Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 NOV. 6, 2017 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED O ne-hundred and fifty d o l l a r s — m o n e y earned from a part-time lifeguard gig — was the net worth of Notre Dame senior punter Tyler Newsome in the summer of 2013 when he de- cided to use his bankroll for a spot at a Notre Dame football camp before his high school senior season. The odds for Newsome to make any kind of splash at the camp were as long as the trip from the Deep South to the camp, which he explains re q u i re d a c o l l e c t i o n o f timely fate and good fortune for the journey to even come together. A placekicker by trade through his first three foot- ball years at Carrollton High School, about 50 miles west of Atlanta, Newsome was com- ing to the Notre Dame camp to shop his talents as a punter, a skill he had been dabbling in for only a few months and had never applied competitively. "I hadn't punted in a game before," said Newsome, who picked up punt- ing to make himself a more complete kicker. "A lot of coaches, as they should've been, were very hesitant to recruit me. "I didn't let any of that discourage me." The proper attitude was in place, but the journey was just beginning for Newsome — literally and figu- ratively. His life savings covered the camp fee, but not the travel expenses. So calling on any favors to make this trip work, Newsome's aunt scored a couple of complimentary "buddy passes" from Southwest Airlines to cover the trip. All set, right? Well, not quite. Bags checked, gate ready but not yet boarded, Tyler and his father, Shane, faced a setback at Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta that could have grounded Newsome's journey to Notre Dame both for a weekend camp and eventually a college career. The flight was full. "It was early, I was tired, I asked dad just to go back home," Newsome recalled. "He told me to wait it out." Father knows best, so in another twist of fate just minutes before de- parture, Newsome said a flight at- tendant came "running out" of the plane door to bring father and son on board. "Another couple missed the flight," Newsome said of this unex- pected turn. "As soon as we were sit- ting down and buckling in, the doors closed and the plane took off." On the ground in South Bend, Ty- ler and his father arrived the day before camp started with conflict- ing itineraries. Father wanted to tour campus, and son wanted to rest at their nearby hotel. "It's just another school," said Tyler, who had never traveled this far north in his life. "What's there to see?" Father knew best, again, and off to tour Notre Dame they went. "Man, was I wrong. What a beauti- ful place," Tyler admitted now. "I had this feeling immediately that this was home." Camp registration opened and Ty- ler slapped down his $150 to par- ticipate before he was ushered into a nondescript herd of about 50 other punters on one field, while four chosen ones worked separately on another field in front of Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly. "Those were essentially the guys they already had it nar- rowed down to," Newsome said of the top four scholarship candidates. So now what? Newsome emerged from the herd by winning the punt com- petition within his group, but wasn't sure anybody noticed. However, one Irish coach did. Fate intervened again during the lunch break when Newsome was approached by former Notre Dame assistant and the late Bob Elliott, who summoned the talented but raw punting prodigy to meet Kelly. That meeting changed every- thing. With the other campers away eating, Newsome scored a one-on-one audition with Kelly. "I didn't even know who Coach Kelly was at the time, and that's probably a good thing," Newsome recalled. The Newsomes got to know Kelly soon enough and very well when the coach called them into his office and unexpectedly extended a scholarship offer to Tyler. "I had written off that a place like Notre Dame was going to offer a scholarship to a kid with no expe- rience," Newsome said. "I kind of stopped in my tracks and asked, 'Are you sure, Coach?'" Kelly was sure and from that day forward Newsome has worked his way into becoming one of the best punters in the country, and is living proof that a little fate, a lot of talent and 150 bucks can go a long way. "It's now just making sure that I pay this opportunity off every day for Notre Dame," Newsome said, "and to Coach for taking that risk on me." ✦ Punter's Small Investment Paying Big Dividends UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com Through games played Oct. 21, Irish senior Tyler Newsome ranked 13th in the nation with an average of 45.0 yards per punt. PHOTO BY ANGELA DRISKELL