Football recruiting: Star De La Salle tight end commits to Notre Dame
Spartans' Cooper Flanagan is rated the No. 8 TE prospect in the country in the Class of 2023. He gave an early commitment to play for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
Cooper Flanagan described his scholarship offer from Notre Dame as a dream come true, and it didn’t take long for the latest star tight end to pass through Concord to pounce on it and commit to playing in South Bend.
Flanagan, a junior at De La Salle considered one of the top tight end prospects in the country, announced his commitment to the Fighting Irish Thursday morning. He was considered a four-star recruit by 247Sports, as well as the No. 8 tight end in the country and No. 9 prospect in California in the Class of 2023.
“Super excited to continue my academic and football career at (the) University of Notre Dame,” Flanagan wrote in an announcement on social media. “Thank you Coach (Brian) Kelly and the entire coaching staff for believing in me and giving me this chance of a lifetime opportunity, I’m all in!”
#Goirish
pic.twitter.com/DRAsLrFFnK
— Cooper Flanagan (@CooperXFlanagan) September 2, 2021
At an athletic 6-6, 240, Flanagan is equally adept at blocking and receiving. He stars alongside fellow tight end Brodie Tagaloa — 6-4, 260 — in the Spartans offense.
“We can flex both those guys out as wide receivers, we can keep them in line as tight ends or we can stack them right next to each other,” De La Salle coach Justin Alumbaugh said. “They’re going to be playing next to each other a lot.”
247Sports considers Flanagan one of the top 100 recruits in the country in the Class of 2023, the highest-rated prospect in the Bay Area to give his commitment in his class (juniors with two full seasons ahead of them). Tagaloa, a senior in the Class of 2022, has offers from Cal, Arizona State, Oregon and others but has yet to make a commitment.
They are the latest in a line of top tight end recruits to have been forged in Sparta, following in the footsteps of Devin Asiasi and Austin Hooper, both now in the NFL. Both players stayed in the Pac-12 on their path to the pros.
Flanagan will have company in the Fighting Irish locker room in defensive lineman Isaiah Foskey, a star at De La Salle until he graduated in the Class of 2018. Notre Dame also features former Bay Area high school stars Will Schweitzer (LB, Los Gatos), Charlie Selna (TE, Menlo-Atherton) and TaRic Bracy (CB, Milpitas).