Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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With Lyght, his presence commands instant respect. "You can tell when he walks into the room that immediately he has that," Kelly said. "It makes up for any short- ness that he may have in a résumé. "Take away the football. He's a great family man. He's a great person. If a mom and dad are looking at Todd Lyght and say, 'If my son can be like him, forget about the football, we've already won.' You'll find that across the board with Autry Denson, as well. "Then [Lyght] won a national cham- pionship here. He's gotten his degree. He's paid back his scholarship here. He's given back. He's won a Super Bowl ring. … That's pretty powerful stuff. Yeah, that gets your attention." ON THE RECRUITING TRAIL While both Lyght and Denson have supreme confidence that they will ex- cel on the recruiting trail because of the belief in the product they are sell- ing, they agree their approach must be direct and not sugarcoated. "They're going to have to be com- fortable being uncomfortable," said Lyght, whose recruiting territories will include Louisiana, Houston, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon and Washington, plus any highly rated defensive backs in Cali- fornia. "We know this place isn't for ev- erybody, but the really special ones that want to push themselves, they'll realize what a great opportunity this is and they'll come here and do great things. … We're looking for guys that want to work hard and set themselves up for life." The son of a former police chief in Flint, Mich., Lyght noted that "getting in trouble was not an option" when he was growing up in a house of dis- cipline. "There are a lot of kids out there that want to push themselves, want to excel both on and off the field at a very high level," Lyght said. "When people define greatness as how you measure up against somebody else or how you measure up maybe against a peer group, true greatness is defined by how you push yourself, how you strive to be better on a daily basis, mentally, physically and spiritually. "… I bring a credibility factor be- cause I've been there, done that. All the things that these young men want to achieve, I've done that, and so I have that experi- ence." Denson, who will recruit in southern Florida and other SEC states such as South Carolina, Mississippi and Alabama, plus any- where a top running back with grades exists, believes the worst tactic a Notre Dame recruiter can do is THE DENSON FILE Year(s) School Position 2014 Miami (Ohio) Running Backs 2011-13 Bethune-Cookman Running Backs 2010 Pope John Paul H.S. Head Coach THE LYGHT FILE Year(s) School/Franchise Position 2013-14 Philadelphia Eagles Assistant Defensive Backs 2011-12 Oregon Defensive Backs Intern 2009-10 Bishop Gorman H.S. Defensive Backs