Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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tian junior quarterback Brandon Dawkins landed his first offer from the Irish, and it was only fitting that his first trip to Notre Dame's campus turned out to be an epic battle with Stanford. "It was wild Thousand Oaks (Calif.) Oaks Chris- and definitely the most hyped-up game I had ever been to," the 6-3, 190-pound four- star player said of his experience. "The student sec- tion was abso- lutely crazy with everyone cheering and doing chants. It was great to just be a part of all that." Oaks Christian alumnus, former Irish Notre Dame Improves Position With California Signal-Caller PREP PROFILES BRANDON DAWKINS ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ player in California, No. 9 pro-style quarterback in the country and No. 169 overall recruit in the nation Class: 2014 Position: Quarterback Ht.: 6-3 · Wt.: 190 247Sports Ranking: No. 16 Oaks Christian High School Thousand Oaks, Calif. Coach Denbrock gave us the whole tour of campus on Friday, and it was pretty cool to see what the whole pro- gram was about and all the tradition. "I finally got to see the campus — ev- eryone has been talking so much about it, and it was just as nice as everyone said. I could see myself going to school there." While Notre upgraded that status to great. "The visit definitely helped them Dame had al- ready been in a good position with Dawkins, the strong visit quarterback and current Carolina Pan- ther Jimmy Clausen was in town for the contest, and Dawkins noted he had an opportunity to talk with him about tran- sitioning from one program to the next. More importantly, the California native was able to visit with Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly and his staff, and get an early gauge of where he fits in the recruiting plan for the 2014 class. "I got to speak with Coach Kelly after the game," he said. "I mainly talked with [outside receivers coach and West Coast recruiter Mike] Denbrock and [offensive coordinator Chuck] Martin. out," he shared. "They've always been high on my list, and there was really not that much higher they could go with them being my first offer and all. They're definitely up there." Dawkins knows where the Irish stand in the race, but he isn't ready to formulate a list just yet with other pro- grams expressing interest. "I'm not going to name any favorites yet since I only have two offers," he said, with the other being from Utah. "I want to make sure I keep my options wide open. I'm going to wait it out and see how it goes." — Will Biggers and Jason Sapp