2021 WR/ATH Liam Clifford Previews Notre Dame Trip

Liam Clifford‍ has had his eyes on Notre Dame for a long time, a real long time.

“My cousin went there,” the 2021 Ohio athlete told Irish Sports Daily. “I know she really enjoyed it. Since she went there, growing up I went to games there and stuff. I always thought it was such a great atmosphere and loved going to games there.”

After being in touch with Notre Dame assistant Mike Elston for the past couple months, Clifford will be back in South Bend on Saturday for an unofficial visit.

“I started to get to know him,” the Cincinnati native said of Elston. “I call him almost every week. We started building a relationship. I’ve always been interested in Notre Dame. I knew I wanted to get up there, so we set up a visit last week.”

The 6-foot-2, 195-pounder knows all about Notre Dame’s reputation on and off the field and is looking forward to seeing more this weekend.

“Just meeting the coaches, getting to know them better, meeting the wide receivers coach, getting to check out practice,” he said. “I’m excited for that; just seeing how things work over there.

“Everyone knows they’re a good team – they made it to the Playoff this past season – but you never know what goes on behind the scenes. I’m just excited to see how things run over there and meet the coaches and get to know them better.”

The St. Xavier High School standout already has offers from Michigan, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Toledo.

“It’s been real exciting,” Clifford said of the interest over the past few months. “My first one, from Michigan, kind of surprised me. After that, it started rolling a little bit. It’s been really fun. It’s been a really cool experience. I just hope it keeps rolling.”

He’d love to add the Irish to that list at some point.

“That would mean so much to me,” he said. “Every offer is big to me at this point. An offer from Notre Dame would be huge. I would be really excited about that.”

Clifford visited Michigan in January and was at Tennessee a couple weeks ago. He’s set to visit Ohio State next weekend.

“I’m planning on scheduling more, but that’s all I’ve got so far,” he said.

Clifford, who was clocked at 4.4 in the 40-yard dash at the Best of the Midwest Combine, grew up playing quarterback, but shifted to receiver last season and is being recruited as a receiver/athlete.

“Last year was my first year playing wide receiver at the varsity high school level,” he said. “Especially last year as a sophomore, I just wanted to play. I really didn’t care. I just wanted to be where my team needed me. I had a lot of playing receiver.”

Clifford’s brother, Sean, plays quarterback at Penn State. His brother’s experience as a top recruit in the Class of 2017 has certainly eased Liam’s a bit.

“Just going on some of these visits back when Sean was getting recruited, it’s helped to know what to look for in schools and what not to look for in schools and kind of the keys to know who’s really interested in you. I know for my parents, they’re more familiar with it and it’s kind of helped us all to know where to go and what to look for. It’s definitely been a big help.”