Recruiting Week In Review

It doesn’t take any kind of inside information to know that there is uncertainty currently surrounding the Notre Dame football program.  While Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick has publicly supported embattled head coach Brian Kelly that doesn’t necessarily offer any job security for the rest of the coaching and support staff.  Yet, recruiting must go on and it does.  The lack of success on the football field has endangered the Class of 2017 and perhaps blunts the message to the Class of 2018.  As a result, the coaching staff is going to need to ramp up its efforts in the last months before Signing Day.  If there is any silver lining to the poor record this season, it’s that time normally spent preparing for a bowl game can be spent on recruiting.  And they’re definitely going to need to use that time wisely to both shore up the Class of 2017 and continue to make inroads into the Class of 2018.  They seem to be doing just that.  Last week Irish Sports Daily reported on two members of the Class of 2018 that are hearing from the Irish.  What have you been missing by not being a member of Irish Sports Daily?

Elijah Teague, DT, 6-2, 292, Marist High School, Chicago, IL hoped to still be playing football at this point in the season but, to his disappointment, things did not work out that way.  His Marist High School Redhawks bowed out in the first round of the High School playoffs, but Teague didn’t let that setback stop him from making productive use of his time.  He’s been visiting campuses and getting first hand looks at schools in which he’s interested.

“We ended our season a little early so I decided to go on few visits each weekend during the week of November while I had some time off,” he said.

So far, he’s trekked to Minnesota and Michigan State and offered mixed reviews on them. 

“Minnesota was great,” he said.  “They actually offered me during the visit.  Michigan State was all right.  We saw the town a little bit, but I really didn’t get to see the facilities.”

Teague traveled to Notre Dame for their final home game against Virginia Tech.  ISD spoke to him before he left to visit the campus. 

“I did the Irish Invasion back in June,” he shared.  “I got some good feedback from the camp.  Notre Dame has a really good Business program and that’s what I want to major in.”

Notre Dame Defensive Line Coach Keith Gilmore seemed impressed by Teague at Irish Invasion. 

“Coach Gilmore said he liked what I was doing,” he said.  “He said he wanted to see my film from my junior year and that they would be in contact.”

Teague hopes the Notre Dame coaches will like what they see from his junior film.  He’s been working to improve his game, using some new moves. 

“I feel like they’ll see a motor,” he said.  “I try my hardest to play until the end of the whistle each play.  I feel like they’ll see that, that’s something that’s a little different from last year.  They’ll see me using my hands a little more.  I learned a few new moves and tried to use them on the field and a lot of times they worked.”

Teague wants to see more of Notre Dame than he did at Irish Invasion. 

“I do want to check out all of the facilities and get a tour of campus,” he said.  “I didn’t really get there when I was there for the camp.  I just want to get a better tour of the campus and everything.”

Teague currently holds offers from Minnesota, Iowa State, Kansas, Nevada, Bowling Green, New Mexico, Miami-Ohio, Toledo and Central Michigan.  He’s been encouraged by the interest he has received. 

“I didn’t realize how good I was until I got to high school and started getting attention from the college coaches,” he explained.  “If you would have asked me in eighth grade I wouldn’t have told you, ‘I plan on having this many offers by my sophomore or junior year.’” 

Teague’s next stop on his Minnesota tour is going to be State College, Pennsylvania for the Penn State-Michigan State game.  He won’t just be looking at the football though.

“What they can do for me in the long run,” he said of what’s most important to him when choosing a school.  “That’s why I do like Minnesota and Notre Dame.   Notre Dame, they’re really tough on academics.  And with Minnesota, right there in Minneapolis there are fourteen Fortune 500 companies, so for somebody who wants to major in business, you can get right in there and get an internship.”

Unlike Teague, Traveon Johnson, WR, 6-2, 180, Giddings High School, Giddings, TX has already chosen the school at which he wants to play his college football.  The 2018 recruits is verbally committed to Texas Tech but is still looking at other schools just to keep his options open.  One of the schools he’s keeping in mind is Notre Dame.  He originally planned to attend the Notre Dame Shamrock Series game against Army at the Alamodome, but had to change those plans.  Instead he watched the game on television, at least for a while. 

“I watched the majority of it but after I saw them blowing them out, I said ‘There’s no point in watching the rest,’” he explained.  “They played really good.  I like their defense.  Their defense is playing really aggressive.  Of course I liked seeing them put those points on the board.  I’m an offensive type player, so it was nice to see them put points on the board.”

Even though he couldn’t make it to the game, he was still honored to receive an invitation. 

“I think it was pretty cool,” he shared.  “I honestly like Notre Dame.  Honestly, it was kind of shocking.  I had no clue they had any type of interest in me, so it was pretty cool to learn they had interest in me.”

He’s receptive to Notre Dame’s interest in him.  He does know quite a bit about them, having followed them on television. 

“I know it’s a really good traditional program,” he said.  “I love watching Notre Dame play football.  I remember watching them play in the National Championship against Alabama a couple of years ago.”

Not being able to make it to San Antonio for the Shamrock Series game has only whetted Johnson’s appetite to travel to South Bend to see the campus and get a closer look at the Irish football program. 

“The day I wasn’t able to go I was talking to my dad and said, ‘I’ll probably want to take a flight out there this summer or offseason to check out what they have going on,’” he said.  “It would be a good thing to have a good bond with the program.  I would love to actually be up there and visit and talk to the staff.  I’d be honored to see it.”

Despite his enthusiastic assessment of Notre Dame, Johnson insists that he’s still solid in his Texas Tech commitment. 

“I just love them throwing the ball,” he shared.  “I’m really big on academics and school.  My mom always wants to make sure I get that first and then football is second.  I’m looking forward to majoring in Engineering and they’re really big in that, so I said ‘It’s probably the spot for me.’”

At this point, Johnson only has the Texas Tech offer, but he’s hoping for more. 

“I just want to have a really good recruiting base and get to actually enjoy the recruiting process,” he said.  “I’m expecting some more in the future.

These two summaries represent just a sample of the Notre Dame recruiting information available each week on Irish Sports Daily.