Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/109499
football recruiting Freshman quarterback Gunner Kiel won Indiana's "Mr. Football" award last year, and incoming linebacker Jaylon Smith captured that honor this season. Photo by bill panzica ing the Oct. 6 game that they both attended. "At the end of the day, I think if we have room he'll be a Gator." He made his final decision to flip during a week of limbo when it was not clear how serious Irish head coach Brian Kelly was about leaving the college game for the NFL. Anzalone enrolled at the Gainesville campus Jan. 10. One day later, Kelly announced that he had no intentions of leaving South Bend. With the 6-3, 232-pounder in the mix, Notre Dame had arguably the top group of linebackers in the nation. Anzalone would have joined five-star Jaylon Smith, four-star Doug Randolph and three-star Michael Deeb as the fourth linebacker in the 2013 class. Marked Territory Notre Dame's coaches are slowly but surely building a fence around the Indiana borders. For the second straight year, the state's Mr. Football award winner will be in a blue-andgold uniform in seasons to come. Five-star prospect Jaylon Smith, considered by many to be the country's best high school linebacker, joins last year 's winner, quarterback Gunner Kiel, on the Irish roster this summer. Smith is a native of Fort Wayne, Ind., where he helped lead Bishop Luers High School to four consecutive Class 2A state championships. Kiel hails from the southern part of the state. The Columbus, Ind., standout was rated as the nation's best pro-style quarterback