Top 2023 OL Monroe Freeling Calls Notre Dame "One Of A Kind"

Jeff Quinn had painted quite the picture of Notre Dame for Monroe Freeling‍ during calls over the last several months.

The 2023 South Carolina offensive lineman was excited to see if the real thing matched Quinn’s description during his first visit to South Bend on Monday.

“He talks about how great the campus is, but seeing it with your own eyes, it was just like completely different,” the 6-foot-7, 275-pounder said. “There's nothing like it.”

The Oceanside Collegiate Academy standout said he had a “fantastic day” with Quinn and new offensive line assistant Trevor Mendelson.

“He was the same guy,” Freeling said of meeting Quinn in person. “I liked him. He's a great coach. I can really tell he really wants me to go there and I was really happy to visit and finally get the chance to meet him in person.

“We've been talking this whole time. It was just getting a chance to talk to him some more, just getting to know him more on a personal level this time.”

Freeling, who received an offer from the Irish back in February, also has offers from schools like Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Duke, Virginia, Tennessee, Florida State, Miami, Michigan, Penn State and Oregon among several others.

“You see a lot of campuses that try to be someone else,” Freeling said. “Notre Dame is just themselves. They're just completely different than every other school out there. They have their own identity.”

He didn’t get to see everything, but what he did see certainly left an impression.

“It's going to take more than one trip to just see everything,” he said. “They say it's not a huge campus. They said it's only a one mile from end to end, but there's just so much in the campus itself.

“I saw the stadium. I saw the facilities. I saw the famous landmarks I guess you can say like Touchdown Jesus and all that. It was a great experience.”

Freeling is already looking forward to returning this fall.

“They've told me about the game day and I'm sure that we're going to get up here for a game day,” he said. “They say 80,000 people every single game day. I'd be thrilled to go see it.”

He’ll make stops at Georgia and Clemson later this week, but Notre Dame certainly set the bar very high.

“It's nothing like I've seen before. That's all I can say. There's a reason they're such a prestigious program. They're one of a kind. There's no other school like them.”