The phrase “Right Kind of Guy or RKG has become a catch phrase among Notre Dame recruitniks for the qualities that head coach Brian Kelly and his staff are looking for in the players that they recruit. Chase Farris, DE, 6-5, 265, Elyria Catholic High School, Elyria, OH gives every indication of being that kind of player. Not only did he play half the season with a cast on his broken hand but he actually went through three casts as he kept breaking them, typically on an opponent.
“The cast was easy to play with,” explained Farris. “You can hit someone as hard as you want and to and it wouldn’t hurt. The doctor said that if I broke another one, they were going to put me in a pink cast. They made the third one thicker so I wouldn’t break it.”
Farris sounds almost too good to be true for Irish fans. He’s a solid “B” student in the classroom, wants to major in business and it just so happens that Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business has recently been ranked as the number one undergraduate school of business in the United States. However, as ESPN’s Lee Corso is so fond of saying, “not so fast my friend.” Farris claims that Ohio State is his current leader with Notre Dame and West Virginia rounding out his top three. His mother is clearly on the side of the Buckeyes.
“My mom would have to like it a really lot for me to go even further away for school than Ohio State,” offered Farris.
Still, Farris can appreciate the attractions offered by the other two schools in his top three.
The football tradition at Notre Dame is just so crazy and at West Virginia they don’t have any pro team in their state so their college team is like their pro team,” Farris stated.
He elaborated on his Notre Dame recruitment.
“Coach Warriner has been telling me I can be a big impact player for them because they don’t have a solid defensive end at this time,” Farris stated. “I’ve been seeing stuff about Notre Dame for a while. They showed a Rudy movie about Notre Dame and I want to go up there and see it for myself.”
As a junior Farris registered 62 tackles, 18 coming for loss including nine sacks. In addition to Notre Dame, he currently holds scholarship offers from Ohio State, West Virginia, Michigan, California, Michigan State, Cincinnati, Illinois and Duke.
Another player that, at first glance, appears to fit the RKG mold is defensive end James Adeyanju. Adeyanju, DE, 6-3, 235, Curie Metropolitan High School, Chicago, IL maintains a 3.86 grade point average in the classroom and, according to his head coach Tyson LeBlanc, works equally hard in the weight room in the off-season.
“I’ll tell you what, it’s the stuff he does in the off-season,” said LeBlanc. “He’s a weight room warrior; the first guy in the weight room, the last to leave. He’s done extra stuff as far as attending camps and combines outside of what we ask our players to do. And having a brother (Victor Adeyanju of the St. Louis Rams) that plays in the NFL, it’s also a big help in knowing the things you need to do to be successful.”
Adeyanju first caught the eye of college recruiters last season when he went up against Division I prospects Mark Lenkiewicz, Fabbian Ebelle and Laken Tomlinson. Lenkiewicz signed with Minnesota, Ebelle with Arizona and Tomlinson with Duke. Both Kenkiewicz and Tomlinson were ESPNU three-star recruits.
“He absolutely destroyed Tomlinson and had two sacks against Ebelle,” remembered Curie head coach Tyson LeBlanc. “I think that has been his big selling point; that he did play well against those guys.”
Adeyanju has gained the interest of several college programs. Among those that have offered scholarships are Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Duke, Toledo, Ball State, Bowling Green, Northern Illinois and Western Michigan. Notre Dame is also showing interest.
He was ecstatic when he received his scholarship offers from Big Ten schools Illinois and Wisconsin. Hearing from Notre Dame ratcheted that excitement up to another level.
“When I got the e-mail from coach (Chuck) Martin, I ran upstairs and said mom and dad Notre Dame wants me to come to their junior day,” Adeyanju remembered. “It was great. Notre Dame, just the tradition there. When you talk about Notre Dame you have to put them in with USC, Florida and Texas, in that category.”
Adeyanju has taken recruiting visits to Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. He claims that he has no leaders at this point.
These two summaries represent just a sample of the Notre Dame football recruiting information available each week on Irish Sports Daily.
