Notre Dame Makes Strong Closing Case With Adam Berghorst

There’s a good chance Notre Dame was making its final case for Adam Berghorst‍ when the 2019 Michigan defensive end visited South Bend this weekend and if it was the Irish’s closing argument, it was a good one.

“It was a great, great visit again,” the 6-foot-7, 245-pounder from Zeeland, Mich., said. “I met with the baseball staff, watched practice and then met with all of the football coaches again. It was a great day.

“It went really well. I met with them for about an hour to discuss doing both and how it could be done. We talked about Cole Kmet and their program and stuff.”

Berghorst, who is planning to playing football and baseball in college, was impressed with the Irish baseball coaches.

“They’re really knowledgeable,” he said. “They’ve been there for a while, both of them have been a lot of place. The pitching coach seems to know a lot. Just good guys and I enjoyed talking with them.”

He also got to eat lunch with Kmet, who is in his first year pitching for Notre Dame after debuting as a tight end for the Irish in the fall.”

“We just discussed again how he does it,” Berghorst explained. “He said he’s doing really well with it and loves the experience, which is good.

“He said he’s doing better in college academically than high school. He said he gets a lot of help and has a lot of tutors, which he said is not a bad thing at all. He says it’s a lot, but it’s definitely doable and makes the experience all that much better. I asked him if he was going to continue to do it and he said, ‘Without a doubt.’ That’s good to hear.”

The Zeeland East High School standout called watching the football team practice “awesome.”

“I liked watching Coach (Mike) Elston coach,” he said. “I thought they got after it. It was very high energy and very intense, which was good.”

He also met with defensive coordinator Clark Lea and head coach Brian Kelly.

“We just discussed academics,” he said. “They really gave me more reasons to come to Notre Dame. It was really cool. In Coach Elston’s d-line room, he pulled up clips of my highlight tape and had the same ones of his teams doing it and compared them and made a video out of it, which was awesome.”

Berghorst called the Notre Dame football coaches “really good guys.”

“They really have done well with the program,” he added. “We talked a lot about how Coach Elston took over linebackers a couple years ago and then went back to the d-line and how he sent guys to the NFL. With Coach Lea, we talked about how it’s his first season as defensive coordinator and how he’s working with that and how it’s a step up and stuff like that.”

Berghorst continues to narrow down his list and expects to have a decision soon.

“I plan to go to Michigan State once and possibly Northwestern and then probably decide after that,” he said.

Did the Irish help themselves this weekend?

“For sure. Without a doubt.”