Local Talent Takes In Notre Dame

Being from South Bend, Jalen Jennings‍ has been to Notre Dame’s campus several times, but the local 2019 wide receiver hadn’t been to an Irish football game since he was a little kid until he watched the Irish dismantle North Carolina State 35-14 on Saturday.

“This atmosphere is different, how people treat you is different, it was just different,” the talented junior said about his most recent stop, an unofficial visit.

“Notre Dame’s campus is beautiful. It was very nice. The visit, the facilities, the workout rooms, the atmosphere, it was awesome.”

The Riley High School standout enjoyed watching the Irish get the victory over the Wolfpack.

“It was a great game,” he said. “Notre Dame played well. They ran the ball well and they played great on defense.

“The atmosphere around the stadium was great.”

Jennings even got a sense of the community spirit at Notre Dame.

“One of the students came up and asked if I was cold and offered me some hand warmers,” he said. “They were all polite. It was cool.”

But being from South Bend, Jennings didn’t need the generosity.

“I already had some,” he laughed.

While on campus, he also had the opportunity to speak with some members of the Notre Dame staff.

“I got to talk to Coach Del Alexander, he’s the one who invited me to the game, and I got to talk to the quarterbacks coach,” he said.

“Coach Alexander just told me to make sure I find a way to make more gameday visits. He told me to keep working and to come to some of the camps.”

Jennings is already looking at coming back for next week’s game against Wake Forest and hopes to return for camps as well.

“I’ll try my best to get to those camps this summer,” he said.

The South Bend native is still waiting on his first offer, but has received interest from Eastern Michigan, where he’ll take a visit on Thursday, along with a host of Ivy League schools.

“I’ve heard from Ivy League schools such as Bucknell, I visited Bucknell a couple weeks ago, Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, Princeton,” said Jennings, who is also a standout point guard and sprinter.

Academics are obviously “very” important to Jennings, who knows Notre Dame could offer big opportunities in athletics and academics.

“It’d be big-time,” he said. “My parents always preach about how it’s a 40-year decision, not a four-year decision. I’ve heard that a lot and Notre Dame was preaching that too today.”