Recruiting Week In Review
Written by Joe Bradshaw
Notre Dame’s first year offensive coordinator, Chip Long, has a reputation for using his tight ends extensively in his offensive game plans. That’s good news for the Irish after having recruited two very good ones, Cole Kmet and Brock Wright, in their Class of 2017. Notre Dame has already received a verbal commitment from tight end George Takacs for the Class of 2018 and would love to add another. They’re also looking to add as many talented players as they can in the Class of 2019 in order to continue building the roster for future success.
Last week, Irish Sports Daily reported on two prospects that possess the potential to pay huge dividends down the road for the success of the Notre Dame football program. What have you been missing by not being a member of Irish Sports Daily?
Tommy Tremble, TE, 6-4, 225, Wesleyan School, Norcross, GA is an outstanding tight end prospect and highly coveted by numerous schools, including Notre Dame and Georgia. In a plot thickens piece of irony, Tremble will take an official visit to Notre Dame for their game against Georgia the second week of the season.
“I’m expecting it to be a live environment,” Tremble said of the Notre Dame-Georgia game. “I’m mostly trying to enjoy myself on these visits and get to know what the college games are like.”
Tremble hopes to see a great game and, as long as it is one, isn’t terribly concerned with the outcome. However, if one team dominates the other, he admits that could change his perception of one of his two top schools.
“If one gets blown out, then that would be a different story,” he said. “But, as long as it’s a good game, I think my opinion on the teams will stay the same. I’ll definitely look at that and with the two teams going against each other, I’ll look at how they use their tight ends. That’s a good time to compare how both Georgia and Notre Dame use their tight ends, it’ll be fun to see.”
The Irish definitely got Tremble’s attention when they offered him in May, but his June visit to South Bend amped up his interest considerably. In fact, when he left campus following his visit, he proclaimed Notre Dame his top school. That opinion has changed somewhat with the passage of time, but he still has them ranked at the top, tied with Georgia.
“The education, I love Coach Long,” Tremble said of part of his attraction to Notre Dame. “I like Coach (Brian) Kelly, the education and the football and everything.”
Tremble’s father played for Georgia and an unofficial visit there moved the Bulldogs back into the top spot with the Irish. He says the only reason that he didn’t just originally commit to Georgia is because of the influence of his mother.
“Childhood favorite, I’ve always wanted to be on that field since I was five years old,” he said of Georgia. “If it wasn’t for my mom and them, I’d just blindly commit there now without thinking about later stuff like degrees and life. It’s been my favorite school since I was little. I really like Coach (Kirby) Smart and Coach (Shane) Beamer. It’s close to home too, so that’s really nice.”
Tremble acknowledged that he has his mother’s blessing to attend either school. Along with Notre Dame and Georgia, he also has family connections in California that has led him to his interest in UCLA.
“I love being in California,” he said. “I haven’t taken that many trips, but all of the trips I’ve taken to see my family have been really fun. Coach Rip (Scherer), the tight ends coach, he used to coach with my uncle at Colorado. That’s the only reason I got recruited by UCLA is that they find out I had ties to California.”
In addition to Notre Dame, Tremble has also said that Georgia and UCLA will get official visits. He’s also certain that Tennessee will get an official visit and thinks that South Carolina may get the last one. Tremble plans to make his final decision after he’s taken all five of his official visits.
Irish Sports Daily
NaNa Osafo-Mensah, LB, 6-4, 215, Nolan Catholic High School, Fort Worth, TX isn’t nearly as far along in the recruiting process as Tremble, but he’s already thinking about official visits, though that time is over a year away. He’s recently visited Oklahoma, TCU, Georgia and Stanford. A couple of months ago he visited Texas A&M.
“Georgia was actually really cool,” he said. “I got to see the city of Athens, that was really cool. I’ve always been a fan of Atlanta. They have some great food over there. The traffic over there is terrible, but besides that, I’ve always been a fan of the city.”
Stanford, who was one of his early favorites, appears to be fading somewhat. One school that seems to be gaining the four-star recruit’s interest is Notre Dame. He originally scheduled a July visit to South Bend, but circumstances prevented that from happening.
“My parents have been working a lot and taking more shifts, so I haven’t been able to fly out there,” Osafo-Mensah explained. “But I am really looking forward to making it out there. I know definitely for a fact Notre Dame will be one of my official visits.”
He’s also looking into taking an unofficial visit to South Bend as well.
“I haven’t been able to look at the schedule yet, but I’m definitely going to look to see if I can get there for a game,” he said.
Osafo-Mensah has stayed in close contact with Notre Dame Defensive Coordinator Mike Elko.
“He was just saying he wants me to go out this season and keep grinding and get better,” he said of his conversations with Elko. “He said Notre Dame is definitely a place he could see me playing that outside linebacker position. He’s a really outgoing guy. He’s one of those guys when you first meet, you already have that good vibe with and you know what you have talking to him is going to make a great relationship eventually. I just have a lot of faith in him as a coach.”
Osafo-Mensah’s primary focus now is getting better, both individually and with his Nolan Catholic teammates.
“I’m trying to improve my speed mainly,” he said. “I know speed is going to kill no matter where I go. I know I’ve gotten bigger, stronger, faster and more agile when it comes to hip mobility. I’m really ready to expose all of it this season.”
Osafo-Mensah’s rise in the recruiting rankings this offseason has made him a marked man to his opponents, a challenge that he’s readily accepted.
“I think it’s going to be interesting,” he shared. “I’ve already talked to some of my friends and their coaches have told them how they’re going to game plan around me. But I think that’s a great opportunity because that’s going to allow me to compete even more and I have enough faith in my teammates. If a team focuses too much on blocking me, I know my other defensive end is going to get tackles, so I’m not even worried about that.”
These two summaries represent just a sample of the Notre Dame football recruiting information available each week on Irish Sports Daily.