TE Commit Michael Mayer Looking Forward To Season

Depending on the rules of their state, some high school football players get started sooner than others, but few national prospects got started with practice this summer as soon as Michael Mayer‍ and his Covington Catholic High School teammates, who began preseason workouts in mid-July.

“We’ve been grinding,” the 2020 Notre Dame tight end commit told Irish Sports Daily.

Mayer is enthusiastic about preseason camp.

“It’s a new group of guys every time,” he said. “I’ve been playing varsity since sophomore year. My brother was a senior when I was a sophomore, so he showed me a little bit about what leadership was.

“Last year was a different group of guys. My brother was gone, all of his friends were gone. It’s a cool experience because every training camp, there’s a different group of people you’re out there grinding with, sweating with. It’s awesome.”

Covington Catholic lost in the state championship last season 20-16 to South Warren, a team anchored by Mayer’s future Notre Dame teammate, 2019 defensive tackle Jacob Lacey.

“Obviously, last year we didn’t want to lose in the state championship like that,” Mayer said. “That was a horrible loss. The goal this year is to finish. Last year, we didn’t finish.

“This year, we want to finish. We want to win a state championship and go 15-0. And that’s the expectation. That’s the expectation for us every year, really.”

Mayer believes a couple school records are within his reach, but those aren’t his focus.

“That’s not what it’s all about,” he said. “It’s about winning, winning a state championship. That’s obviously something cool on the side, but that’s not going to be in my head during the games or anything like that.

“I’m just going to go out there and play my heart out and see what happens.”

Mayer saw his profile explode following a dominating performance at The Opening Finals last month that helped him win Offensive Skill MVP honors.

“I knew I had it in me,” said Mayer. “It was a matter of just showing the people around me and the teammates I played with.”

He plans on bringing same attitude he brought to Dallas to the field this season.

“For me, it’s really just the mentality,” he said. “Obviously, my physicality is there. I think I’m there mentally. You’ve got to put the effort in. If the effort is not there, you’re never going to be as great as you want to be.

“It always starts with effort no matter what. You can be good, but you’re not going to be that good if you don’t put effort in. If you put effort in and you’re good, it just doubles. For me, it’s always just been about trying your hardest. That’s all you can do and there’s nothing else you can really worry about.”

Mayer is one of several Notre Dame commits planning to return to campus for the USC game in October.

“That’s going to be awesome. We’ll spend the weekend together. It’ll just show me what life will be like in South Bend with all my friends.”