2021 RB Byron Cardwell Talks Notre Dame Offer, Timeline & More

Byron Cardwell‍ was flipping between games this past Saturday, but by the time Notre Dame and Clemson were headed to overtime, the 2021 California running back settled in to watch the end.

Barely a day after the Irish emerged with an historic victory, Cardwell found himself on the phone with Notre Dame’s running backs coach Lance Taylor for the first time.

“I talked with him a little bit and just kind of talked about his success personally coaching some of the players he had a chance to coach,” Cardwell explained.

“We talked about who I model my game after and he just told me at the end that I had a scholarship to Notre Dame.”

The 6-foot, 200-pounder from San Diego had been communicating with Taylor for a couple weeks before that initial phone call, but the scholarship offer still caught him off guard.

“I was shocked just knowing how big a school like Notre Dame is, the history they have and just being able to receive an offer from that school is just something that is really big,” Cardwell said.

The Irish joined a list of schools like USC, UCLA, Washington, Arizona, Arizona State, Texas A&M, LSU, Michigan, Penn State, Florida and Florida State among others that had already offered.

The Morse High School standout’s initial impressions of Taylor were positive.

“He seems like a down to earth guy, well-rounded,” said Cardwell. “He means what he says. That’s something I like. He’s just straightforward about everything.”

Now that he has an offer from the Irish, Cardwell plans to dig in even deeper.

“Just have to talk to different coaches on the staff, see virtual tours if they have them and just feel them out as much as I can,” he said.

He said if visits reopened in January, he would take one, but recent reports say the NCAA is expected to extend the dead period into next April.

“If I have to fly out there myself with my mom or my dad or both of them to see it for myself, I’ll do that,” he said.

Cardwell is comfortable with the quality and quantity of the offers he currently has, but has yet to name a formal list of favorites among that group.

“The schools I have now are the kind of schools I’m focused on,” he said. “If anybody else piques my interest or they have something to offer that’s different, then I’ll look into it.

“But as of right now, I just take everybody on the same playing field and just go forward from there.”

He does have a firm timeline for an announcement

“I’ll be making my decision on Jan. 25th.”

That’s his birthday.