Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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FOOTBALL RECRUITING Notre Dame Searching For Final Pieces To Puzzle BY JASON SAPP quet, now called the Football Awards Show, and the event includes more video highlights and additional awards for the coaches, players, fam- ilies and guests in the audience. Traditionally among the crowd is N an extensive group of committed re- cruits that are uniting on their future campus to spend time together and work on any uncommitted prospects that are also in town. This year's showcase, however, featured more uncommitted recruits than com- mitted ones, and the weekend also served as quite a recruiting assign- ment for the coaches. The current pledges that made their official visit to campus for the Dec. 9 weekend were long snapper Scott Daly of Downers Grove, Ill., defen- sive end Sheldon Day of Indianap- olis, offensive tackle Taylor Decker of Vandalia, Ohio, and safety John Turner of Indianapolis. All reported that they enjoyed being back on cam- pus around their future teammates, and a key part of the trip for Day was finalizing his plans to enroll early, set- ting his report date for Jan. 15. Here's an overview of the remain- der of the official visitors that were on campus and have yet to make their college decisions: JOSHUA GARNETT OL, 6-5, 304 PUYALLUP, WASH./PUYALLUP 247Sports Ranking: Four-star recruit, the top player in Washington, the country's No. 6 offensive tackle and the No. 43 overall player nationally. The Skinny: Garnett headed to South Bend with an open mind for the ex- perience he was looking forward to having on the storied campus, but programs such as Michigan and Stanford had already positioned themselves to remain in the mix un- til the very end. It was unclear just how well the Irish would be able to recruit him with plenty of activities going on, but their efforts seemed successful. The Washington native, who is one of the top players along the West 44 JANUARY 2012 otre Dame has added some more flavor to its yearly football ban- won't take place at a different time, but the only other official visits he has taken are to LSU and Vanderbilt. While the Commodores aren't very competitive in recruiting, the pro- gram has assembled a strong class this campaign and could be the pri- mary competition for the Irish. Ar- kansas and in-state Purdue are also involved. Notre Dame is looking to pick up a pledge from the early en- rollee soon. SCHYLER MILES ILB, 6-2, 220 · TAMPA, FLA./BERKELEY PREP 247Sports Ranking: Not rated. The Skinny: Miles set off for South Joshua Garnett of Puyallup, Wash., the nation's No. 6 offensive tackle and No. 43 overall pros- pect according to 247Sports, officially visited Notre Dame for the Football Awards Show week- end and is now seriously considering the Irish. PHOTO COURTESY 247SPORTS Coast, said that his visit was "great," and the current commits felt Notre Dame would move toward the top of his list. There's still time to go in his recruitment, but the Irish did what they could to leave a lasting impres- sion and narrow the gap with the other schools on his list. GUNNER KIEL QB, 6-4, 210 COLUMBUS, IND./COLUMBUS EAST 247Sports Ranking: Five-star prospect, the top player in Indiana, the No. 1 pro-style quarterback in the land and the nation's No. 13 overall recruit. The Skinny: Kiel had a slight change in his visit plans and arrived on campus a day early with his family. He had been to Notre Dame before, but he wanted to use the official visit to have more time with the coaches and get additional details about how he fits the offensive scheme. He ac- tually stayed on campus only one day and left town before the Foot- ball Awards Show on Dec. 9, but the Irish were able to continue mak- ing strides and position themselves to land a five-star prospect at the signal-caller position. One of the primary reasons why Kiel left campus early was to take an official visit elsewhere. USC was the targeted school, but the visit didn't occur. That's not to say that the trip Bend in hopes of receiving an offer from the Irish, following the pro- gram's continued interest since the midway point of his senior season. The fact that he didn't land one didn't detract from his time on campus. "It went very well," he said of the trip. "I enjoyed it a lot. … My favorite part was the overall experience of the football team and how they run things at Notre Dame. I liked it a lot." He has landed an in-state offer from Florida, which was already part of a top five that included Cincinnati, Iowa State, Notre Dame and West Virginia. Florida's offensive coordi- nator and former Irish head coach Charlie Weis took over at Kansas, and one of the first offers he gave out was to Miles, so the Jayhawks are now on the radar as well. Miles was informed that he'll have to wait a little longer to see if Notre Dame will have room for him based on what current offered recruits do first, and he's more than willing to hold off on making a commitment to another school. "Very much so," he said of see- ing Notre Dame as a school that he could play for. "I liked everything a lot, and so did my parents. I'm very excited about getting the chance to play there. "My parents fell in love with ev- erything. They really enjoyed the campus and all the coaches." Notre Dame is also targeting Miles' teammate, wide receiver Nel- son Agholor. Miles' next trip was set for Florida on Dec. 16. BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED