Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Florida Tight End Is Writing His Own Story BY JASON SAPP his older brother, Jeff, currently on the Buckeyes roster as a sophomore tight end, M COMMITMENT PROFILE MIKE HEUERMAN but he didn't let that limit his own recruit- ment. tight end began hearing from a number of programs — with Notre Dame notably being the first to make the jump and offer — but a three-day trip to South Bend on March 28 started an early connection. Heuerman, who reeled in 23 passes for 340 yards and five touchdowns as a junior despite having his season cut short due to a shoulder injury, landed offers from Ala- bama, Florida State, Oregon State, South Carolina and others, but he opted to settle on a list of four finalists — LSU, Miami, Notre Dame and Ohio State. The Naples (Fla.) Barron Collier High ike Heuerman never denied having a strong connection to Ohio State with 247Sports rates Mike Heuerman as a four-star recruit, the No. 9 tight end in the country and No. 214 overall player in the class of 2013. PHOTO COURTESY INSIDETHEU.COM April became a rather busy month with trips to all of his finalists except LSU, and he quickly scheduled a visit back to South Bend following a return trip to Miami. He wanted to take in what the school had to offer one more time prior to wrapping up his visits with a stop in Columbus for Ohio State's spring game on April 21. "When I got back from Miami and was to tell any of them no," the 6-4, 220-pound Heuerman said, adding that he had only spent time with former Irish and current South Florida defensive end Aaron Lynch during the first trip. "I was either going to come home from Notre Dame saying it was the place or it wasn't." really into the program, a coach told me to make my decision by looking at things without football. I knew I had to get back to South Bend because I wasn't in a position until April 27 to make his choice because he wanted his brother to be home when he an- nounced, but his goal was to decide shortly after getting home from Ohio State. The announcement was delayed until April 26, but it was well worth the wait for head coach Brian Kelly and the Irish. Heuerman originally planned on waiting JUNE/JULY 2012 78