Recruiting Week In Review
After Notre Dame fired Brian VanGorder earlier in the season, their defense made significant statistical improvement but it was still far from a championship defense. They showed an anemic pass rush and a porous run defense. While a new defensive coordinator could help improve both those areas, it’s clear that they also need to address some major talent issues on defense, particularly in the front seven.
Last week Irish Sports Daily reported on two 2017 recruits who could make a difference in both of those areas if they end up in the Blue and Gold. One of them, Josh Paschal, came off the board when he committed to Kentucky earlier this week, but the other is still in the mix.
While Paschal and Notre Dame had a long-standing relationship, the Irish have just recently begun recruiting Brandon Pili. Pili, 6-4, 310, Westview High School, Portland, OR has seen his recruitment blow up recently. He has offers from Colorado, Hawaii, Ole Miss, Oregon State, UCF, UCLA and USC. Notre Dame has now also thrown their hat into the ring.
“I have been talking to them for about a week,” Pili said. “They had hit me on Twitter and stated they were interested. They also said they liked my film. A couple days later they asked for my transcript and my test score, so I sent it over and we started talking a little bit more from there.”
Pili is an Alaska native that moved to Portland to live with an aunt and uncle in order to get more exposure as a player. It has clearly paid off enough for him to need to narrow his list to a top five. With the Irish entering the picture, that list could change.
“I’ve got an idea who is in my top five, but I think that might switch around now,” the three-star standout said.
He hopes to take a visit to South Bend at some point.
“It’s definitely something to talk about with my parents, but we’ll see.”
Pili has watched Notre Dame play live, when they played USC in L.A. He was at USC on an official visit, but admits he still has a long way to go in his recruitment.
“I don’t really have criteria,” he explained. “I am looking at all schools to see what they have to offer. I am taking everything into consideration when I do make my decision.”
Pili admitted that it was a hard decision to leave his parents and his hometown of Anchorage, AK in order to get more football exposure but acknowledges that it has paid off in a big way.
“I live in Alaska, but I played my senior football season in Oregon,” he shared. “It was just for football. I have an aunt and uncle that live five minutes away from a school down there, so I moved in with them for a few months, played football and came back home to Alaska. It paid off for the exposure but it was a pretty tough decision at the time.”
Pili is one recruit for whom the South Bend winters won’t pose a problem.
“I am used to it,” Pili said. “It’s about -7 degrees here in Alaska right now.”
This summary represents a sampling of the Notre Dame football recruiting information available each week on Irish Sports Daily