After an impressive showing at Irish Invasion over the summer, Rob Larson was back in South Bend for the Irish’s game against Navy earlier this month and the 2027 California receiver was impressed.
“It was great,” he said. “That was my first gameday, so it was a crazy atmosphere. The fans were crazy.
“It started snowing, which was kind of nuts. I haven't seen it snow in a while, to be honest. But it was awesome. Notre Dame, they executed a lot, even throwing the ball in the rain and running the ball, they did really good.”
Larson called the atmosphere inside Notre Dame Stadium “crazy.”
“It really just kind of showed how dedicated the fans were because for a minute there it was pouring rain, pouring rain, and then it was cold and then it started snowing,” he explained. “But literally no one left the stadium. All the fans were still there until the very end. It was just really cool to see everyone. The fans are just super dedicated over there it seems like.”
The Folsom High School standout was impressed with the Irish’s 49-10 victory over the Midshipmen.
“I thought they played super good,” he said. “I was really impressed with how good their receivers were catching the ball and everyone on the team - running backs too - even in the rain. A lot of the time, teams will stop throwing the ball when it's raining, but I feel like they kind of just kept it going, kept their normal script going, and they were executing for sure.
“I thought it was really balanced. They ran and threw the ball a really good amount, so I didn't really think it was favored to one side really. The balls that were being thrown were mixed around a lot. They were throwing a lot of different dudes.”
Larson didn’t need a full campus tour, since he’d done that on his previous trip.
“But I got to see the practice facility,” he said. “I'd been in there and then going into the locker room afterwards, seeing the team pray and seeing them all huddle up together and talk for a minute, seeing Coach Freeman address the team. I saw all that at the end.”
He had the chance to reconnect with some of the coaches and staff members while on campus.
“We were just catching up and they were saying they were going to be in contact,” Larson said. “They were just telling me, keep putting myself on film, and they're always watching.”
Larson currently has offers from schools like UCLA, Cal, Arizona State, Washington State, BYU, Wisconsin, Oklahoma State and Vanderbilt among others.
He isn’t sure what’s next for him and the Irish just yet.
“I'm just going to kind of wait to see what happens with the whole situation,” he said. “I probably won't be taking any more visits out there until it gets more serious and maybe something comes along with me and the coaches.
“But I know Notre Dame's a great place, so I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing and I'm going to hope something happens in the future.”
He was at Florida last week and has plans to check out Washington next week.
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