2021 ATH Ben Perry Likes What He Learned About Notre Dame

Ben Perry learned a lot about Notre Dame during his trip to South Bend for the Irish’s Junior Day. The 2021 Chicago athlete found out that while Notre Dame has a huge following, it’s not actually a huge college.

“Things were real nice,” said Perry. “It’s a real nice prestigious school. I didn’t even know Notre Dame’s enrollment was only 8,000. It’s a real small school with a super big fan base.”

The Mount Carmel High School standout was able to tour campus, see the facilities, have some food and a photoshoot.

He also had a one-on-one meeting with Irish defensive coordinator Clark Lea, who explained where Perry stood with Notre Dame.

“He wanted to tell me that he really liked my film and everything,” Perry said of the conversation with Lea. “He really sees me playing that Rover position in their defense, that hybrid outside linebacker position. In terms of offering me, it’ll be real slow because they’re only offering one or two guys in that position. So, I’ve got to be patient with them. Overall, he said they’re highly interested in me.”

Perry has offers from schools like Iowa State, Georgia Tech, Boston College, Louisville, Yale and Brown among others. He isn’t turned off by having to wait for the Irish.

“Notre Dame being such a big school, I could see why they’re slow with it,” he said. “I’m excited I got to go see Notre Dame and I’m happy I made the board and caught their attention.”

He was impressed with Lea as a person and a coach.

“As a person, he’s a typical family man,” said Perry. “He’s all about his family and everything. He’s got great core values as a person. As a coach, he’s going to support you and also get in you. He’s going to bring that dog mentality out of you. He’s not going to accept anything but the best. I really like that about him.”

Perry, who was interested to learn that Notre Dame football players roomed with regular members of the student body, was impressed with the academic presentation.

“Like I said, it’s a real prestigious school, so they have a high standard academically and I really like that,” he said.

So what’s next for Perry and Notre Dame?

“Be patient, continue to grow off the field, continue to work on my craft, take the tools I learned from Coach Lea and apply them to my game,” he said. “Then just be patient with them and see what happens.”

He pointed to a specific, unique shuffle technique Lea trains his linebackers to use.

“It teaches you to not only accelerate fast, but also play controlled,” said Perry. “If you’re shuffling your feet, you’re not going to have arm tackles. I’ve had a few arm tackles that I was trying to eliminate and that technique right there is real helpful.

“I took a mental picture of it, so I’m going to try to apply that to my workouts and use that in my game.”

Perry is looking at possible trips to Louisville and Georgia Tech in the coming weeks and could be back in South Bend in the future as well.

“If Notre Dame stays in contact with me and we’re having good conversations, of course I’m going to take a visit if they tell me to take a visit.”