Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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2015 RECRUITING ISSUE BY ANDREW OWENS You need to spend only a few min- utes in the Hoge family's new South Bend residence to realize how passion- ate they are about Notre Dame. When four-star center Tristen Hoge committed to the Irish in December 2013, the family made plans to buy a home and relocate from Pocatello, Idaho, to just outside of Notre Dame's campus. From the replica golden helmet fea- tured in the basement to Tristen's fa- ther, Marty, covering every inch of his body with Notre Dame clothing — the family jokes that even the bookstore can't offer any Irish apparel he doesn't already own — the Hoges became a Notre Dame family well before Tristen even enrolled early this January. "We don't look at things on a level of … some people would say it's clingy or to let him enjoy the college expe- rience," Marty said. "You've got to know your kids first and their mental- ity. Tristen has been a pretty indepen- dent young man his entire life. He's never been that kid that's had to be coddled. He has an agenda. "It's very easy to motivate him with things that are right. I've never really had to worry about him with drugs and alcohol or things like that. He's a kid that we knew as parents we were going to invest in." TrisTen Hoge And His PArenTs Fell in love WiTH noTre dAme