The ever-accelerating recruitment of 2012 cornerback Marcus Rios took another step forward on Monday afternoon when Notre Dame assistant coach Mike Denbrock stopped by Cosumnes Oaks High School to visit with the 6-foot, 170-pounder from Elk Grove, Calif.
Denbrock spent about 45 minutes meeting with Rios and Cosumnes Oaks head coach Ryan Gomes.
“We had a great visit with Marcus,” Gomes said. “He had an opportunity to share with him about the school, the program itself, obviously the tradition and history of Notre Dame. Just getting Marcus more familiar and comfortable with what Notre Dame football is all about.
“We had a good chance to talk and go over Marcus’ fit with that program. It was a phenomenal visit. Marcus was really excited about getting to see Coach and getting to hear more about the University.”
Gomes said Denbrock was equally excited about seeing Rios.
Rios still doesn’t have an offer from Notre Dame, but things certainly appear to be moving in that direction. The Irish received Rios’ senior film late last week, but they haven’t had the chance to evaluate it yet.
“No official offer right now,” Gomes said. “They just got the tape and they were in California getting ready to play Stanford when I sent it to them. They haven’t had a chance to really look at the tape.”
Notre Dame will send assistant coach Kerry Cooks out to see Rios in person soon.
“The DB coach is going to be out next week to watch Marcus work out,” said Gomes. “He’ll be out to see him do some drills and get a good evaluation of him.
“They’re going to look at the film and then Coach is going to be out to see him in person. That’ll be the telling part of seeing if he’s the right fit for their program.”
But the momentum is positive enough at this point to begin planning an official visit for Rios to South Bend.
“It sounds like they’re going to bring him in on Dec. 16th,” the coach said. “We talked about Dec. 9th, that’s when they wanted to bring him in, but he has the ACT on Dec. 10th.”
Rios, who has already taken official visits to UCLA, Arizona State and Nebraska, will enroll early at college early is set to officially graduate from high school that weekend, but it won’t interfere with the trip.
“He’ll be working on applications,” Gomes said. “He’s working on UCLA, Nebraska, Oregon and now Notre Dame. It’s going to happen fast.”
