2024 DE Cooper Ackerman Enjoys Another Notre Dame Experience

After checking out Notre Dame during the summer, Cooper Ackerman‍ was back in South Bend this past weekend.

“It was good,” the 2024 Massachusetts defensive end told ISD following the trip. “I loved it.”

The Shrewsbury High School standout’s first visit came at the end of July, when there wasn’t a ton going on around campus, so he was eager to see what it looked like at its peak.

“Being there on a gameday was a lot better,” he said. “I could really get a feel for what it was like over there when things were going on, so that was fun.”

Ackerman, who has early offers from Boston College, Rutgers and UConn, arrived on campus Saturday morning.

“We got there at like 10:30,” he explained. “We had height, weight, measurements. There was food. The food was great. There was turkey, ham, stuffing, it was kind of like Thanksgiving type food. They had all the games in the indoor practice facility, like pop a shot and cornhole, yard games. That was good. Then, they brought us over to the stadium for the Player Walk.

“We went into the team room at the stadium or something. I met Coach Freeman, that was good. When I was on my last visit, he wasn't there, so it was good to finally meet him. It was almost like an introduction type thing.”

After that, Ackerman and the other recruits headed back to the indoor facility.

“I ate again,” he said. “We were just kind of chilling out. Then, we sent to the stadium for pregame, that was good, getting on the sideline, seeing everything going on.”

The atmosphere inside the stadium was impressive.

“It was great,” said Ackerman. “I feel like a lot of games that I went to, besides South Carolina, South Carolina was packed, but this was definitely right there. A lot of games, I feel like there are empty sheets. I feel like the culture at Notre Dame is just everyone gets there and the stadium was packed. It was good.”

The Irish’s performance in a dominating 44-0 win over Boston College was also impressive.

“That was good,” said Ackerman. “That was fun to watch from a Notre Dame standpoint. It was fun to see how the team performs and then the snow in the second half was cool.”

Bowden has made a positive initial impressions along with the entire staff.

“I like him,” Ackerman said of Bowden. “All the coaches overall there are very hospitable.

“Caleb Davis, one of the recruiting assistants was with Coach Freeman over at Cincinnati. He was saying he followed him over here without a doubt. Everyone loves him and he is a great guy. That was really good to hear about the head coach from other people too, to get how he is, not just around the recruits, but around the players, families, stuff like that.”

Ackerman is looking forward to taking the next step in his recruitment with the Irish.

“I'm going to get the rest of my junior film out. The goal's an offer. That'd be great and then see where it goes from there. If I don't get the offer, then definitely keep working for it, get up to a camp in the offseason. But if I do, then that would be great because we could just build that relationship and I could get back up for visits.”

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