James Brooks felt pressure coming into Notre Dame’s one-day camp on Thursday and he’ll probably be feeling some pressure again the next time he takes the field for a game.
The 5-foot-10, 195-pound receiver from South Lake High School in Groveland, Fla., didn’t think the trip would be worth it if he didn’t have a legit chance at eventually earning an offer from the Irish and it sounds like the trip certainly wasn’t a waste.
“It was pretty good,” he said. “I kind of felt a little pressure because I knew all of them were expecting a lot out of me. I tried to live up to it, but I felt I had a pretty good day. I could have done better catching, but I was trying to focus too hard on making the catch, so there were a couple of balls I didn’t get. Other than that, I think I did pretty well on the route-running and the testing.”
Brooks ran a pair of 4.45s in the 40-yard dash and recorded a vertical leap of 32.5 inches. Wide receiver coach Tony Alford is Brooks’ recruiter and introduced him to the entire Irish staff.
“They’re all good people,” said Brooks.
The Irish coaches told him they were impressed too.
“They had high interest in me,” said Brooks. “They said they want to see my first game and that should be the decision-maker. That made me feel pretty good.”
Brooks also had a chance to take a brief tour of campus after the camp.
“It’s a really beautiful campus,” he said. “I went inside the church and it’s an amazing church. The facilities are amazing. They took us through the tunnel the football players walk through. That was a good thing to experience. We got to sit down in the press box and eat some food. It was a pretty good view. I got to see some of the monuments they have around that are dedicated to certain things. They have a fountain that is dedicated to all of the world wars and I got to look at that.
“The facilities are amazing. They were telling me a little bit about the school, the number of kids they have and the things the school could offer me if I was to go there.”
Brooks already holds offers from Memphis, Kent State and Florida A&M. Before the visit, Brooks told Irish Sports Daily an offer from Notre Dame would probably end his recruitment and nothing has changed on that front.
“I’m feeling good about it,” he said. “I’m just trying to keep it going. Notre Dame is definitely number one. I feel like if I can go out and show out in this game, I can seal the deal.”
