2024 TE AJ Pugliano Likes How Notre Dame Uses Its TEs

AJ Pugliano‍ made the trip halfway across the country to see Notre Dame and the 2024 Oregon tight end left impressed.

“It was a good game,” Pugliano told Irish Sports Daily afterward. “It was fun.

We got there and went into the indoor training facility. They had a big banquet for all of us and we got to get some food, take pictures of the jerseys and helmets. Then, we went on the Player's Walk on the stadium and got to check out some of their stadium facilities.”

The North Medford High School standout experienced something different in South Bend.

“What was unique about this compared to the (Oregon State) and Oregon ones that I've been on is that the players talked to us, including Kyle Hamilton who is obviously a pretty big deal,” Pugliano said. “They talked to us about their experience at Notre Dame and what to look forward to and what they went through in their recruiting. I just felt like that made it a little more personal.”

After hearing from the players, they went over to watch the Irish’s game against North Carolina.

“It was a blast,” he said. “It started off slow. In the second half, the offense really picked it up and I think they started throwing the ball a lot more. Then obviously, they had that long run.

“They do a lot of stuff with their tight ends, which is good. They do a lot of motion into wing positions and then block or go on short routes from there. I just think it gives a lot of versatility to the position. Obviously, their tight end (Michael Mayer) got like six or seven targets, which are pretty good numbers to see. It was good to watch.”

The 6-foot-4, 210-pounder has an early offer from the Ducks and receiving serious interest from a couple other Pacific Northwest programs.

“I got the offer from Oregon and then mostly Oregon State and Washington, I'm hearing a lot from, getting to know me and getting transcripts and all that stuff,” he said. “Those two are probably the most predominant after Oregon.

He doesn’t have any other trips planned at the moment, but is genuinely interested in the Irish and would like to return for another visit.

“I'll try to probably get to a camp out here or something and then just really show on a one-to-one scale my skill to the coaches and we'll see what they think from that.”