Recruiting Week In Review

Written by Joe Bradshaw

The combination of the 2016 football season and the conclusion of the 2017 recruiting season left many Notre Dame fans questioning the program. In the approximately two months since then, it’s fair to say that many of the Irish faithful’s fears have abated.

The new staff has collectively been aggressive recruiters and reports from the strength and conditioning program and spring football have been positive. The recruits have also noticed and interest in the Notre Dame program appears to be quite high right now as the coaches vigorously pursue prospects in both the Classes of 2018 and 2019.

Last week, Irish Sports Daily reported on two young men in the Class of 2018 that appear to be very good fits for Notre Dame. What have you been missing by not being a member of Irish Sports Daily?

George Takacs, TE, 6-7, 235, Gulf Coast High School, Naples, FL is the son of an alum so is quite familiar with Notre Dame. He also participated in last summer’s Irish Invasion camp so he also has experience with the Irish as a recruit. Still, he expected it to be different when he visited during the first weekend of April.

“I’ve been a few times,” he said. “They have a great history with tight ends. They kind of had a down year last year, but I’m not really worried about that. I was a fan growing up too and that’s all huge to me.”

Takacs’ mother attended Notre Dame so it was special when he received his offer.

“I kind of felt familiar with the program when they offered me,” he explained. “It was a cool experience.”

Takacs was on a campus visit March 31st, hoping to learn more about the football program. He sees himself as a complete tight end, capable of contributing to both the passing and the running game.

“I think I’m the kind of tight end who can do it all,” he said. “I can block and I can do all of those things. I want to make sure I can do a balance of both, be in line, be split out and basically do it all.”

Takacs holds offers from a large number of schools but has narrowed his list to four.

“It’s Notre Dame, Georgia, Florida and Wisconsin,” he said of those he’s most strongly considering. “I think I’m a good fit with all of the schools. They all use tight ends how I want to be used. They’re all good academic schools, there isn’t a bad school in that group.”

Takacs plans to end his recruitment before the beginning of his senior season.

While Takacs was very familiar with Notre Dame, Ja’Mion Franklin, DT, 6-3, 305, North Caroline High School, Ridgely, MD recently got his first glimpse of Notre Dame and came away very impressed.

“I loved it up there,” he enthused. “It was definitely a special visit. I had a great time seeing the campus and interacting with the coaches and players.

Franklin especially singled out the campus for praise.

“It was beautiful,” he said. “Seeing movies like Rudy and stuff like that, it does no justice when you see it in person.”

The Notre Dame coaching made no effort to hide the fact that they were excited about Franklin visiting.

“The coaches were as fired up to see me as I was to see them,” he said. “They were really just preaching to me about how I fit really well in their scheme and how I have that grit like former players they’ve had like Stephon Tuitt, Louis Nix and guys like that. It was great to be compared to guys like that.”

Franklin’s fit in the scheme would appear to be more up to him than the coaches.

“They told me they just recruit d-tackles and whoever is the best pass rusher will be the three tech and whoever is the second best would be the nose guard,” he explained. “They said they think I would fit anywhere on the D.”

Franklin also got to spend time with some of Notre Dame’s current defensive linemen.

“We all sat and talked a little bit,” he said. “I talked with Jerry Tillery and I talked with Daelin Hayes too. They’re great guys. They’re guys I could play next to and become comfortable and build a good relationship with.”

Besides Notre Dame, Franklin also holds offers from Louisville, Georgia Tech, Duke, Boston College, Virginia, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Northwestern and numerous others. The visit to Notre Dame cemented the Irish’s place as one of his top schools.

He has no other trips planned at this point, but did mention that he hopes to return to South Bend.

“I’ll definitely get my parents on campus to see how they feel about it,” he said. “Other than that, I’m not really sure. The next step for me to do anything will be to get my parents on campus because that’s really important. I want them to get the experience.”

These two summaries represent just a sample of the Notre Dame recruiting information available each week on Irish Sports Daily.