Notre Dame Impresses 2022 OL Jake Taylor With Virtual Visit

Jake Taylor‍ conducted his first virtual visit with Notre Dame earlier this week and the show of force from the Irish staff certainly communicated serious interest in the 2022 Las Vegas offensive lineman.

“They had a lot of the coaches on including the head coach, offensive coordinator and o-line coach and there were a couple others,” says Taylor, noting Kelly’s presence on the call as especially illuminating.

“That's huge because that shows that they truly are interested in me…that meant the world to me.”

The Bishop Gorman High School star got to see all the facilities and learn more about the University’s academics.

“I loved it,” he said. “It was a beautiful sight. I learned about the tradition of all the game days and basically how they run things over there.”

He enjoyed seeing the new facility, but was particularly struck by what goes on inside the Irish Athletics Center.

“It was beautiful,” said Taylor. “It was funny because they were showing all this amazing stuff and he was like, ' What do you see? What were some of the things that excite you about this place?' And I said, 'Tug of War.'

“That was one of the things that they showed in the visit. The Tug of War scene made me smile big because that showed their competition side too.”

The academic portion also stood out.

“There are only 18 students to a class rather than the stereotypical college with 300 kids in your class,” he said. “It's a small ratio of students to teachers. So, it's a small proximity. You can actually develop good relationships with your teachers.”

Taylor speaks with Notre Dame offensive line coach Jeff Quinn once a week, “if not more.”

He described the relationship as “super strong.”

“We've gotten only stronger every call and it's looking really good right now,” said Taylor.

The next step for Taylor and Notre Dame is “definitely taking a visit out there.”

“We don't know when, because I have practice starting up over here too, so we're looking for the best time available to actually take a visit out there,” he added.

Taylor plans to announce a group of favorites in the near future.

“There should be a list coming out soon about where everyone stands,” he said. “It's going to be an interesting one…It's anywhere from three to five schools.”

Notre Dame is a good bet to make the list as is Oklahoma, one of his longtime favorites, and USC. Alabama would appear to be in good shape after the Crimson Tide pulled the trigger with an offer on Friday.