The Notre Dame football team put together its most complete game of the season in its 30-13 victory over Oklahoma on Saturday. The Irish gave potential recruits on both sides of the ball plenty to see. Everett Golson had the best game of his career, Notre Dame ran for 215 yards and the defense held the high-powered Oklahoma offense to only 13 points. With only a few slots still available in the class of 2013 the Irish can be selective. However, there are a number of outstanding players from whom Notre Dame would happily accept a commitment. Irish Sports Daily reported on two of those young men last week. What have you been missing by not being a member of Irish Sports Daily?
Deon Hollins, 6-2, 225, Fort Bend Marshall High School, Missouri City, TX is currently committed to UCLA. While the Texas standout still remains committed to UCLA he also remains committed to taking visits once his season ends. One of those visits will be to Notre Dame.
Head coach Brian Kelly has taken a personal interest in Hollins’ recruitment and the two communicate frequently.
“I message Coach Kelly a lot via Facebook,” Hollins explained. “They just say that they’re still excited for me and the prospect of me and Jaylon Smith would excite them a whole lot.”
The combination of Smith’s versatility and Hollins’ dynamic pass rushing skills would undoubtedly excite Irish fans and terrify Irish opponents. Not only is the Notre Dame coaching staff thrilled at that possibility but Hollins appreciates the potential of it as well.
“They were talking about the same exact thing and the different ways they could use us with my rushing ability and the things I can do and his versatility,” said Hollins. “It would be wonderful. It would be real nice.”
In addition to Notre Dame, Hollins has a number of other visits that he would like to take.
“Ohio State is one, University of Washington is one and Utah is the other,” he stated.
Hollins’ focus now is on the season. His team is playing extremely well and he wants to see that success continue.
“The season is going pretty good,” he said. “We’re 7-0 so we’re rolling. This past game we won 56-10.”
A player of Hollins’ ability demands much attention from opposing offenses. He has faced constant double teams but despite that he has still racked up 12 sacks and more than 50 tackles so far on the season. Still, he’s experienced some frustration from the constant double-teams.
“It’d be hard to say anyone wouldn’t be frustrated because a lot of times it can take you out of your rhythm,” he confessed. “It’s definitely frustrating but I just try to push through it.”
Hollins has not set a timetable for any decision but his after the season visits will ensure that any decision will be fairly late in the process.
Another player that will most likely decide late is Florida running back Tarean Folston. Folston, 5-10, 195, Cocoa High School, Cocoa, FL took an official visit to Notre Dame for the BYU game and according to his coach he enjoyed the experience.
“Tarean said he had a great time,” said Cocoa head coach John Wilkinson. “They showed him a good time and he really liked what he saw.”
Notre Dame was Folston’s first official visit and while he doesn’t have any more set up yet, he is considering trips to Virginia Tech, South Carolina, Oregon, Florida State and South Florida.
“I think he’s going to set up a couple more visits,” said Wilkinson. “I don’t think he’s going to make a decision any time soon. I think he’s going to weigh all his options and concentrate on our season and go from there.”
Folston will play in the Under Armour All American game in January and doesn’t plan to make any decision before then. He also doesn’t plan on enrolling early.
“He’s not graduating early,” Wilkinson informed ISD. “They had talked about doing that, but he wanted to enjoy his senior year. I wouldn’t assume he’d make a decision until maybe the Under Armour game or signing day.”
These two summaries represent just a sample of the Notre Dame football recruiting information available each week on Irish Sports Daily.
