2026 OL Tyler Merrill Talks "Awesome" Offer From Notre Dame
Tyler Merrill and Joe Rudolph go way back.
Rudolph recruited the 2026 Pennsylvania offensive lineman when Rudolph was still the offensive line coach at Virginia Tech and Merrill has respected the coach ever since.
That’s why the offer Merrill received from the Irish as part of Sunday’s Pot of Gold blitz meant so much.
“Coach Rudolph has just been a great guy, a great recruiter,” the Cumberland Valley standout says. “He's been telling me since my visit in the summer for camp, that I'm at the top of his list, that I'm one of his main guys and he's just really wanted to offer me since then.
“It's been a long road and a lot of offers since then, but Notre Dame is just one of those places you've got to really, really consider when you're looking at a place to go for college. I'm really happy. I'm really excited. It's just an awesome feeling.”
The 6-foot-5, 315-pounder also has offers from schools like Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, Boston College and Duke among several others.
Merrill visited Notre Dame twice last year and will be back again on April 6th.
“I want to see how the o-line room looks and see how that culture looks because the biggest thing for me is education and culture,” he says. “I want to be at a program where I know that I'll love the program even if all the coaches leave. I feel like Notre Dame can really bring that for me.
“I just want to be there, see what everything feels like, get a touch for how the line room feels like and how those guys talk with each other and just how the team is. I feel like that's the biggest thing. If you don't have a good team bond, I feel like it's really hard to be able to achieve those big goals like national championships and stuff like that.”
Merrill will be busy the next few weeks with stops at Alabama (March 23rd), Tennessee (March 25th) and Michigan (April 7th) in addition to South Bend.
He doesn’t have a firm timeline for a decision except that he doesn’t expect it to play out until the very end.
“I definitely don't want to do it my senior year, so most likely going into my senior year.”
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