Ishaq Williams To Notre Dame: Is Brian Kelly Recruiting a Championship Defense?

As reported by Irish Sports Daily, Ishaq Williams has canceled his trip to State College this weekend and has committed to the Fighting Irish. Apparently a 4:30 am visit to the Williams home by Notre Dame defensive coordinator Bob Diaco was enough to sway Williams to South Bend.

Williams, a 6 foot 6 inch 230 pound defensive stand out from Brooklyn , N.Y had narrowed his choices to Syracuse, who somewhat dropped off the chart earlier this week, Penn State and Notre Dame. He was scheduled to make an official visit to Penn State this weekend before making a decision. Williams had stated that it wouldn't be fair to Penn State to make a choice without visiting their campus. It seems that coach Diaco was able to change Williams' mind.

Notre Dame's defense which had been much maligned earlier this season, but came on extremely strong down the stretch, has just got a whole lot stronger, and faster. Williams 4.6 speed off the corner will create more sack for a team that ranked 55th in the nation with 26 sacks in 2010.

To put this in perspective, Notre Dame finished the 2010 season with the 51st ranked defense in the nation but their if they had played at a level of the last four games all season they would have been ranked number 7. Notre Dame returns everyone to the defensive front other than Emeka Nwanko, returning nearly everyone and adding Louis Nix who didn't play this past season, and is on many peoples radar to be a solid performer next season. Darius Fleming led the team with 6 sacks, and Eathan Johnson came in second with 5 freshman Prince Shembo added 4.5sacks. The addition of Williams to this tough defense will make an immediate impact.

Notre Dame has had a solid recruiting class thus far and has just got much better. Aaron Lynch is still considering the Irish, Stephon Tuitt, Tony Springmann, Brad Carrico, Ben Councell, Jarret Grace and Anthony Rabasa have already made verbal commitments to the Irish, and the addition of Ishaq Williams has shown Brian Kelly's desire to install a fearsome defensive unit a reality.

Earlier this week defensive end recruit Brennan Scarlett announced that he was passing on Notre Dame in favor of Cal, with the addition of the five-star Williams, Scarlett's decision doesn't hurt like it once did.

Coach Kelly has said that he was committed to bolstering the defense, he states that he knows how to manufacture offense, Kelly has proved time after time in this recruiting cycle that he would not overlook the defensive side of the ball.

There are many that think that 2012 will be the year, and I'm on board with this. Every move that Kelly makes is a move that has future implications written all over them. Williams who (apparently) will be an early enrollee will have a massive jump on figuring out a new system. T.J. Jones enrolled early last year and made an impact from the game.

Move by move, it appears that Kelly is laying out the blueprints for a championship run in the near future. Welcome to the family Ishaq, Notre Dame is glad to have you on board.