Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com JAN. 1, 2021 47 FOOTBALL RECRUITING the dead period, 14 were offered dur- ing it. Six had pre-pandemic tenders. Some of those 14, like three-star Merrillville (Ind.) High cornerback JoJo Johnson, met an Irish coach long before picking up the offer. Johnson came to Notre Dame's 2019 Irish In- vasion camp as a rising high school junior and returned for a home game. Los Gatos (Calif.) High School, home of three-star defensive end signee Will Schweitzer, was Polian's last stop in the January recruiting period. "There's nobody who we're go- ing into this thing completely blind with," Polian said, "but we had to get really creative in how we were collecting the information." Character and fit homework, though, is a reliance on prior con- nections and references. Long-stand- ing relationships with high school coaches, trainers or others who spend time around a recruit breed honest recommendations (or warnings). If something still didn't feel right, the work became more extensive. Call- ing more old friends. Reaching out to new folks. Poor fits stem from poor research. Notre Dame's inherent al- lergy to the former made the latter unacceptable. "This guy feels a little bit squirrelly, so we need to keep calling around not only his coach, but coaches who play against him," Polian said. "Talk to not only his counselor, but other counselors in the school. Where can we connect the dots? "We always feel better when we know somebody who knows the prospect." KEPT OFF CAMPUS The 2021 cycle will end without a single player having taken an of- ficial visit. Those aren't allowed until March of a player's junior year. The dead period took hold a week before Notre Dame was scheduled to host a crop of about 10 official visitors. It's possible 2022 recruits won't take of- ficials until mid-summer or fall. The hiatus on them is easier on schools' budgets, but harder on the 18-year- olds actually making the decisions. One wonders about the percentage of Power Five signees who even took a pre-COVID unofficial visit where they could meet the coaches, see the facilities, put on the jersey to pose for pictures and hear the academic presentation. In Notre Dame's case, it's 48 percent. The six players who committed prior to March, naturally, visited cam- pus beforehand. Seven of the 21 play- ers (including unsigned running back commit Logan Diggs) who verbally pledged from March onward had prior unofficial visits and staff interac- tions. That's 13 out of 27. Eleven sign- ees and their families funded a self- guided trip to South Bend at some point before signing. Three of them signed without ever seeing campus. In the initial weeks of the pan- demic, when hope for visits still flickered, Kelly urged recruits "finish the process." In other words, don't commit without the proper tools that should be available closer to National Signing Day. Each dead period exten- sion, though, snuffed out that idea. By summer, the coach had pivoted. "I got involved with a number of recruits who were on the fence about making a decision," Kelly said. "I told them, 'You're going to have to make a decision without visiting. I know this isn't what you want to do, you want to wait to visit, but it's not happening. You're going to have to figure out another way to do this and start to get your mind around it.'" It's here where recruiting became a contest of PowerPoint presentations, virtual tours and standing out on a teenager's computer screen. No one dared succumb to Zoom fatigue. Kelly and Notre Dame decided the best strategy was a pivot toward a personal touch. Text and Twitter direct message conversations with recruits were often replaced with Zooms and FaceTimes to compen- sate for the lack of in-person contact. Kelly might even keep it that way once the recruiting process is free of restrictions. Turns out, some of the habits created in pandemic recruiting are more effective than old ones. "It creates a much better relation- ship than just texting," Kelly said. "That's not going to go away. Cer- tainly, we want that ability to have them on campus, but I have felt so much better in this recruiting process because I talk to the parents more, talk to the recruits more than any other time." ✦ NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL 2021 SIGNEES Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Hometown (High School) Joe Alt OL 6-7 280 North Oaks, Minn. (Totino-Grace) Devin Aupiu DE 6-5 220 Oxnard, Calif. (Pacifica) Ryan Barnes DB 6-2 175 Gaithersburg, Md. (Quince Orchard) Cane Berrong TE 6-3 215 Hartwell, Ga. (Hart County) Joshua Bryan K 6-0 185 Valencia, Calif. (Sierra Canyon) Tyler Buchner QB 6-2 205 San Diego (Helix) Deion Colzie WR 6-3 200 McDonough, Ga. (Athens Academy) Pat Coogan OL 6-4 290 Palos Heights, Ill. (Marist) Audric Estime RB 6-1 215 Nyack, N.Y. (St. Joseph) Mitchell Evans TE 6-7 240 Wadsworth, Ohio (Wadsworth) Blake Fisher OL 6-6 330 Avon, Ind. (Avon) Khari Gee S 6-3 185 Atlanta (Woodward Academy) Caleb Johnson OL 6-6 275 Ocala, Fla. (Trinity Catholic) JoJo Johnson CB 5-10 175 Merrillville, Ind. (Merrillville) Kahanu Kia LB 6-1 210 Kaneohe, Hawai'i (Punahou) Prince Kollie LB 6-2 210 Jonesborough, Tenn. (David Crockett) Jason Onye DL 6-5 245 North Providence, R.I. (Bishop Hendricken) Ron Powlus III QB 6-3 230 Granger, Ind. (Penn) Philip Riley CB 6-1 190 Riverview, Fla. (Bloomingdale) Gabriel Rubio DT 6-5 285 St. Louis (Lutheran of St. Charles County) Will Schweitzer DL 6-5 205 Los Gatos, Calif. (Los Gatos) Lorenzo Styles Jr. WR 6-0 180 Pickerington, Ohio (Pickerington Central) Rocco Spindler OL 6-4 295 Clarkston, Mich. (Clarkston) Jayden Thomas WR 6-1 185 Paulding County, Ga. (Pace Academy) Chance Tucker CB 6-0 164 Encino, Calif. (Crespi) Justin Walters S 6-1 175 Bolingbrook, Ill. (Bolingbrook) "I'm happy with what we were able to do and construct, because we have a great story to tell. We told it digitally." NOTRE DAME HEAD COACH BRIAN KELLY