Top 2024 LB Anthony Speca Recaps Latest Notre Dame Stop

After a couple of stops at Notre Dame last year, Anthony Speca‍ was back in South Bend on Saturday.

“It went great,” the 2024 Pittsburgh linebacker said. “It was awesome.

“It was good to meet the new staff. Honestly, that's why I wanted to get up. I wanted to meet up and see how practice was with the new staff.”

Speca was the first prospect in the 2024 class to land an offer from the Irish and has been a top target since.

Getting to know new defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Al Golden was a primary reason for making the trip.

“I didn't really know much about him,” Speca said. “Talking to him on the phone was obviously great, he's a great guy. But meeting him in person, really did it for me.

“He's a fantastic person. Sitting in that meeting, it's just crazy how much he knows about football and defense, all the little things that they go over, how crisp everyone on the defense is with their terminology and being able to make calls at the line scrimmage. It's really great what he is doing with the defense.”

Speca’s offer sheet also includes schools like Penn State, Pitt, Michigan, Purdue, Boston College and Maryland among others.

The Central Catholic High School star has gotten to know Marcus Freeman over the past year, but getting to see him – and more importantly the program – now that he’s the head coach was also key.

“I definitely like this vibe more than the old vibe,” he said. “I liked the old vibe a lot, but this vibe's even better. Freeman being the head coach, I think it brings this new young energy to the program that I really like. I think it's more player-centered rather than program-centered, if you know what I mean.

“I think Coach Freeman's really a player's coach. He really cares about the players. I think the way he coaches, the way he runs his program speaks to what I just said. He really cares about his guys and he's willing to do anything for his players. He's trying to get them to the next level. He's trying to make them better men before he is trying to win football games.”

The Irish’s pitch to Speca is that he’s the perfect fit for them.

“They think academically and just playing-wise, it's the best fit to me,” he said. “With the scheme and the fact that I go to Catholic school, they think I'm pretty much like all-around the perfect kid to go to Notre Dame.

“I might be, I don't know. I still have to kind of look around, but that's what they're pitching to me right now; that I should be the first one to commit and lead the class.”

This was the only trip Speca had on his docket for a while and he doesn’t have any others slated yet.

“I've kind of just been playing it by ear right now,” he said. “I don't know when my next visit's going to be.”

It could be back to South Bend.

“I'm going to try and come back up for the spring game. I don't know if I'm going to make it up there and then I'll probably be up in the summer maybe. I'll definitely be up for another game.”

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