Recruiting Week In Review
Written by Joe Bradshaw
The beginning of fall camp is both good and bad for Notre Dame recruiting. On the one hand, the coaching staff will be much more focused on the team as they prepare them for the first game of the season. At the same time, now that the Irish are back to playing football, there is a much more enticing forum with which to host prospects. And there are still plenty of prospects. A number of verbally committed members of the 2020 class still need to take official visits as well as some uncommitted ones. Notre Dame’s Class of 2021 recruiting has also been in full swing for some time now so there are certain to be a number of unofficial visitors throughout the season as well.
Last week Irish Sports Daily reported on two young men, both defensive backs that are being wooed by the Notre Dame coaching staff. Both plan to visit South Bend. What have you been missing by not being a member of Irish Sports Daily?
Collin Gamble, DB, 5-10, 180, Liberty Christian High School, Argyle, TX only received his Irish scholarship offer less than a month ago but he said almost immediately that he wanted to take an official visit to Notre Dame. That claim wasn’t just lip service. The Texas speedster recently set up an official visit to South Bend for the Virginia game.
“It worked with my schedule,” he explained. “I have a home game that weekend so it’d be easier for me to get to the airport. That’s one of the days Coach (Brian) Polian put out, so I went with that date.”
Gamble and Polian have spoken regularly since the Notre Dame offer.
“I’ve been talking to Coach Polian every other day on the phone,” Gamble shared. “He feels that if I get up on campus that I’m going to fall in love with it.”
Notre Dame is high on Gamble’s list for a couple of reasons.
“The academic piece,” he said of one of the main attractions of Notre Dame. “They’re always competing for a high spot in the college rankings. And they were just in the College Football Playoff last year, so I know it’s a really good program with a lot of history behind them.”
Gamble plans to use his official visit to get a better feel for the football program.
“See how their secondary works and see how I could see myself fitting in with the team and how they run things up there,” he said.
As of now he has two other trips planned, one to the University of Texas at San Antonio and the other to Cal. He recently visited TCU.
“I had a good time and enjoyed my visit there,” he remembered.
TCU has yet to offer Gamble a scholarship so he’s waiting to see what the coaching staff plans to do in that regard.
“They said they’d let me know,” he said. “They have a recruiting meeting on Monday when they get back in the office and they’re going to contact me after that.”
Tony Grimes, CB, 6-1, 180, Princess Anne High School, Virginia Beach, VA is a member of the Class of 2021 and like Gamble he also holds a large number of scholarship offers. Right now, though, his focus is on the upcoming season.
“Right now we’re getting into school ball,” he shared. “Camp is a team thing so we go out there and compete to see where we’re at. The goal of the team is to finish every game strong because we don’t have a lot of depth right now. Our goal is to finish strong every game through conditioning.”
Grimes believes that his summer has been productive, especially in helping him with route recognition. His list of scholarship offers is definitely elite and includes Notre Dame, Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Texas A&M, LSU, Florida, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Penn State, Pitt and many others. His contact with Notre Dame has been limited but he does know some things about the university and the program.
“I know they play big-time ball,” he said. “The only other thing I know is the DB coach, Todd Lyght. He’s a really good corner coach. He knows how to develop players and put them in The League.”
Grimes would like to visit Notre Dame if the chance arises.
“The facilities, the campus, the academics, the players, the lounge the dorms,” he said of what he would like to see on a visit.
Grimes does plan to spend his fair share of time on the road this fall.
“I know I’m going to a Bama game, Texas A&M game, Clemson game, (Virginia) Tech game, Penn State, Ohio State, probably a Michigan game and probably a Notre Dame game,” he said.
One place that has definitely stood out to him is Texas A&M. He’s made multiple trips there and speaks very highly of his relationship with the coaching staff.
“Every time I go down there it’s not like a recruiting visit,” he explained. “It’s like a recruiting visit but it’s more like we’re talking personally. We don’t just talk football. The coaching staff is a really big part of the Texas A&M program for me.”
These two summaries represent just a sample of the Notre Dame football recruiting information available each week on Irish Sports Daily.