Parents | Notre Dame Academics "Huge" For 2021 OL Nolan Rucci

Nolan Rucci‍ is serious about football and the 2021 Pennsylvania offensive lineman is serious about academics, so it’s not a huge surprise that he has serious interest in Notre Dame.

“The academic piece obviously at Notre Dame is huge for him,” Rucci’s father, Todd, says. “He recognizes what Notre Dame has and what it can offer, not only for the time he’s there, but the opportunities down the road with the networks and alumni that Notre Dame provides. He’s very keen to that.”

Rucci plans to major in Aerospace Engineering and the idea of being at a program that places such a premium on academics is attractive.

“That is a big part of his decision,” his father says. “For Nolan to be surrounded by those types of students, those types of players where academics are important, is another huge piece for him to be in a locker room where you have to make the academic side a priority to succeed at Notre Dame.”

The football side of things is appealing as well. Irish offensive line coach Jeff Quinn has made a strong early impression, which says a lot considering Rucci’s father spent the better part of a decade playing offensive line for the New England Patriots and currently serves as his son’s offensive line coach.

“Coach Quinn has just done a helluva job recruiting him,” Mr. Rucci says. “He connected with Coach Quinn early on.

“Nolan isn’t the kind of kid who needs to be told how good he is. Coach Quinn is very real and is all about getting people better and understanding where you are, but yet not accepting mediocrity, where a lot of players tend to get comfortable. Coach Quinn has been really good with Nolan.”

Rucci visited Clemson earlier this month and was in the middle of another round of visits that would have taken him back Notre Dame for the Irish’s major offensive line event on March 21st, but those visits are now off.

The pause in recruiting has caused everybody to readjust, but the Ruccis don’t seem overly concerned.

“There is plenty of time and we’ll work on rescheduling everything once things settle down,” Todd says. “We are all good.”

The visits will be important to Nolan’s ultimate decision.

“At this point, Nolan wants to be around the players,” Rucci’s mother, Stacy, says. “He wants to go on all of these trips and see how the players interact with the coaches, how the coaches interact with the players. Not just the starters.

“What’s it like to be on scout team? What’s it like to be a freshman? What’s it like to be injured? What are the injured guys doing? Are they involved or are they just out on the side? It’s kind of nice just to be able to take a look at all of that.”

Todd adds, “I think we’re looking forward to getting out there and watching Coach Quinn coach the guys and get Nolan around the players and be in that environment of football for a little bit to see what it feels like.”

Both of Rucci’s parents were student-athletes at Penn State – his mother played field hockey there – so the ties to Happy Valley are strong, but there are some connections to Notre Dame as well.

One of Stacy’s very best friends, who is also Nolan’s godmother, attended Notre Dame as did her father and brother. She’s been preaching the benefits of Notre Dame from the start.

“She’s always been Notre Dame crazy,” Stacy laughs while noting she likes the student housing situation at Notre Dame.

“What I think is really cool about Notre Dame is the whole dorm experience and how it doesn’t matter if you’re a football player, a basketball player or whatever that it’s like a family. I think that’s pretty cool.”

But one thing is for sure. This is going to be Nolan’s decision in the end. His parents had tremendously positive college experiences and they want that for their son and are confident he’s the one best positioned to determine his best situation.