Notre Dame checked several important boxes immediately for Skylar Alston when the Irish offered earlier this spring.
The combination of culture, relationships and familiarity already has the 2028 linebacker strongly considering the Irish among several other top options.
The 2028 North Carolina linebacker picked up his Notre Dame offer on April 9 after a conversation with linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary, adding the Irish to an already-impressive offer sheet.
Alston also holds offers from schools like Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, LSU, Florida, Florida State, Miami, Tennessee, Indiana, Oregon, Penn State, Duke and Texas A&M among others.
“They watched my film, broke down my film and said I fit their program,” Alston told Irish Sports Daily of Notre Dame’s message. “Not only from a football aspect, but my grades and how I am as a person.”
The Cardinal Gibbons standout already had some familiarity with Notre Dame before the offer arrived because of his relationship with 2027 Irish cornerback commit Xavier Hasan, his high school teammate.
“My corner’s committed there, so I heard a lot of great things about them,” Alston said. “It was really amazing, really a blessing.”
Hasan’s feedback extended far beyond football.
“Everything,” Alston said when asked what Hasan has told him about Notre Dame. “Not even the football aspect. He said just being there in general. It’s the people you meet and the connections you make just being there.”
Alston visited South Bend for camp last summer and quickly connected with the overall environment surrounding the program.
“Just the culture,” Alston said. “It’s kind of the same culture I’m already in at Cardinal Gibbons. We’re a Catholic school, so it’s kind of the same thing.
“They’re very serious about football too.”
The 6-foot-2, 215-pounder has continued building relationships with both Jean-Mary and Notre Dame Director of Recruiting Carter Auman since the offer arrived.
“Really amazing people,” Alston said of the Irish staff. “They’re very down-to-earth people.”
Alston also believes Notre Dame’s trajectory under Marcus Freeman remains appealing.
“You can just tell that program is going to keep on having amazing years,” he said.
The Raleigh native is now hoping to return to South Bend sometime in June as part of a busy offseason visit schedule that has already included stops at South Carolina, Penn State, North Carolina, Duke and Texas A&M this spring.
If he does make it back to campus, the focus will shift toward learning more about the everyday realities inside the program.
“What your day-to-day life is going to look like as a player and how those coaches coach you up through mistakes or good things,” Alston said. “And just how the players really connect with the coaches.”
Alston is hoping to narrow his recruitment to roughly seven or eight schools by August before eventually making a decision sometime next spring.
“I’m trying to make my decision around March of next year.”
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