Before his junior season at Michigan, Tom Brady was driving back to California from Ann Arbor and decided to stop off in South Bend to get a look at Notre Dame.
As he walked around Notre Dame Stadium, he noticed an open gate and decided to take a look around the field he’d be playing on the upcoming season. After a tour of the stadium, Brady went to leave, but the gate he entered through was locked. After some anxious moments, Brady finally found a ladder, which he used to get out of the stadium.
Brady refers to it as ‘The Notre Dame Story.’
Cameron Dillard has a Notre Dame story of his own now.
The 2013 offensive lineman from Canton High School in Canton, Mich., and his father arrived on Notre Dame’s on Friday evening in preparation for Dillard’s participation in Notre Dame’s Linemen Challenge on Saturday. Dillard and his father took in the sights on campus and, just like Brady, one of those sights included an open gate at Notre Dame Stadium.
“At first, we were like, ‘Should we go in? Should we not?’” said Dillard. “Then we said, ‘We might as well go in. We might not get the chance again.’”
And just like with Brady, when the Dillards returned, the gate was locked.
“We were kind of worried,” Dillard said. “We weren’t sure what we were going to do.”
Fortunately, a Notre Dame basketball coach came by and unlocked the gate for them. Being trapped in the stadium wasn’t the only thing that stood out about their tour of campus.
“Campus was gorgeous,” said Dillard. “All I can say is positive things about it. One thing I wanted to see was the church, but it was locked.
“I got to see the Main Building. I got to go to the Gug, that was sweet. I touched one of those Heisman trophies and then the Lombardi Trophy, that was sweet. I got to see the weight room, that was nice.”
After seeing the campus on Friday, the Notre Dame coaches got the chance to see the 6-foot-3, 280-pound Dillard in action on Saturday and it sounds like they liked what they saw.
“I think I was able to show them that my pass blocking is improving,” said Dillard. “My run blocking is still solid, it’s consistent, but mainly my pass protection. I think I had five pancakes.”
Dillard enjoyed working with the Irish coaching staff, especially Irish offensive line coach Ed Warinner.
“He’s a great coach,” said Dillard. “I like him a lot. The coaching staff is great there. They’re very supportive and I like Coach Warinner a lot.”
Dillard was impressed with Notre Dame.
“It’s up there with some of the other schools I’ve been at,” he said. “It’s definitely up there and it has my interest.”
Dillard already has an offer from Eastern Michigan and is also receiving interest from Cincinnati, Iowa, Michigan State, Oregon, Western Michigan and West Virginia. He’ll wrap up his camp tour with a trip to West Virginia for a camp on Sunday. He spoke with Notre Dame recruiting coordinator Chuck Martin during the drive to Morgantown.
“He said Coach Warinner talked very highly of me and a lot of the guest coaches were talking really highly of me,” Dillard said of Martin. “He said I definitely raised my stock in the Notre Dame program. He said he wanted to keep things going in the direction they’re going. He said he definitely wanted to get me up to a couple of games in the fall.”
Dillard shouldn't have to worry about getting locked in the stadium the next time he visits.
