The ESPNU Top 150 Watch List performer appears on several similar lists, has already been given five stars by some and was recently ranked by one service as the top offensive guard in the nation.
His response, “There were only two guys who were five-stars in high school who played in the Super Bowl this year…High school rankings don't mean anything.”
The 6-foot-5, 275-pounder from Puyallup, Wash. (Puyallup High School) also has a good plan for how he’ll handle recruiting. Garnett currently holds offers from Notre Dame, Auburn, California, Michigan, Nebraska, Oregon, UCLA, USC, Washington and Washington State. He is focusing on his schoolwork for now, but will start closely examining the schools that are recruiting him soon.
“When the summer comes along, I can definitely sit down and take about an hour or two a day to research schools,” Garnett said.
By the time the season rolls around, he hopes to be close to narrowing his list down and planning official visits.
“I’m not going to be taking officials to schools on the West Coast because I’ve definitely been to a lot of them already and there’s no need for me to take official visits there because I know what they’re about,” he said. “I don’t need to go to UW or Oregon or Stanford for official visits because I’ve already been there.
“It’ll be the schools like Auburn, Nebraska, Oklahoma and schools like that.”
One school will be on the official visit docket for sure.
“One of my official visits will definitely be down to Notre Dame,” he said.
Garnett was at Oregon’s Junior Day last weekend after going down to California and Stanford for junior days in March. Garnett called the trip to Eugene interesting.
“We got to see the spring practice and all of the facilities,” he said. “All of the Nike gear and all of the stuff Phil Knight put into the school. You could really tell he likes the school a lot because he ran track there. It was really nice.
“The practice was very fast-paced…They were going the whole entire time running. It was good. It was really nice to see how fast their pace was.”
It was a pace Garnett could see himself succeeding in.
“I definitely like seeing the fast pace because you see in the games how it helps them, how good their conditioning is,” he said. “They’re not really a first-half team. A lot of the games they’d be losing during the first half, but then they’d come out strong in the second half. You can definitely see why that happens because of how athletic and how conditioned they really are.”
He also had a chance to sit down with Duck head coach Chip Kelly.
“He told me something that was good to hear,” said Garnett. “He said he wants all of his linemen to be bullets, not bowling balls. It felt good that he thought I could fit that mystique that he has for big, athletic linemen. I was looking at the linemen at Oregon., none of the guys are really fat at all. They were all lean and muscular and built up.”
Garnett also enjoyed his trips to Stanford and Cal, but for different reasons.
“Stanford and Cal were really nice,” he said. “It was a little different because Stanford and Cal are higher up there academically, just like Notre Dame is. They were really pushing the academic piece and how if you can get a degree from Cal-Berkeley or Stanford then you’re really set for life.
“It was really different to see how the California schools play football than the schools in Oregon or Washington…They come after people, get off blocks and try to run people into the ground.”
Garnett is eager to take in South Bend and the Irish might be able to provide him with a blend of what he was shown at Oregon and the California schools.
“Notre Dame is a great place to not only play football, but also get a degree from because all of the people who have been to Notre Dame and all of the fan support that Notre Dame has across the entire United States,” he said. “Not just in Washington or Oregon or places like that, everywhere you go, you have Notre Dame fans.”
Garnett stays in touch with multiple coaches on the Irish staff.
“They definitely say I’m one of their top guys and I could definitely make an impact on the offensive line,” he said. “I could come in and compete for a spot early. They really like my character and it really fits the mold. My attitude toward academics really fits that of the guys they have right now and they think I’d be a great advancement to their offensive line.”
