Recruiting Week In Review
Written by Joe Bradshaw
Spring practice has come and gone, concluding with the Blue-Gold game on April 21st. The spring game was always an important recruiting tool for Notre Dame but the early signing period, combined with spring official visits has elevated its importance, and the Irish reaped the benefits of it with two commitments as of this writing. The recruiting importance of the spring practice season, though, extends beyond just the spring game and can include more than just the current recruiting class. Notre Dame took full advantage of spring football to host both members of the Class of 2019 and the Class of 2020. Last week Irish Sports Daily reported on prospects from both classes that visited the Irish campus. What have you been missing by not being a member of Irish Sports Daily?
Luke Deal, TE, 6-5, 230, Emerald High School, Greenwood, SC took an official visit to Notre Dame the week of the Blue-Gold Game and received the opportunity to see in-depth everything the Irish have to offer.
“The expectations going in were very high given the tradition and the great football program they have there, but when I got an inside look, it was even better,” he explained. “Everything was good.”
Deal spent significant time with Notre Dame Offensive Coordinator and Tight Ends Coach Chip Long discussing how he uses tight ends in his offense.
“I really, really like what he does with the tight ends in his offense,” he shared. “It’s a pretty special place. It’s a lot different from everywhere else, being a small school with big football.”
He also toured the Notre Dame campus and came away very impressed, even awed.
“I loved it,” he said. It’s beautiful. The campus is great. Like I said, it’s a lot different from everywhere else. It’s a small campus, smaller school, but obviously that tradition gives it such a special feel. It was really cool to me.”
Deal was also very pleased with the academic presentation.
“You can’t beat Notre Dame academics,” he said. “It’s pretty incredible the amounts of high quality students they have there and the number of students who actually get in. It was pretty eye opening to me.”
He visited with the tight ends currently on the team, Cole Kmet, Brock Wright and Alize’ Mack and found them to be an impressive group. He described them as “cool” and said they all seemed very happy at Notre Dame. Perhaps the most important meeting he had during his visit was with Head Coach Brian Kelly.
“You can tell Coach Kelly is kind of a laid back coach, but I like the things he said,” Deal remembered. “He talked about how special a place Notre Dame is and how vital the tight end is in their offense. That’s huge coming from a head coach because you know you’ll be utilized. It was a great conversation.”
Deal left South Bend feeling as if he had seen everything. His travels were taking him to Ohio State next for an official visit there. He had previously visited North Carolina State and Michigan and also had an official planned to Auburn. Following those, he has a decision announcement scheduled for May 25th.
Peter Skoronski, OL, 6-4, 250, Maine South High School, Park Ridge, IL is still quite a ways from his college decision as a member of the Class of 2020, but that didn’t stop him from trekking to South Bend to watch Notre Dame’s Blue-Gold Game. He attended the game already sporting an Irish scholarship offer after Quarterback Coach Tom Rees extended that to him two weeks ago. He got to take in much of what makes Notre Dame special.
“The trip went extremely well, we got to see the stadium, campus facility,” he said. “The campus was great, one of the prettiest I’ve seen.”
While recruits are typically most concerned with the present direction of a school’s football program, many that visit Notre Dame can’t help but be impressed with the school’s football history.
“The thing that stood out the most was the history and stature of Notre Dame football, unlike anywhere in the country,” he shared.
Skoronski took advantage of his time on campus to speak with Notre Dame Offensive Line Coach Jeff Quinn.
“I liked him a lot,” he said. “He said he liked my athletic ability and character traits.”
Skoronski will probably become very well acquainted with Quinn before his recruitment ends. In fact, Quinn is scheduled to attend one of his track meets in the coming weeks. His track schedule will keep him too busy to take any more unofficial visits for a while.
“I don’t really have any visits coming up with finals and a lot of meets,”
Skoronski possesses the genetics to be a great offensive lineman. His grandfather, Bob Skoronski won five NFL championships with the Green Bay Packers in the 1960’s.
These two summaries represent just a sample of the Notre Dame football recruiting information available each week on Irish Sports Daily.