Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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2022 FOOTBALL RECRUITING ISSUE ham (2014-17) on the Rams' defensive line. Jack graduated from Penn State in 2015 and now works for Goldman Sachs in Chicago. Whether it was play- ing basketball, cornhole and throwing the football around, there was always a healthy balance that made Steve who he is today. "Competitive but nurturing," Bas- tardi said of the brothers. "In other words, it wasn't about taking Steve out back and beating him by 30 points in a sport. They would compete together. When they went one on one, it wouldn't get nasty and ugly. With them, they were always trying to help and work with Steve. They had competition, but it was never nasty, which is pretty cool." Steve, who enrolled early at Notre Dame in January, met with the media Feb. 4, and Blue & Gold Illustrated asked to what he credits his calm, cool and collected demeanor. He echoed what his parents and quarterbacks coach said without hesitation. "I think that's credited to my family," he said. "My two older brothers played sports growing up, and I learned from them and saw their success and how they carried themselves. I took what I could from them." GOING BEYOND THE STAT SHEET Angeli is a competitor and made himself readily available during the off- season camp circuit. He threw at the Philadelphia Elite 11, New Jersey Rivals camp and Future 50 camp all last year. Recruiting pundits saw him at those events, plus the four days of practices of the Under Armour All-America Game and the all-star game itself. BGI was at many of those events, watched Angeli closely and was im- pressed with him, but Angeli kept drop- ping in the rankings. After the postsea- son all-star games concluded, Angeli fell from the No. 398 overall player to No. 604 per the On3 Con- sensus Recruiting Rankings, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major re- cruiting media companies. Angeli didn't put up eye-pop- ping numbers in Bergen Catho- lic's conservative, run-first of- fense. And he's not 6-foot-5 with insane arm talent. "With Steven, you're get- ting something else," Bastardi explained. "And by the way, if he were throwing 25 or 30 times per game, he'd be put- ting up big numbers. That's just not Bergen, and you learn to live with that as a quarter- back." ✦ Angeli — seen here with his parents, Janos and Stefanie — is the No. 22 signal- caller in the On3 Consensus and compiled a 17-1 record as a high school starter. PHOTO BY MIKE SINGER STEVE ANGELI QUARTERBACK 6-2 · 210 BERGEN CATHOLIC WESTFIELD, N.J. RANKINGS STARS NAT. POS. STATE consensus ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ 604 33 7 ✪ ✪ ✪ — 47 9 ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ 178 8 3 ✪ ✪ ✪ — — 14 ✪ ✪ ✪ — 43 10 STATISTICS • Completed 117 of 170 passes for 1,717 yards with 15 touchdowns and two interceptions dur- ing his senior season and added 62 rushes for 218 yards and four scores. Led Bergen Catholic to a 12-0 record, a New Jersey Non-Public A State championship and a No. 3 ranking nationally per MaxPreps. • As a junior, completed 68 of 115 throws (59.1 percent) for 919 yards with six touchdowns and three interceptions. Also added three rushing scores in six games. • Posted a 17-1 record as Bergen Catholic's start- ing quarterback. NOTABLE • Born on Nov. 18, 2003. • 2022 Under Armour All-American. • 2021 USA Today New Jersey All-State first-team offense. • Finalist for the Jersey Sports Zone 2021 Zone- man Trophy, the award for the top player in New Jersey. • 2021 and 2020 New Jersey All-Super Football Conference first-team offense. • 2021 NJ.com All-Non-Public first-team offense. • Great uncle Pete Berezney played offensive line at Notre Dame in the early 1940s and won a national championship in 1943. • Older brother Nick played little league football with former Irish great offensive lineman Quenton Nelson and was a high school teammate of former Notre Dame quarterback Brandon Wimbush. RECRUITMENT • Committed to Notre Dame on March 4, 2021. • Enrolled at Notre Dame in January 2022. • Also held offers from Iowa, LSU, Michigan, Oregon, Stanford and others. • Received an offer from Ohio State before the start of his sophomore year. • Recruited by Notre Dame offensive coordinator Tommy Rees. • Visited Notre Dame when the Irish knocked off Toledo Sept. 11, 2021 and officially visited Notre Dame twice – June 18, 2021 and Dec. 10, 2021. 2022 PROJECTION • Angeli will likely redshirt as a true freshman. THEY SAID IT Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees: "When we recruited Steve, I think the first thing that jumped out was the intangibles. When you sit down and have a conversation with the kid, you say this is exactly what you want in somebody that's going to represent this program from the very top." Bergen Catholic head coach Vito Campanile: "His confidence level is great right now, and he has an unbelievable grasp of what we do. It's really hard to get to his experience level; he's a seasoned veteran. It's come to the point to where our game planning is a collaboration with Steve. He's really a great student of the game and loves that part of it. He loves the film work, game planning and preparation. Coach Rees will be pretty happy with Steve's knowledge of the game when gets there." National recruiting analyst Tom Lemming: "He's able to extend and make plays with his feet outside the pocket, has enough arm strength to make every throw, shows good anticipation, keeps his eyes down- field, and does a great job of hitting moving targets. "He's the top quarterback in the East and is no doubt one of the more accurate passers in the 2022 class. Angeli is a terrific all-around QB with smarts, arm strength, and foot speed." BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM MARCH 2022 49