach) Dabo Sweeney has only offered two quarterbacks (in the 2023 class), and Vizzina is one of them. It’s between him and Arch Manning, and I think that says a lot about Vizzina’s upside and his potential down the road.

“He’s a legitimate top-100 prospect in the country and should be one of the guys Notre Dame’s trying to get to fill that main spot.

“He’s another guy that could come in and challenge (the quarterback room). Is it for a starting role? I think Dante is closer to being ready to play, but if you had to play Vizzina real quick during his freshman year, I think he could definitely lead Notre Dame to some W’s as a freshman.”

Maize (Kan.) High’s Avery Johnson

Johnson is a bit different than the aforementioned quarterbacks in term of his style of play. While Moore and Vizzinia aren’t non-issues when it comes to their legs, Johnson is more of a dual-threat. He is currently the No. 1 player from Kansas, No. 11 quarterback and No. 176 player nationally in the 2023 class according to On3 Consensus. The 6-foot-2, 165-pound signal-caller’s On3 RPM sits at 28.6 percent in favor of Arkansas and 14.5 percent in favor of both Notre Dame and Kansas State. Johnson recently took his third visit to Arkansas.

Hyde: “He is an ultimate RPO quarterback. You can run zone reads and quarterback powers with this guy, and at the same time, you can have a passing attack off of the run game. He’s almost like (former UNC quarterback) Sam Howell. He’s obviously not as big and thick as Howell, but he would be outstanding in that same type of offense.

“He’s definitely got a straight-line burst of pure 40 (yard dash) speed, which is big time, athletic football play.

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“He’s the best athlete of the four. There’s one play in the film where he ran 99 yards. There was an offensive hold, but he still ran 99 yards. In some of these broken plays in his playoff film where he’s scrambling like crazy or there’s a ball over his head, he picks it up and goes 50 yards. He’s a super athletic kid. Is he a second quarterback if so-and-so wants to transfer a year from now? Does he provide depth? He’s a guy to keep growing because three years from now he’s going to be bigger, faster, stronger and be a solid No. 2 in the Notre Dame football program.”

Ponte Vedra Beach (Fla.) Nease’s Marcus Stokes

Stokes does not have an On3 ranking or Notre Dame offer yet, but the Irish coaches are currently taking a look at the dynamic prospect out of famed Florida quarterback Tim Tebow‘s high school. Stokes is 6-foot-1.5 and 180 pounds, and the On3 RPM leaders for him at this time are Penn State and USF.

Hyde: “The very first play on his highlight is a Tim Tebow-quarterback bash play that he ran for a million yards at Florida.

“The difference between Stokes and Moore and Vizzina is Moore and Vizzina make their receivers look good. I felt that in a lot of these highlight plays, the receivers are making freakish plays for Stokes.

“He’s got a lively arm, but he’s not as accurate as some of the other guys. He’s very athletic. You use that term a ‘rock quarterback’ to describe him. He’s got some growing to do, but he plays big-time high school football in the great state of Florida, and that has to be a positive. He’s been a quarterback for multiple years down there, so he has a lot of playing experience and wins under his belt.

“A lot of his throws are sidearm from the lower hip, just slinging it. He’s got a long wind up, and when you watch his film in slow motion, his arm goes back a lot. He uses a lot of shoulder motion. What’s that going to do to the body over time?

“Between Stokes and Johnson, I started thinking of a guy to compare them to, and one of the first guys I thought about was Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford, a guy that’s a competitor, an athlete, making plays with his arm and his feet. Clifford was obviously a highly ranked player going to Penn State.”

Five-star Southern California quarterback Nico Iamaleava remains a Notre Dame target, although he is the most unlikely of the bunch and is therefore not included in this breakdown.