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Notre Dame Football Recruiting

Father "Ecstatic" Over 2022 WR Tobias Merriweather's Notre Dame Pledge

August 11, 2021
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Dom Merriweather was never all that shy about sharing his preference of schools for his son, 2022 Washington wide receiver Tobias Merriweather‍, and now that his son has chosen Notre Dame, Mr. Merriweather isn’t shy about sharing his feelings on that choice.

“I'm ecstatic,” Mr. Merriweather says. “I'm glad that it's done and I'm glad that it's Notre Dame.”

But while Notre Dame was the school he thought would be best for his son all along, he never pushed his son toward that decision.

“Not at all,” he said. “I'm an advisor. I'm not the decision-maker. I'm an advisor. We really didn't talk about any schools or what I thought about certain schools until the day he said he was ready to announce. We had a conversation later on that evening and just kind of talked about different schools. There was no pressure from me at all.

“Tobias had his own process. He's introspective and he went through his choices the best way he knew how and right now, it seems like he made a great decision, time will tell. There's still a lot of football left and get through her senior year and things like that, but we're happy for him.”

Mr. Merriweather feels the overall fit in South Bend fits his son on and off the field.

“I also I think it's good for kids to get out and see the world and being on the West Coast doesn't necessarily always offer you that opportunity,” he said.

Merriweather chose Notre Dame over offers from schools like Stanford, Michigan, Tennessee, Oregon, Washington and Washington State among many others.

“There were some other good choices he could have chosen and I wouldn't have said those were less mature situations than Notre Dame,” his father says. “I think Tobias has always sort of an been independent person. I think we don't have to say a whole lot of words to understand each other if you will. I think he went through his process.

“The main thing for me, I'm just glad he decided to make a decision before his senior seaspn so he could just play ball.”

After seeing his sisters go across the country to run track at Maryland before transferring down to Oklahoma, distance was never going to be a factor for Merriweather.

“Honestly, I just think the education and the staff, Del (Alexander) and Tommy (Rees) really did a good job of meeting Tobias where he is and understanding what makes him click and building that relationship,” his father says. “I think ultimately, that's kind of what it came down to, who he trusted the most to take him to the next level.”

Alexander was “ecstatic” to hear the news, according to Mr. Merriweather.

“I texted him late, 'Are you up?' He was like, 'Yeah, I'm up,’” Mr. Merriweather recalls. “It was like maybe midnight or 11:30 in South Bend. And he told me he didn't go to sleep until like 4 o'clock in the morning because he was so excited. He's put a lot of work into recruiting Tobias.”

As somebody who has paid close attention to the recruiting process, Mr. Merriweather believes Alexander isn’t appreciated enough by some fans for the job he’s done.

“I think they give him a hard ass time and they just need to chill out,” he says. “I just think sometimes people need to chill out and let the coaches do what they do. I think Del and Coach Rees did a great job.

“They always approached us in the right way for our family and what makes us tick. They really tried to understand who we were as people and then recruited to that. I think ultimately, that's why they ended up getting Tobias' commitment.”

 
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