Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/462058
2015 RECRUITING ISSUE BY ANDREW IVINS It's rare these days for a high school football prospect to go unnoticed. With schools now offering scholarships to eighth and ninth graders, it is almost expected for high-profile recruits to have major scholarship offers by the spring of their junior year. But for Palm Beach Gardens (Fla.) High four-star linebacker Te'von Coney, that wasn't exactly the case. After rack- ing up 172 tackles and leading his team to the Class 8A state semifinals as junior, Coney had just four scholarship offers — all from low-level directional schools — to show for efforts. It wasn't the ideal situation, but it was one that Coney set out to change. Instead of waiting for the schools to come to him, he went to them and gave them a reason to offer. Coney tried out and made the esteemed South Florida Express seven-on-seven team, which has produced NFL players Ryan Shazier and Teddy Bridgewater. He commuted two hours each way from Palm Beach to Miami for practice, and before he knew it the exposure was there. Ohio State, Alabama, Florida, Miami and West Virginia all extended schol- arship offers to Coney after the spring camp circuit. But it was one school that stood out from the rest, and that was Notre Dame. Coney was familiar with Irish, but he wasn't sure if they would ever get involved with his recruitment. "We had a lot of different schools come Te'von Coney's Hard Work Has Him aT noTre dame BGI FILM ANALYSIS: TE'VON CONEY Strengths Physicality and toughness are his best traits … His love for contact and abusing the opponents is hard to match … For a player of his size he moves well, and his ability to change direction is a plus … Has the body and mass too contribute early in South Bend … Possesses quick feet and has good sideline-to-sideline speed … Has a big, solid lower body and build … Is a good, natural athlete with loose hips and is a very sound tackler. Areas For Improvement Lacks great speed and could struggle in coverage against smaller, quicker players … Doesn't possess ideal height … Shouldn't have difficulty with pad level, but he struggles to be the low man at times … Needs to work on shedding and avoiding block- ers, rather than engaging his opponent. Coney, a second-team Florida Class 8A all-state selection as a junior and senior, picked the Irish over Florida and Miami. PHOTO BY ANDREW IVINS