Over the last few weeks the Notre Dame Football coaching staff has been putting in overtime evaluating and making scholarship offers to recruits. A number of new offers have gone out as the Irish coaches have identified those players that can help continue to build the ever-growing talent level that has marked the football program during the Brian Kelly era. Last week Irish Sports Daily spoke to two top prospects that recently received Notre Dame scholarship offers. What have you been missing by not being a member of Irish Sports Daily?
Quincy Wilson, DB, 6-2, 195, University High School, Fort Lauderdale, FL is up to 32 scholarship offers. He recently picked up offers from Nebraska, UMass and Marshall. These joined offers from prestigious football programs such as Notre Dame, Florida, LSU, Clemson, Auburn, Stanford, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt and West Virginia among many others. Notre Dame recruiting coordinator Tony Alford was one of the first coaches to begin seriously recruiting Wilson and remains in close contact with the talented Floridian.
“I talked to him a couple of days ago,” Wilson said of Alford. “He was just checking in with me and seeing how I’m doing.”
Wilson (pictured) has yet to visit South Bend and while he isn’t sure when he will make it there, he knows that one way or another he’ll find a way to get to Notre Dame.
“I’m not sure,” he stated about when he plans to make it to South Bend. “I’m going to try to go in the summer, but if not maybe an official. I will be visiting Notre Dame.”
Wilson hasn’t been able to do much traveling at all lately but hopes to set up some visits this spring.
“I haven’t gone anywhere recently,” he stated. “I’ll probably make trips this spring, but nothing is set up right now.”
He also plans to use the summer to learn more about some of the schools that are recruiting him.
“I think it’ll help a lot because I’ll get to see how they do things at practice and how the coaches interact with players,” he said of any of his campus visits.
When Wilson finally does make it to South Bend, he won’t be coming alone. He anticipates being accompanied by another Irish recruiting target, Richard Yeargin III. Yeargin, a linebacker, will be joining the University High football team for the first time this season after transferring from Chaminade-Madonna.
“He’s going to be a great player for us,” said Wilson of Yeargin.
Wilson and Yeargin will see their skills showcased on national television next fall when ESPN will once again feature University High on one of their high school football broadcasts.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for people in the nation to see us as a school,” Wilson said of the television exposure.
Recruitniks will most likely have to wait some time before getting any real idea of where the standout defensive back will play his college football.
“I don’t really have any top schools right now,” he said.
He also appears to be in no real hurry to make a decision.
“I’m not sure but I’m working on that now,” Wilson said of his timeline for making a decision.
Notre Dame recruits nationally more than any other program. However, like most top flight college football competitors, the Irish also target southern players very heavily. Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas are areas that Notre Dame focuses heavily upon in their recruiting. One area that they generally haven’t achieved much success in is Louisiana. That’s not surprising when one considers the number of FBS football programs in Louisiana, including powerhouse LSU. This also does not take into consideration the close proximity of a number of other highly regarded teams such as Alabama, Texas A&M, Texas, Ole Miss and Mississippi State. So while it may be a long shot for the Irish to pull a top flight player out of the state they hope to do just that with Malachi Dupre.
Dupre, WR, 6-4, 175, John Curtis High School, River Ridge, LA currently holds a number of scholarship offers from schools such as LSU, Florida State, Michigan, Mississippi, Mississippi State, UCLA and Vanderbilt. As good as recruiting has been so far, when he awoke Friday morning (Feb. 22) he had a feeling that things were only going to get better. It only took one phone call to confirm that feeling.
“Notre Dame’s been recruiting me for a couple of months now,” Dupre related. “I got some information last night from my coach and he said that Notre Dame wanted me to call them. I called them right away this morning and I got to speak to a lot of the coaching staff and then that’s when they offered me.”
Dupre continued.
“They were telling me how important I was to their program and said I fit right with the type of player they want at Notre Dame so they’re hoping I’ll be able to get up there soon for a visit.”
Whether Dupre makes it to Notre Dame soon or not, it’s certain that the Irish have caught the Louisiana standout’s attention.
“I’m definitely interested in Notre Dame quite a bit,” he confessed. “They have a great program that wins and I know they like to use receivers, so that’s a big plus.”
Dupre is currently up to over twenty offers and has a list of priorities that will ultimately determine his final decision.
“When I get ready to choose my top five or ten, I’ll be looking for a good coaching staff, a winning program, early playing time and most importantly a good education,” he explained.
Dupre feels very blessed and proud of the offers he has currently amassed but he also believes that he has much more room to grow as a player.
“I work hard on every aspect in my game, but I think the one thing I’ve been blessed that is being able to go up and get the ball,” he stated. “A lot of big receivers have trouble running the short and intermediate routes at times, but that’s something I pride myself on.”
Like Wilson, Dupre definitely plans to get to South Bend but isn’t yet sure when that will be.
“We talked about when I might possibly get up there to visit, but I haven’t set a date yet,” he stated. “I will definitely be planning that in the future, if possible, but I really don’t know when that will be yet.”
These two summaries represent just a sample of the Notre Dame football recruiting information available each week on Irish Sports Daily.
