For Braylon James, Notre Dame Was Just "Different"

Notre Dame seemed to be leading the race for Braylon James‍ by the time the 2023 Texas wide receiver arrived in South Bend for an unofficial visit last month.

By the time he left the Midwest, that lead seemed insurmountable and proved to be just that as he announced his commitment to the Irish on Monday over schools like Texas, Texas A&M, LSU, Georgia, Stanford and Oregon among others.

“That's a different place, man,” his father Glynn James told Irish Sports Daily. “It doesn't have the glitz and glamour of all the other places, but it has substance and that's what we care about, substance.”

James was looking for a program that could provide him elite athletics and elite academics.

“With Notre Dame, they have both,” Mr. James said. “You've got the ball and you've got the education. We're big on the education side of it. That's the main factor.

“Everybody wants to win a national championship, but the bottom line is to get a good education out of this and at Notre Dame, he can get both of them there.”

First-year Irish receivers coach Chansi Stuckey had been recruiting James at Baylor and that familiarity certainly helped.

“When he got the job there, the whole thing changed and it changed for the better too,” Mr. James told ISD.

First-year head coach Marcus Freeman certainly made an impact.

“With Coach Freeman, we see the vision and all the other guys who are about to commit there,” Mr. James said. “You just want to be a part of something different, something that's changing. He wants be a part of that change.

“Coach Freeman is doing a helluva job, man. Just what they've got going on over there with the whole staff. They've got NFL guys. It's a blessing, man.”

Notre Dame Director of Recruiting Chad Bowden was another piece that made the James family feel at home in South Bend.

“That guy's going to make a big difference in that program as a recruiting guy,” Mr. James said of Bowden. “He's going to be the glue to getting the kids there. He's a really outgoing guy. I love Chad.”

With his decision public, expect James to leave the recruiting process behind him.

“We're not going to be going back and forth because that's it,” his father said. “'You made a decision.' We're parents that you say something, you stick to it. I doubt if we'll have any of this going back and forth and decommitting and all that stuff, man. We're sold.

“He just fell in love with it.”

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