Notre Dame Offer "A Big One" For 2023 QB Christopher Vizzina

Maybe he deserved the credit, but Christopher Vizzina‍ didn’t want it and wasn’t going to take it, so when the 2023 Alabama quarterback was nominated for Player of the Week earlier this season, he passed it along to the group he felt truly earned it.

“He says, 'I don't want to be on the graphic,’” Briarwood Christian School head coach Matthew Forester says. “‘I want my offensive line to be on the graphic.'

“He's putting others first, he's got a servant leadership attitude to him.”

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Vizzina’s play and attitude have caught the attention of several of the nation’s top college programs, including Notre Dame, which offered on Wednesday.

“That's a big one,” Forester tells Irish Sports Daily. “He's really excited. We are too.”

Notre Dame joins a list that also includes schools like Auburn, Florida, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Arkansas, Penn State, Michigan State and Oklahoma State among others.

The 6-foot-4, 200-pounder camped at Notre Dame over the summer and has remained in contact with Irish offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Tommy Rees since.

“Him and Coach Rees have developed a really good relationship,” Forester says. “They've been texting, calling throughout the season and even in the summer. We felt like at some point, it was going to happen and it was just a matter of when. Christopher called him (Wednesday,) and they talked for a little while and Coach offered him. So, he was really excited about that opportunity.

“It's one of the premier programs in the nation, so anytime one of your guys is getting recognized as one of the top in the nation by one of the top universities in the nation, it's a big honor. We're Blue and Gold and our uniforms from 30-40 years ago were based off of what Notre Dame was doing, so he wears a gold helmet, blue pants, a blue Jersey every night. So, it's historical for us.”

Vizzina has been one of the nation’s hottest prospects in recent months and Forester believes his recruitment could have picked up steam even earlier.

“Throughout junior high, he played wide receiver,” the coach says. “The last four games of his junior high career was the first time he played quarterback. He ends up starting as a ninth-grader on the varsity, takes us to a 12-2 record, the semifinals as a freshman. He was so raw and there's so much to develop.

“It just took time. He has done a great job of working really hard in the offseason to hone his craft. I think there's so much upside with him. It's just really high. The other thing is he's always been tall, but now he's finally growing and developing. He's worked really hard in the weight room. He's more explosive this year. He's more physical this year as going from a sophomore to a junior will do, but also how hard he's been willing to work.”

Forester says Vizzina has a “great” understanding of Briarwood Christian’s offense.

“He understands what the reads are,” the coach says. “We're pretty sophisticated at the high school level, so he's able to do some big-time reads. He's able to read the field, he's got great vision and a great understanding. The mental game has always been there, but I think physically, he's just developing so much.”

Vizzina spends his time in the weight room with two of Briarwood Christian’s offensive linemen and an F-Back.

“So he's got the right mentality,” Forester says. “As a quarterback, a lot of what he's got to do is distribute the ball and he doesn't look at it as a me-first thing. It's 'I've got make sure I'm giving good balls to my guys to catch.' I think that carries over to how he is as a person.

“He's absolutely great. He's the humble guy.”

The Irish have been hoping to get Vizzina back on campus for a game this fall and that’s something that could happen soon.

“I think that's the ultimate goal,” his coach says. “He loved being able to go up there this summer. It gave him a good understanding. Notre Dame being a national program, he's seen them on TV his whole life, but I think the next step is to get up to a game, be able to see them in action. He had an amazing tour, an amazing visit and camp this summer, so the next step is to see what it's like Saturday in the Fall.”

Vizzina heads to Auburn this week for the Tigers’ game against Ole Miss Saturday night. He’s taking a week-by-week approach to game visits this fall, the same way he did with camps this summer.

“After the Auburn visit, they'll sit down and they'll evaluate where's the best place to go.”