2021 OL Nolan Rucci Ready For Notre Dame Return

Nolan Rucci‍ hasn’t picked a college yet, but in a sense, the 2021 Pennsylvania offensive lineman feels like he’s already been through the recruiting process once.

That’s because he had a front row seat for the recruitment of his brother, Hayden Rucci, who went through the process as a tight end in the Class of 2019 before signing with Wisconsin.

Nolan went on a lot of his brother’s visits.

“I got to see a ton of places from a different perspective as far as not being a recruit,” Rucci explains. “Now going through it myself, getting to go through the process a second time has been really cool.”

One of the visits Rucci took before he himself was a national prospect was to Notre Dame.

He returned for his own visit last January.

“I got to see it in when it was beautiful and super nice and warm,” he said of his trips. “Then, I got to see it when there was snow on the ground. I got to see the best of both worlds. I’m a fan of the cold, so that doesn’t really bother me.

“One of the cool things was that I got to tour the academic building and talk to a lot of their guys. I’m interested in being an Engineering major. It was really cool to see how guys are able to handle the academics and football at the same time.”

Rucci will be back for another visit when the Irish convene their top 2021 offensive line targets for the weekend of March 21st.

“The big thing now is getting over and watching practice,” says Rucci, whose offer sheet also includes Penn State, Wisconsin, Clemson, Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon, Stanford, Texas and Texas A&M among others.

Notre Dame offensive line coach Jeff Quinn has done a good job keeping the Irish near the top of Rucci’s list, but as he digs deeper, Rucci wants to see more.

“Obviously, I’ve built a relationship with Coach Quinn and I really like him as a person,” says Rucci. “I think the big thing now is watching him coach and seeing him with his guys.

“What’s important to me is seeing that process, watching film and watching him interact. I know him really well as a person, I’d just like to get to know him a lot better as a coach.”

Rucci has taken the month of February to start planning more college visits, but says, “Everything is up in the air.”

“(Notre Dame) is the only one set in stone,” he adds.

He’s trying to find a date to get to LSU. He knows he’ll be in Madison to see his brother at some point, but doesn’t know exactly when and he’ll take other trips as well, but doesn’t have any locked in yet.

“Once I get back to schools I want to see and maybe some for the first time now, I may be flying out to some places, once I take all of those, maybe I’ll be able to sit down and start narrowing down that list, but I’m not at that point yet.”