Denson Goes Home To Go In-Home With Austin

Kevin Austin Jr.‍'s relationship with Autry Denson is a big reason the 2018 Florida wide receiver ended up choosing Notre Dame and that bond was strengthened even further when the Notre Dame assistant coach made an in-home visit with Austin on Tuesday.

“It was great,” said Austin. “We had a great chance to catch up and talk about their season and how they felt about it.

“The message he kept displaying was that they’re always playing for a national championship because they’re not in a conference. Their schedule is based off a national schedule. It was just great to catch up with him and talk about those things.”

Denson let Austin know that while the season didn’t end the way the Irish wanted, they accomplished a lot in 2017.

“He said even though they won nine games and lost three, he feels like they lost nine games and won three,” Austin said of Denson.

“He feels like he has to remind the players and some coaches, ‘We still had an amazing season. A lot of teams don’t win nine games in their season a lot of the time.’ He said it’s still a blessing that they won nine games.”

Denson told Austin the primary focus is on “getting better for next season.”

“Of course, we have a lot of recruits coming in next year and we’re probably going to add on some more before the February Signing Period,” the incoming receiver said. “He talked about people having to step up.”

The visit also provided the Coconut Creek, Fla., native a chance to just catch up with Denson.

“It was great,” said Austin. “We’re very relaxed because we come from the same area literally. He probably lived not even two miles away from me. We got a great chance to catch up and can relate to a lot of things growing up in the same area and doing the same things and being in the same places.”

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly is expected to be by next week.

The Irish staff is out on the road chasing uncommitted prospects to join the group and Austin has a couple targets in mind of his own.

“Coach (Del) Alexander has expressed kids such as Lawrence Keys. I’ve been talking to him a little bit about committing. There’s some other kids like the kid who just decommitted from Florida State, Houston Griffith, there are some other commits trying to get after him.”