Will Craig Wait?
BEAVERTON, Ore. – Will Craig seemed to be nearing an end to his recruiting process about a month ago, when the 2018 California offensive lineman received an offer from Notre Dame.
“I was kind of getting ready and it came in and it kind of delayed it a bit,” Craig explained from The Opening here at Nike World Headquarters on Sunday.
It’s not yet clear if that delay will be long or short though as the Granite Bay, Calif., seems to still be leaning toward a summer decision.
“Just to get the whole recruiting process over with,” he said. “It’s kind of getting tedious, so it’d be nice to be able to get it done with.
“But I’m not going to rush it because once I’m committed, I’m going to be 100 percent and there’s going to be no decommit. If I’m not 100 percent, I won’t commit until later. But if I know, I’ll go with it and commit before the season.”
Craig will take an unofficial visit to Washington later this month, but says that’ll probably be his final visit of the summer.
“I may be looking for some officials later on,” he said. “I’m not sure what those are going to be; that’s if I don’t commit by then. I’m thinking about an early commitment, but if not, I’ll take all five of my officials.”
Craig has been speaking with Notre Dame assistants Brian Polian and Harry Hiestand.
“We almost got a visit set up, but it kind of fell through,” he said of plans for an unofficial this summer. “If I did take an official, I’d take one to Notre Dame.
“I’d really like to see the academic part of it and then the campus would be cool to see. I’ve heard it’s beautiful.”
Notre Dame’s history and Hiestand’s track record have Craig’s attention. He’s also been around one of Hiestand’s current pupils here this week in Quenton Nelson.
“It’s been great to talk to him and he’s said nothing but good things about Coach Hiestand,” Craig said of Nelson.
Oregon has been recruiting Craig “pretty hard,” but he’s not one who loves the process.
“I’ve told a lot of the guys, I’m kind of low-key and not big on recruiting, so they’ve respected that and I appreciate that,” he said. “It hasn’t been a ton of people bugging me all of the time.”