Josiah Molden has stayed in touch with the staff at Notre Dame since being offered by the Irish back on St. Patrick’s Day.
“I've been talking to their DB coaches,” the 2027 Oregon cornerback says. “They've been showing me lots of love. They showed me their new facility that they're building, and it should be done by the time I graduate, which is pretty cool.
“Other than that, my relationship with them is still pretty strong. They've been texting me daily.”
The West Linn High School star has been impressed with Notre Dame secondary coach Mike Mickens and defensive analyst Jevaughn Codlin and the staff as a whole.
“They're all great people,” Molden says. “I have nothing bad to say about them.
“I'm building relationships with every single one of them.”
His impressions of the University and the program are also positive.
“I feel like a big thing is the culture,” he says. “Even though I've never been there, they think that the culture is good for me there. Being one of the best DBs in the country is one of the big things too. I think Notre Dame also wants that.”
Molden’s offer sheet also includes schools like Oregon, Washington, USC, Ohio State and Miami among others.
He doesn’t have a visit booked to South Bend yet, but is looking forward to getting there at some point.
“My mom really wants to go there,” he says. “That's one of the schools that she wants me to visit and go see.
“When I got offered, she was saying how it's a prestigious offer. It's obviously an amazing, great school, great academic school; a great school whether in sports, going to the national championship last year, or academics, my mom would want to visit anywhere like that...and me too.”
When he gets there, Molden would like to get better look at everything.
“I would like to see the stadium and the facilities, that stuff doesn't really matter, though,” he says. “I would like to see how the coaches communicate with the players if I were to go to a practice and just see if it's really a family, like they've been saying, or it's not really like that.
“The culture. I've never been there. I've never been to the state. Just like the culture there outside of football. Are there things to do outside of football? Because I'm not trying to go to college just to play football. I want to expand my power. I want to do other things as well. So I feel like that's a big thing.”
He has some other schools he’d like to get to as well.
“Schools that haven't offered me that I would love to visit are Texas and Alabama,” he says. “Alabama is a big one because Kalen DeBoer, when he was at Washington, he offered me when I was in eighth grade. So I still have that connection with them and they've been communicating with me somewhat.
“Texas is another one, just because I've never been before. And then obviously some of the schools that I've been to already, such as Ohio State and Oregon.”
One thing that won’t matter all that much to Molden is geography.
“Honestly, I don't really care where I go. As long as it's not too hot. I'd rather be super cold than super hot.”
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