Being No. 1 in the country has its privileges.
Right now, those perks include chasing down some of the top talent in the country, something Notre Dame’s coaching staff is doing as they try and put the finishing touches on a stellar 2013 recruiting class.
There isn’t a lot of room in a class that already has 22 commitments, but that hasn’t stopped Notre Dame from chasing two elite prospects: Florida running back Greg Bryant and Southern California safety Max Redfield. Redfield received an in-home visit from Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly last night, who also caught the 6-foot-3, 200-pound safety’s basketball game. The one-time USC commit looks like he’s down to Notre Dame and Oregon, with the Irish looking in a great place.
BlueandGold.com’s Jason Sapp caught up with Redfield, who said the Irish definitely are his leader. “Notre Dame helped its chances,” Redfield told Sapp. “My parents trust my judgment and after I visited Notre Dame I told them how I felt about them, and it pretty much validated it with them getting to meet the coaches themselves.”
Meanwhile, Bryant’s name has come out of nowhere, but makes a ton of sense considering Cierre Wood looks like he’s leaning towards heading to the NFL instead of returning for a fifth season. In Bryant, the Irish are chasing one of the country’s top playmakers, as the five-star recruit is one of the top 15 players in the country, according to Rivals.com’s rankings. With Irish assistants dispatched all around the country, Tony Alford will reportedly make his sales pitch in person, before Bryant visits South Bend the weekend of December 7th, when the Irish will have their annual awards show.
From a numbers perspective, how this all works out will be interesting. Notre Dame is said to be in great shape with Al-Quadin Muhammad of Don Bosco Prep, a former teammate of freshman DB Elijah Shumate, and Notre Dame would accept the commitment of the edge player, one of their top pass rush targets. With other recruits still in play like Tarean Folston, how Notre Dame closes this class will be fun to watch.
After rebuilding the health of the program, the Irish will have to decide how to use their 85 scholarships, with some tough decisions likely coming down the bend. Tight roster numbers are another good sign for a program that spent a lot of time playing closer to 75 than 85, and Notre Dame coaches will likely do their best to bring in elite players if they can do it, worrying about the usual attrition that comes with recruiting and roster moves each offseason.
With coaches at several high profile schools out of jobs and recruits reconsidering some schools that have fallen on hard times (like USC), there’s going to be quite a few players worth watching before February. And for the first time in a long time, Notre Dame has the ability to play closer, one of the perks of being in the national championship game.
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With the freshman class on campus and the football team starting voluntary workouts and summer school, the team is now in the hands of strength coach Paul Longo and medical trainer Rob Hunt. That’s good news for an important recruiting class that will likely have a few early contributors come September. One athlete who doesn’t…
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Caught up in the commotion of DeShone Kizer’s commitment to the Irish was the news of how Kizer actually committed to Notre Dame. The 6-foot-5, 210-pound quarterback called to deliver the good news to Brian Kelly and the head coach wasn’t in South Bend, but actually in New England spending some time with Bill Belicheck…
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For those worried about the Irish defensive line after the surprising loss of Eddie Vanderdoes, it’s probably worth taking a look at who’s returning along the Irish front. Just about everybody. While the Irish lose senior captain Kapron Lewis-Moore to graduation, they return five of their top six players up front, including All-American caliber talent…
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After a lot of grumbling by Arizona State athletic director Steve Patterson, it appears that Notre Dame and Arizona State’s game in 2014 will go on after all. The Sun Devil’s athletic director took to the internet yesterday to announce that the Irish’s date in Tempe that looked to be in jeopardy is back on…
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Property of the Toledo Blade
Notre Dame received the commitment of Toledo quarterback DeShone Kizer Tuesday. The 6-foot-5, 210-pound quarterback had offers from Alabama, Arkansas, LSU, Penn State, and Tennessee among others. “I am privileged to say that I will be continuing my Fighting Irish tradition by playing football at the University of Notre Dame!” Kizer Tweeted this afternoon. Kizer’s…
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We’re a week away from freshman reporting to summer school — finalizing the assembly of the 2013 Fighting Irish football team on campus and beginning offseason workouts. Across the country, guys like Greg Bryant and Jaylon Smith say goodbye to home and high school and prepare to go from All-Everything recruits to freshmen football players,…
