2020 Mass. OL Zak Zinter Recaps "Unbelievable" Notre Dame Visit

Zak Zinter‍ won’t have the opportunity to make many game visits this fall, but the 2020 Massachusetts offensive lineman had a free Saturday this weekend and used it to get to South Bend.

Zinter made his first visit to Notre Dame yesterday for the Irish’s game against Ball State.

“It was awesome,” the 6-foot-6, 315-pounder said. “It was unbelievable.

“Just the atmosphere, all of the traditions that are there, the environment. The academic piece is there. The football piece is there. It checks all of the boxes.”

Zinter’s Buckingham Browne & Nichols School squad plays the vast majority of its games on Saturdays making any college visits virtually impossible. But after a Friday scrimmage, he was able to travel to South Bend early Saturday morning.

The North Andover, Mass., product was impressed with what Notre Dame had to offer from an educational standpoint.

“The class sizes there are smaller,” he said. “Their academics is up there on the list for schools in the country. I thought it was really good.”

He was also impressed with the energy around the game inside Notre Dame Stadium.

“The fan section was pretty crazy,” Zinter explained. “They had the girls doing push-ups and the fans for how many points they had, which I thought was pretty nice. The band was pretty cool too. They did a whole Lion King and Circle of Life thing during halftime, which was really cool.

“The campus was awesome. The environment and all of the people there getting ready for gameday. The team walk was really cool, when they come into the stadium.”

Zinter had the opportunity to speak with Irish offensive line coach Jeff Quinn and graduate assistant Brandon Lemon, who recruits Massachusetts for Notre Dame.

“They said they were really excited I was out there and to stay in touch,” Zinter recalled.

“I think the next step is staying in touch. They said they’d come out in the fall to see me and come by the school when they’re up there.”

Zinter already has offers from Boston College, UMass, Penn State, Purdue and Duke.

“I’m just really blessed and honored and humbled to have the offers that I have now,” he said. “I’m just trying to enjoy the ride and see where it takes me.”

He’s hoping to hit the road more this fall.

“We’re looking at some other visits, but we don’t have any in the books yet because our schedule is really hard playing all Saturday games,” he said.

Either way, he has plenty of time to make a decision and he already has an idea of what he’s looking for.

“The academic piece is definitely a top priority because football is not going to last forever and you’re going to need something to do afterward. And then a great football team on top of that as well.”