Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/259072
FOOTBALL RECRUITING earned him a handful of late scholar- ship offers and muddled the process. Notre Dame remained a possibility up until the last week before National Signing Day when McKenzie decided to skip an official visit he had planned for South Bend. "[Head coach Brian Kelly] came down and he explained if I don't make a decision that night I wouldn't have a scholarship," McKenzie told 247Sports. "I know it's a business de- cision and the coach is trying to keep his job as well, but I wanted to take my visits and weigh my options. I guess he didn't want me with my options." In the final two weeks of his recruit- ment McKenzie reported Ole Miss and Virginia Tech as his top choice at dif- ferent times. He ended up settling on Preferred Walk-On Boon Building back the depth along both the offensive and defensive lines has been a priority for Brian Kelly since his first season at Notre Dame in 2010. Now, he wants to build the team beyond just the NCAA-allowed 85 scholarship players. He is seeking to have about four to six preferred walk-ons per year join the team to provide stronger practices for the squad. A preferred walk-on doesn't have to try out — and in most cases he's good enough to be offered schol- arships by other schools at the Football Bowl Subdivision level. If they progress well, they eventually can be put on scholarship at Notre Dame. A recent example includes current junior linebacker Joe Schmidt from esteemed Mater Dei High in Or- ange, Calif. Schmidt received a few Pac-12 offers, plus tenders from other schools such as Cincinnati and Air Force, but his dream was to attend Notre Dame. He was placed on scholarship last summer. This year, another Mater Dei product, 6-5, 290-pound offensive tackle Sam Bush, reportedly will be a preferred walk-on at Notre Dame. Two quarterbacks also are expected to join the Irish: 6-1 Montgomery VanGorder from Buford, Ga., and 6-1 Grant Hamman from Dyersville, Iowa. VanGorder led Buford High (the same school that 2004-06 Notre Dame running back Darius Walker attended) to two state titles and is the son of newly hired Irish defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder. Duke was among the schools that have looked at him. Army and Air Force have recruited Hamman, also a track star. Another preferred walk-on in the class is 6-6 receiver/tight end Keenan Centlivre from Bishop Dwenger in Fort Wayne, Ind., the same high school that produced recent or current Notre Dame players John Good- man, Tyler Eifert and Tony Springmann. "The next 20 guys [preferred walk-ons after 85 scholarship players] are what we're working on," Kelly said. "That is so important that I can have a demo squad that I can put out there that can help us prepare for the team that we're playing that week. "Sometimes it would be better if I just put an orange cone out there. Now we've got some guys that can actually help us prepare, and we need to continue to develop that as we move forward." Connections to the school always help. Among the preferred walk-ons last year was 6-3, 220-pound freshman linebacker Austin Larkin, whose father Mike was one of the four captains for the 1985 Irish team. The younger Larkin had originally planned to attend Coastal Carolina. — Lou Somogyi