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As someone that had the opportunity to participate in this coaching staff’s very first Fantasy Camp, I can tell you that it’s an incredible experience. The Notre Dame staff roles out the red carpet for both campers and returning alums, making the short week one of the best experiences you could ever hope for if…
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Editors Note: While there’s no doubt that Rees will be the starting quarterback against Temple, the headline of this story has been tweaked to be a little less definitive, as talking at a banquet hardly construes an official announcement. UPDATE: It appears that Kelly did more than hint at Rees being the frontrunner for the…
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In one of the great examples of June being the Sahara for college football fans, Notre Dame recruit Elijah Hood, one of the best running backs in the country, got caught up in social media circus yesterday, courtesy of a Vine video he made. Hood, one of the most active social media users in the…
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Eddie Vanderdoes won’t be attending Notre Dame. Both Brian Kelly and the talented defensive lineman agree on that. How the situation ever got to this point, well that’s a story most people are still trying to figure out. Today, after a few weeks of murky details slowly coming to the surface, Vanderdoes, Notre Dame and…
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Summer break is over for the Irish football team. Returning members of the football team came back to South Bend yesterday to begin preparation for the 2013 season. While all workouts are technically voluntary, every player (freshmen will show up in two weeks) is expected to begin work with strength and conditioning coach Paul Longo…
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Everett Golson intends to return to Notre Dame after his suspension. That’s the good news. But for Brian Kelly and his coaching staff, there’s no planning for good intentions, and right now the quarterback depth chart looks vastly different without Golson at the top of it. The once robust quarterback group had a very tough…
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Since the revelation of Everett Golson‘s suspension from Notre Dame, not much had been clear about the future of the Irish’s starting quarterback. But after listening to head coach Brian Kelly, one thing now is: The door is wide open for Golson to return in the spring. Kelly spoke briefly with the media Tuesday afternoon,…
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AP
In the span of one holiday weekend, the trajectory of Notre Dame’s football program has been irrevocably changed. That’s not hyperbole. Coming off a twelve-win season and finally solving a quarterback conundrum that took three seasons to sort, Brian Kelly turned down an opportunity to jump to the NFL, presumably because he saw the bright…
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A day after news broke that Everett Golson was no longer enrolled at Notre Dame, the quarterback confirmed and clarified the circumstances surrounding his shocking departure. With the university bound to silence due to privacy laws, Golson himself acknowledged an academic situation that let to a suspension for the fall semester, ending his football season…
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Starting quarterback Everett Golson is no longer enrolled at Notre Dame. The bombshell was confirmed last Saturday night by university spokesman Dennis Brown to multiple outlets, with local NBC affiliate WNDU the first to report the news. Two sources tells Inside the Irish that an academic violation is the root of the problem, and may…
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Memorial Weekend notes: Vanderdoes, Weis, recruiting down south
May 24, 2013, 6:59 PM EDT
With the unofficial kickoff to summer upon us, we’re inside 100 days until football is back. That may seem like quite a long time, but we’ve got plenty of ground to cover in the next few months as we get a better look at what the 2013 Fighting Irish will be. Before everybody disappears for…
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Jake Golic‘s football career isn’t over. The reserve tight end will spend his final season of eligibility at Cincinnati, exercising his ability to transfer and play immediately after graduating from Notre Dame last week with a degree in graphic design. Golic appeared in just five games during his four seasons in South Bend, battling injuries…
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With Theo Riddick and Cierre Wood gone from the Irish backfield, the Notre Dame running game is missing its two leading men from 2012. Yet there isn’t a huge worry about what comes next. Even with Riddick’s surprising, hard charging senior season and Wood’s three seasons in (and around) the starting lineup, there’s every belief…
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For the past few days, rumors have been swirling about high-profile prospect Eddie Vanderdoes. The blue-chip defensive lineman, who made the dramatic decision to sign with Notre Dame on Signing Day, is reportedly having some second thoughts on that commitment. What that entails – or if it’s actually true – is anyone’s guess. Vanderdoes himself…
