Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/605097
FOOTBALL RECRUITING retweeting it, but it was only a small victory in the battle to land McKinley. The Irish continue to fight UCLA, Or- egon, Tennessee and Washington for the 6-2, 196-pounder — who is ranked as the No. 18 wide receiver and No. 96 overall prospect in the country — and are excepted to do so until Jan. 9 when he announces a commitment at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. While McKinley would fill a need on the outside of the offense, Fontana (Calif.) Summit four-star wide receiver Damian Alloway could meet a need on the inside. The Irish want to add a dy- namic target in the slot, and Alloway is the man at the top of the board. He took an official visit to Notre Dame Nov. 14 for the Wake Forest game and left with a better idea of where he stands with the Irish. "Notre Dame is a great place," he said. "It's a different place, it's a place where I could possibly see myself playing, but I need to go home and check out UCLA and talk to my family." Alloway's desire to see the local Pac-12 school before making a decision shouldn't come as much of a surprise given the fact that it's always hard to pull recruits off the West Coast, but the 5-10, 170-pound wideout — who is ranked as the No. 20 wide receiver and No. 110 overall prospect nationally — isn't the only one that's considering staying close to home. The same can be said about Gardena (Calif.) Junipero Serra four-star defen- sive end Wole Betiku, who was pre- viously committed to UCLA. Betiku, like Alloway, visited Notre Dame for the Wake Forest game, but left campus uncommitted. That's primarily because he's still evaluating his other options which include Texas A&M, Florida State and USC. Many in the recruiting industry be- lieve that the Aggies are the team to beat after back-to-back visits to the SEC school in College Station, but USC ap- pears to be more than just a dark horse to land his signature. Betiku was at USC a few days before he visited Notre Dame, and Serra has long been considered a Trojan pipeline that doesn't let top prospects leave the area. That still might be the case, al- though the 6-4, 250-pound Betiku — who is ranked as the No. 4 strongside defensive end and No. 36 overall recruit in the land — claims that he plans to continue to give the Irish a look and that's because of his relationship with associate head coach Mike Denbrock, who along with Sanford, recruits the Los Angeles area for Notre Dame. "I think he's an awesome guy," Be- tiku said of Denbrock. "He's really dif- ferent. He carries himself in a very pro- fessional way. He doesn't promise stuff he just tells me what they want to do, and that's rush the quarterback. "I'm not really worried about going that far," he added when asked about distance. But just because Betiku says location won't play a factor doesn't actually mean that's the case. Notre Dame has pursued high-profile recruits from Los Angeles before who have said the same things and missed. This time, however, the margin for error is slim if the Irish want to put an exclamation point on an already strong class. ✦