Notre Dame's Assistants More Than Ready to Hit the Recruiting Trail
Recruiting: Get used to it.
The Marcus Freeman Era will bring many changes to the Notre Dame program, but there will not be a more significant change than the emphasis on recruiting.
Freeman has loaded his first staff with quality coaches and talented recruiters, which he hopes will take Notre Dame to the next step following two College Football Playoff appearances.
Defensive line coach Al Washington is known as an ace recruiter following recent stops at Michigan and Ohio State. Washington knows what it takes to land elite talent and how to find it.
"What I can tell you is there are talented players all across the board," Washington said. "I think the players Notre Dame attracts are kids who have a strong appreciation for academics and obviously a strong desire to be the best. You get both examples here, so it's fun.
"When I get with the staff and talk recruiting, we're looking at the best of the best. Not only are they really good players, but this kid is about the right stuff off the field. It doesn't mean you have to be a saint or Dudley Do-Right, but it means you have an idea of what you want to be and what you want to do."
For Al Golden, it will likely take a second to get back in the flow of the recruiting grind after spending the last six years in the NFL.
Yet, Notre Dame's new defensive coordinator is confident and has a great pulse on how to recruit for the program.
"If they say you're a good recruiter, it's another way to say you care about young people, right," stated Golden. "At the end of the day, I was in the NFL, and I think if you called all my players right now, in Cincinnati, and you said, 'Well, tell me about him.' They'd say he cared about us as a person, as a father, as developing them as young people."
The care factor is a trait Golden wants to highlight, but he doesn't want to come off as a salesman while also selling the program at the same time.
"Sometimes when you get labeled a good recruiter, there's almost a connotation to it that you're selling something," explained Golden. "No, this is what we're selling. We're selling an unbelievable education, to operate with integrity every day, to be a part of something that's bigger than really any of us here can imagine.
"I tried to tell my children what this represents, what this brand represents worldwide. Not just in athletics or in football or academically, but worldwide. That's easy to represent that. It's easy to sell that.
"It's finding the match. It's finding the right kids that want to come here and that don't want to cut corners and want to be something special. I think I can do that well. I think I can identify well. I think I'll be myself in terms of helping them."
At the core, Notre Dame will recruit kids who will succeed on the field and in the classroom. That’s not changing.
What will change is persistence in making recruits' Think Big' and outside their box.
The skillset and body type will also change. There's not an exact science as to who can win a National Title, but each coach will be looking to fill out their room how they see fit.
"There'd be a big guy," Notre Dame running backs coach Deland McCullough said. "There'd be what I consider a traditional size – 210, 215-pound guy – then there'd be a 200-pound guy who has a little bit of everything. Here we go. We have guys who fit that. I haven't studied the guys here like that, so that resonated.
"I've coached a whole lot of different styles of guys and had success with them. I'm not married to one style. I can get it done with all of them."
Washington inherited two of the nation's best defensive linemen in Keon Keeley and Brenan Vernon, and he's also looking to add more talent in 2023.
What does he look for? Mentality and passion.
"When I look at tape, I first want to identify a motor," explained Washington. "What does he look like when the ball is snapped? You look and see throughout that play if there's a change of speed, picking and choosing, or is he relentless.
"I look at explosiveness like everybody. I like guys who sink their hips and come out of their hips. The analogy of coming out like an airplane, not like a helicopter. I think that's very important. You can develop hands. Those are the initial things. Passion, motor and the twitch is kind of the phrase. Then hip mobility and being loose, being able to dance. That type of stuff you look at. Can you bend? That's important. Those are the things I get excited about when I evaluate young defensive linemen."
Offensive line coach Harry Hiestand has proved he can recruit with the big boys over the years. Now, it's about finding consistency year to year, which Hiestand has zero concerns about as he heads into the 2023 cycle.
"Recruiting's fine," stated Hiestand. "Do you like sitting on a tarmac for 45 minutes? That's the part that is no fun. But meeting these young men that you can meet because you're at Notre Dame, going into a high school in Seattle and there's 10 people who want to meet you because you're from Notre Dame. That part of it is no problem.
"For me, it became the travel - it wasn't the recruiting. I think there's some decent players who I helped bring here who would probably tell you that. But again, when you can recruit nationally and you look at this kid in Florida or Seattle or Aaron Banks in Oakland, Calif., it's like, 'We've got to go there.'
"That kid — I love that kid. So just do that every week for four straight weeks, and you're probably hitting your limit. The travel kind of wears on you a little bit."
Hiestand did hit the road in January and had no regrets.
"You still need to get out there and see people in person," said Heistand. "It's like my wife said, 'You took a sabbatical, so now you can — and it does. It didn't bother me at all. I was out for a week, and I went to Rock Island, Boston, New Jersey, Charlotte, Cincinnati and then back here in one week.
"I kept waiting to be ready to explode. No, I was good. I called her one time, I was walking through the Charlotte Airport going, 'I don't know why, but I feel great.' She goes, 'Good.'
"I know how important (recruiting) is. It's the lifeblood of your program, so it's no problem."