Brian Kelly’s first verbal recruit at Notre Dame is Austin Collinsworth, a lanky wide receiver/safety prospect that comes with quite a pedigree.
Collinsworth, son of former NFL star and current NBC Sports broadcaster Cris Collinsworth, will hit the campus as a wide receiver, but also can contribute as a defensive back.
Here’s a scouting profile from ESPN:
Collinsworth is a tall and physically impressive skilled athlete. He has good size in terms of height but needs to put on some overall strength and bulk. A long strider that doesn’t have great lateral agility or shiftiness, but does kick it into gear and demonstrates excellent playing speed-- especially on a straight-line. Takes great pursuit angles to the football from the safety position; often makes tackles on the opposite side of the field when coming from the backside or crossfield. A real competitive football player that gives 100 percent every play and will lay out to make a tackle. Shows the talent to go up high to make a play on the deep ball and gets a quick break on the ball-- good ball skills. Excels as a punt return specialist; fields the ball with the courage in a crowd and heads upfield immediately. Collingsworth is a very intelligent football player that makes the most out of his football skills. He will get better and better at the next level as he physically matures. We are not sure he is the right fit to be matched-up in many man-to-man situations especially against speedy, quicker players, but we really like his football awareness.
Collinsworth was considering offers from Cincinnati, Oregon, Louisville, and Kentucky. He visited campus yesterday and committed to Coach Kelly quickly after.
“It’s a great balance for me,” Collinsworth told Pete Sampson at Irish Illustrated. “I was looking for that balance of academics, football, social life and people. I really found that at Notre Dame.”