Why Notre Dame Commit Jakobe Clapper is Highly Underrated

Max Uretsky
May 12
4 min read

In the month of April, Notre Dame was able to land two blue-chip defensive end prospects in 5-Star Rodney Dunham and 4-Star Ebenezer Ewetade. May has begun, and Notre Dame recruiting is continuing to fire on all cylinders, especially on the defensive side of the ball. St. Xavier product Jakobe Clapper joins Thomas Davis Jr as the second linebacker to land with the Fighting Irish for the 2026 cycle.

Photo via Jakobe Clapper, Instagram (@kobeclapper)

Clapper is a 3-Star prospect entering his senior season, but I am here to let you know that he is criminally underrated, and I would not be surprised to see that ranking get a boost before his high school career concludes. There are a lot of things to like about him based on his tape, and I broke down some of his biggest strengths. Each trait will be graded on a scale of 1 (Poor) to 7 (Elite). Let's get into it!

Run Stopping: Very Good (6)

Your off-ball linebackers better be able to stop the run, and Clapper delivers in this area at a high level. He displays good play speed, which allows him to knife in and beat blockers that are coming across the line of scrimmage to their spots. His play strength and balance show his ability to take on chip blockers and maintain his leverage on the ball carrier. His hand usage borders on elite, and he is very adept at shedding blocks, not just from inline tight ends, but guards and tackles as well. He knows how to work through traffic while staying square to the line of scrimmage, rarely overrunning plays. He has a very good feel when playing Zone Runs, filling the backside cutback lanes and meeting running backs in the hole. Excellent tackler who wraps up and explodes through his hips. He is efficient on both the frontside and backside of plays, and shows a lot of juice pursuing plays that are going away from him. Clapper truly does check all of the boxes as a run stopper, and what makes this trait even more special is his ability to do it from multiple alignments.

Pass Rush/Blitzing: Very Good (6)

This is where Clapper becomes an even more intriguing prospect to me. At only 6'1" and 215 pounds, being a full-time edge player is probably not in the cards. But as a pass rush specialist, I think there is tremendous upside to work with based on his traits. He has a very good upfield burst, which he combines with natural bend that allows him to work around tackles. As mentioned above, he is good at using his hands to shed and uses a quick, efficient chop when he is in rush mode. He will explode on his outside speed rushes, but as the QB climbs the pocket, he has the change of direction and awareness to retrace and work back upfield to quickly close the distance between them. He comes off the ball a little high at times, but still has the play strength to move linemen backwards with a Bull Rush, which I have seen him use against offensive tackles and on the interior vs guards and centers. When blitzing from his linebacker spot, he has excellent timing, often getting through the LOS before the linemen can react. He has racked up more QB hits than actual sacks, but he is always around the quarterback, and those will start to come in bunches the more opportunities he gets. His ability to read and react, paired with his excellent closing speed once he commits to getting after the QB, also gives him plus value as a spy. Notre Dame will be able to use him in a variety of ways, which I'm sure went into the thought process of why to recruit him.

Zone Coverage: Good (5)

This trait is more projection than film, as he did not have a lot of pure Zone drops vs intricate passing concepts, but there are some things that give me an idea that this could be another area of strength. His high-level mental processing vs the run also translates to his Zone drops, which were very evident when reading running back screens. He consistently did a good job of reading the quarterback's eyes and feeling out the screen before linemen could even get in place, which resulted in multiple tackles for loss. He also has the hip fluidity and change of direction to be able to drop in space, plant, and drive on crossers underneath him. I am looking forward to his senior season, just to see if he can get more reps under his belt as a Zone defender, which would expand how he can be used going forward.

Mental Processing: Very Good (6)

I touched on this a little bit throughout some of the other sections, but it's worth noting again that on film, Clapper appears to have a very high football IQ. Being big, fast, and physical are great jumping off points for a defender, but if you are constantly in the wrong position and making bad reads, those attributes can only get you so far. Clapper seems to have a natural feel for where the ball is going and is always among the first to get there, even as a backside defender. The fact he can be utilized on both the strong side and weak side of formations as an off the ball linebacker, as well as thriving from a 2-point stance as an edge defender, speaks to how well he understands the game, and Coach Marcus Freeman must be thrilled to have such a smart player joining his squad in the near future.

Another day, another Notre Dame recruit that is probably deserving of a little more hype. Every evaluation I do, I do with the intent of being as accurate as possible and applying everything I have learned over the years in my breakdowns. I am here to tell you that Jakobe Clapper, if he continues to develop during his senior year in high school, will hit South Bend as a player who will far exceed his current ranking and will be firmly entrenched in a battle for playing time early in his college football journey. Marcus Freeman and his staff continue to bring in the right type of players to build around, and it feels like every day the ceiling on Notre Dame's potential, both in the present and for the future, rises just a little more.