Top 2019 OL John Olmstead Recaps Latest Notre Dame Trip

John Olmstead‍ had already been to Notre Dame multiple times, but as the 2019 New Jersey offensive lineman gets closer and closer to choosing a college, he wanted to get back to South Bend again.

“It went good,” the Saint Joseph High School standout told Irish Sports Daily following another visit on Monday. “The main reason for coming up again was obviously to build my relationship with the o-line coach, Coach (Jeff) Quinn.

“I spent the majority of the day with him. I got to hang out with the o-linemen this morning; see them lift weights, was in their team meeting room and some of the drills on their indoor turf. It was a good day. I had a lot of fun and it was a great visit.”

The 6-foot-6, 290-pounder was initially offered by former offensive line coach Harry Hiestand, but has been getting to know Quinn ever since he was hired by the Irish back in January.

“He’s a great guy,” Olmstead said of Quinn. “I really like his style of coaching. I really got to see that today. The other thing I really like about him is that he’s so passionate about the game. I like to see that in a coach because I’m the same way. I love this game. Ever since he got the job, he was the first to contact me. Our relationship is very good. I can’t wait to keep building it.”

The relationships between Quinn and his players and the linemen amongst themselves also made a major impression.

“You really see the relationship and the bonding between the offensive linemen on Notre Dame’s team,” Olmstead said. “I have that a lot at my school with my teammates and my offensive linemen. That’s really important to me.

“Those are the guys you’re with 24/7. I like the fact that they’re always hanging out, they’re always with each other. The coach is always having the linemen over for dinner, I like that a lot. That’s a big part for me.”

Olmstead and his parents arrived in South Bend on Sunday night.

“When we got in, me and my folks went to The Grotto at nighttime, which was really nice,” he explained. “It was a nice little trip.

“I got to see a little of the campus. I got to see the dorms this time actually, I hadn’t seen a dorm. I got to see the new student union they’ve got, that’s pretty nice, where the regular student body hangs out. It’s brand new. It’s really nice. I got to see some of the stuff I hadn’t seen yet. Obviously, it’s always nice to tour the campus, it’s a beautiful campus.”

A 3.9-student, Olmstead, who plans to study Criminology or something similar had already went through the academic presentations during his previous visits.

Last month, the Metuchen, N.J., native recently trimmed his list to 10 schools – Notre Dame, LSU, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State, Ole Miss, Penn State, Rutgers and Wisconsin. He’ll trim that list even further soon.

“I’m real excited about these next couple weeks,” he said. “I’m going to the Rutgers spring game this Saturday and then I’m really going to be cracking down my list pretty short.”

Olmstead said he’ll likely cut the list to three or five and believes Notre Dame has a good chance to make the cut.

“I think so,” he said. “I have a good relationship with the coaches. I know what this place is all about. I’m going to see Rutgers one more time and me and my family will talk after that. I’m excited to get it to top three or top five.”

From there, he’ll be even closer to wrapping things up.

“I’m committing this spring or June, sometime in the next couple months. I’m either going to take some officials and then commit or I’m going to commit and just take that official to that school. I haven’t really decided which option I’m doing, but I’m really excited. The process is coming to the end, but I’m glad. This is my last summer before I go play college ball and I want to enjoy my senior year.”