Former Stanford commit Armel Mukam made his flip official Wednesday, signing with Notre Dame. After spending two months verbally committed to the Cardinal, the defensive end out of Virginia flipped to Notre Dame in late August.
Mukam took official visits to Stanford and Cal over the summer. He committed to the Irish without an official visit, eventually visiting in November.
Mukam stands at 6-foot-4 and 255 pounds, having played most of his high school ball at Woodberry Forest School. He is originally from Canada and played his freshman season in Quebec. He also competed in the shot put during track season. Mukam received a 5.6 grade from Rivals. That earns him a three-star designation with ‘mid to low-level pro potential,’ according to the recruiting service.
As a senior, Mukam registered two-and-a-half sacks and 13 quarterback hurries to go with 10 tackles for loss. He had six sacks as a junior.
Mukam's potential is intriguing, but he likely won't be an immediate contributor in South Bend. He doesn't plan to enroll in the spring, meaning his development will be just a little more delayed. Additionally, Mukam projects as a player with a steeper learning curve, as scouts attribute much of his success at the high school level to being physically bigger than opposing offensive linemen. He'll need to refine his technique and add more to his frame to take advantage of his natural quickness and crack the depth chart at Notre Dame.
The Irish are graduating their program sack leader in Isaiah Foskey and may see fifth-year Justin Ademilola, their other most prominent edge rusher, depart. However, Notre Dame has a lot of depth at the position. That affords them the luxury of likely redshirting Mukam and taking their time with developing the three-star defensive end.
Mukam joins Devan Houston as the first two Canadian players to commit to Notre Dame since Chase Claypool in 2016. He is also one of two commits from Virginia, alongside two-way athlete Brandyn Hillman.
