Hard Work, Dedication Key For 2023 Notre Dame WR Target Taeshaun Lyons

Taeshaun Lyons‍ started putting in work as a youngster. He hasn’t slowed down and the 2023 California wide receiver isn’t about to start now.

“He's been training since he was six,” Lyons’ father, William tells Irish Sports Daily. “We've been on the field since he young. I was coaching football before he could even play. He was out there, just always hungry.”

Mr. Lyons leaves for work early….like, early early…like 5 am early.

But he often has a brief travel companion.

“He'll leave when I leave,” Mr. Lyons says. “He'll either be in our little weight room in our garage or he'll be on the field. He'll be walking to my car with me and I'm like, 'Where you going?' He's like, 'I'm going to the field to run drills.'”

In the offseason, the Tennyson High School standout also does his own version of two-a-days.

“I come back home and he'll still be on the field,” Mr. Lyons explains. “I'll be like, 'Son, have you been out here this whole time?' Of course, he's got his breaks and his recovery in between, but just the fact that he's out there again.

“Coaching kids throughout the years, you just don't see that dedication. It's always amazed me. Me and Tae have these talks, about 'if you want it, these are the steps that you need to take to go get it.' But he goes above and beyond and that's always amazing.”

That work ethic is part of the reason he’s in the position he finds himself today, with more than 20 scholarship offers from schools like Notre Dame, Washington, Oregon, Penn State, Boston College and Vanderbilt among others.

“It's amazing, just the whole journey, the whole experience of recruiting,” his father says. “Taeshaun's been prepraing for this his whole life.

“Just seeing everything come to fruition with football, with track, with school and everything. I've been telling him since he's been in junior high, 'Once you get to the high school level, a lot of things play a factor, like education. You've got to keep your grades up and you've got to perform on the field.' And he's done everything.”

Academics is big in the Lyons family, which is part of the reason he’ll be in South Bend this weekend on an official visit to Notre Dame.

“They're considered almost like an Ivy League,” Mr. Lyons says. “They're up there with the Ivy leagues. A degree from Nore Dame holds a lot of weight. I tell Taeshaun all the time, 'You've always got to have a backup plan and Notre Dame would be a great backup plan.'

“That weighs heavy on us, but this is Taeshaun's decision at the end of the day. Wherever he goes, he needs to be happy. He needs to be comfortable and the city and the environment has to fit him. As his dad, I'm just here to tell him, 'Taeshaun, you've got to look at this and look at that,' but ultimately it's his decision.”

Lyons has already taken an official to Washington and has no other trips set up and hasn’t laid out a timeline for a decision either.

“He does really like Notre Dame,” his father says. “He likes what Notre Dame could bring to himself, his game and everything and where Notre Dame could take him.”

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