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Notre Dame Football Recruiting

2019 LB Blake Antzoulatos Recaps Notre Dame Visit

January 14, 2018
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Notre Dame’s newly appointed defensive coordinator and linebacker coach Clark Lea dropped by Chaminade High School in late November and left a message and words of encouragement to 2019 linebacker Blake Antzoulatos‍ in hopes he would visit in the future.

On Friday, the three-star linebacker was in South Bend for an unofficial visit and got the ball rolling for a lasting relationship with the Irish’s new defensive coordinator and the rest of the staff.

“We are still in the early stages, but he is definitely a cool guy and is definitely a relationship that is in progress," Antzoulatos told Irish Sports Daily. "It is something that will be a work in progress for the next couple months.

“I talked to Coach (Brian) Polian and Coach Lea. Coach Polian told me about the school, what it is like and just filled me in on the basic knowledge and tradition of Notre Dame and Coach Lea and I just talked for a bit."

It was the West Hills (Calif.) native’s first time in South Bend, and he was blown away.

 “It was amazing,” expressed the Chaminade standout. “It was a great time and something I will not forget.”

Antzoulatos grew up hearing how amazing Notre Dame was from his grandfather who loves the Irish and he was able to see why all these years it was always talked about on a pedestal compared to other schools.

“The sense of tradition they have there and the excellence,” Antzoulatos explained. “It is a great place, the campus is beautiful and how everyone talks about it makes it special and different from everywhere else. You can definitely tell that it is a football school. There is no atmosphere like it, and you can tell when you walk onto campus.”

Throughout the visit, he was able to see everything and take in all that Notre Dame had to offer and was impressed.

 “I got to see everything,” stated the 1st team All-Mission linebacker.  “I got to see the campus, the locker-room, the field, it was pretty amazing, I had to dress up and take a couple of pictures. The facilities and building stuck out, the location and also how everyone in Indiana is Notre Dame fans as far as you can see.

“It is definitely as amazing as everyone says it is.”

The 6-foot-2 220-pounder has four offers so far to Nevada, Cal, Colorado State, and Oregon State and has interest from Northwestern, Stanford, UCLA and the Irish. It is clear why Antzoulatos is on the radar of many FBS schools. 

He is a tackling machine with great size, speed and a motor that doesn’t stop. He racked up 150 total tackles as a junior and still isn’t satisfied. 

“I am going to work on getting faster, staying strong, and also putting on weight while getting faster,” said Antzoulatos. “The usual.” 

Antzoulatos doesn’t have a timeline for his decision, but he knows what will be most important when picking the perfect school.

“A place where I can get an elite education, but at the same time play power five football and have a chance at winning a national championship,” Antzoulatos said.

The junior standout recently landed a Cal offer and will be visiting in February. He has high hopes that a Notre Dame offer will follow as his relationship with the coaching staff gets stronger.

“Hopefully as the relationship builds between the coaching staff and I, it will end in an offer,” said Antzoulatos. “Good stuff hopefully.”

 
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