Notre Dame Proves An Emotional Offer For 2024 DE Nigel Smith Jr.

Tuesday was an emotional day at Melissa High School in Texas and it went beyond a simple tweet.

Notre Dame extended an offer to Nigel Smith Jr.‍, the 2024 defensive end’s first Power 5 offer of the process.

The program tweeted out a video of Melissa head coach Matthew Nally informing Smith’s teammates of the news, which received well-deserved attention across the Twittersphere.

But there were plenty of emotions beforehand as well.

“He was very emotional,” Nally said of Smith’s response to the offer. “He was very emotional.”

Irish defensive line coach Mike Elston reached out to Nally early Tuesday morning and let the coach know they were ready to offer.

Not wanting to spoil the moment of the first Power-5 offer, Nally didn’t let anything on when he summoned Smith and his father, who is a staff member with the program, to his office.

“First off, when Coach told him he was from Notre Dame, you would have thought that he had seen a ghost or something,” Nally says. “Then actually to get an offer, he got a little emotional.

“At the end of the day, that's huge. It's Notre Dame, you know? It was a great experience for him and his dad and for all of us here who are Cardinal fans and Nigel fans. It was just a pretty awesome experience.”

It was also an awesome experience for Nally, who acknowledges growing up a huge Notre Dame fan in Franklin, Indiana.

“Love them,” he said of the Irish. “I was the biggest Rick Mirer, Ron Powlus fan forever. Those were my guys when I was growing up. Huge, huge Notre Dame fan. Every Saturday, when I get home from work, I'm watching Notre Dame.”

All three of Nally’s sons came home from the hospital in #3 Notre Dame jerseys.

He said having Notre Dame offer one of his players was a “surreal” experience.

“Just being a fan of football and just understanding the rich tradition behind it, I don't really have words for it,” the coach said. “I was just taken back. I knew Nigel was that good, I did, I knew Nigel was that good, but it's almost like Santa Claus was calling you and saying, 'Hey, I'm real.' It was awesome. It was fantastic. It was great.”

But as he said, Nally isn’t surprised that Smith is already receiving this kind of attention.

“The crazy thing is a lot of people don't know and don't understand is he just turned 15 in late-December,” the coach said. “He’s 6-5, 250 pounds as a freshman. His dad is 6-9, 280 pounds. You would think that his dad could play for the Dallas Cowboys right now, he's just a massive human being who is put together extremely well. But Nigel is a football player.

“You can't ask for a better kid as a player. His motor is unbelievable. He's just that protypical coach's kid; works his butt off, gets up here before anybody else is up here, gets in a workout, goes through school and during the athletic period, he works out again and then comes back and lifts after school. So you just can't ask for a better kid in the situation that he is in. The work ethic that he has is just uncanny.”

And while it’s the first of what will likely be many Power 5 offers, Nally has no doubt it’s one Smith will consider seriously.

“Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean when he hung up, you would have thought he'd already put on the gold helmet. 100 percent.”