2022 RB Aaron Jones Impressed With Notre Dame, Plans To Return

Aaron Jones‍ got all of one touch this season for Westview High School before the 2022 Oregon running back was sidelined with a season-ending injury, but that hasn’t stopped him from receiving serious recruiting attention.

The 5-foot-9, 175-pounder from Portland, Ore., was invited to Notre Dame’s game against Virginia Tech this weekend.

“It was great,” Jones told Irish Sports Daily afterward. “It was an exciting game, definitely.

“I saw the locker room, I toured the campus, all of that. It was basically the gameday experience…It was cool. It was definitely a good visit, good day.

“The campus was beautiful. It was one of the best campuses I’ve ever seen with the architecture and stuff. It looked like I was going to church wherever I went. There were beautiful buildings. It was great.”

He enjoyed watching Notre Dame’s 21-20 win over the Hokies more than most Irish fans probably did.

“It was exciting,” said Jones. “Obviously, I wanted them to win, but it was an exciting game coming down to the wire. It was also cool how they were tied at halftime and the adversity they had to go through in the second half and they were able to pull through.

“The head coach said in the locker room how it was a confidence-builder and a great learning lesson for the team.”

Jones, who has offers from schools like BYU, Oregon State and Nevada, had the chance to speak with some of the coaches, including running backs coach Lance Taylor and receivers coach Del Alexander.

“I got Coach Taylor’s number,” said Jones. “He just said he wants to build a better relationship with me. I didn’t play this year because of my injury, so I’m either going to head to camp this summer or get him film next season.

“He saw my freshman year, so that’s how he knows me. He just wants more film and to get to know me better.”

Jones was excited to hear about the interest from the Irish.

“That was great,” he said. “Notre Dame is one of the most prestigious universities, always Top 25 in the country. They were Top 10 until last week. It’s just an amazing school. It’s such a cool thing to be recruited by them.”

He doesn’t have any other visits planned at this point, but is looking forward to getting back to South Bend at some point.

“I saw the football places, I’d like to see the dorms and some of the classrooms and stuff like that, the life of a student-athlete.”