Coach: Genmark-Heath Great On Field, "Absolutely Unbelievable" Off It

Notre Dame was a major player for Jordan Genmark-Heath, which is why the 2017 California defensive back took an official visit to South Bend last weekend.

Coming out of the trip, the Irish are a true potential threat to flip Genmark-Heath from Cal, the school he committed to back in October, before the Golden Bears fired head coach Sonny Dykes.

While the 6-foot-2, 205-pounder enters the final stretch of his decision-making process, we caught up with his head coach at Cathedral Catholic High School, Sean Doyle, for his thoughts on Genmark-Heath.

“As a player, he’s physical, downhill, real good size for a safety,” Doyle said. “He runs well. He can really play both sides of the ball. We’re a one-way team, about 99 percent of our kids go one way. He’s one of the few kids who played both ways for us. He’s just a handful on offense.”

Genmark-Heath played running back and receiver for the Dons, who went 15-0 and won a state championship this season.

“He’s athletic,” Doyle said. “He really could play any position. He just fit into our needs more at the free safety position.”

Notre Dame was already sold on Genmark-Heath as a player based on the film. The Irish were able to confirm their initial sense of him as a person during the official visit and that was backed up earlier this week, when defensive coordinator Mike Elko make the trip out to South Bend.

“As a young man, he’s absolutely unbelievable,” Doyle said.

“Coach Elko was there the other day and in walking around, saw some people and asked about him. He said everybody on campus had nothing but rave reviews about him.”

Surprisingly, Doyle said that combination isn’t as rare at Cathedral Catholic as one might imagine.

“We’re blessed on our campus,” the coach said. “I don’t know if it’s because we’re a Catholic school or what. We had Tyler Gaffney, who was state player of the year, had a great career at Stanford and is now with the Patriots. He was the same way.

“He could do everything all of the time, he had grades, the whole nine yards and is just a humble, quality young man. We get blessed by that.”