Jeff Quinn lines up another top prospect as Greg Crippen commits to Notre Dame

Notre Dame’s latest football verbal commitment on Wednesday reverberated a familiar theme.

“Jeff Quinn is turning out to be a great recruiter,” offered CBS Sports college football recruiting analysist Tom Lemming of ND’s second-year offensive line coach.

The newest prospect to support that theory is Greg Crippen, a 6-foot-4, 280-pound offensive lineman at national powerhouse IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. Crippen became the second player to verbally commit to the Irish in the 2021 class, and did so less than a week after taking his third recruiting visit to the Notre Dame campus in the past several months.

He joins La Jolla, Calif., quarterback Tyler Buchner as high school sophomores who have already made their college decisions to attend ND. The Irish have five commitments in the current cycle, the 2020 class.

“Greg Crippen is an athletic, technically sound interior-line prospect,” Lemming said. “I’d rate him a legit four-star player. Given all the top talent Notre Dame has on the hook as far as O-linemen in the 2020 and 2021 classes, they really must like him.”

So apparently did Alabama, Michigan and Ohio State — three of the other schools who had offered Crippen a scholarship so far.

The son of a police officer (dad) and firefighter (mom), Crippen played his freshman season at Milton (Mass.) Academy near Boston, the same school former Irish kicker Justin Yoon attended.

But just before his sophomore season, Crippen transferred to IMG, the school that produced three current Irish players — cornerback Houston Griffith, offensive tackle Robert Hainsey and running back Tony Jones Jr.

As for Quinn, he followed exalted line coach Harry Hiestand, now with the Chicago Bears. And he finished off a partial recruiting cycle by landing Jarrett Patterson in February of 2018. The redshirt freshman is projected to be ND’s starting center in 2019.

“Then Quinn went out and landed one of the best offensive line classes nationally in the 2019 cycle,” Lemming said. “He’s certainly keeping the momentum going.”

God, Country, Notre Dame. Play Like a Champion Today.

COMMITTED#GoIrish#GoldRush21#IMGFampic.twitter.com/m7S45mtF4r

— Greg CRIPPEN (@gregcrippen) March 27, 2019