Andrew Ford had planned on visiting Notre Dame this spring, but when he released his spring visit schedule earlier this month, South Bend wasn’t on the itinerary.
“Right now that’s a pretty tentative list,” the 2014 Pennsylvania quarterback said of his schedule, which will include Boston College, Northwestern, Pittsburgh, UConn, Virginia and Rutgers.
“I haven’t really been in too much contact with Notre Dame, but that’s not to say if they stepped out, I wouldn’t be going up there. It’s definitely based on who’s showing the most contact right now.”
Ford had early contact with Irish offensive coordinator Chuck Martin, but hasn’t heard from him much recently. He is hoping that could change with the news of Gunner Kiel’s transfer.
“Some of the people from around this area who follow Notre Dame pretty heavily said they probably weren’t going to take a quarterback, but that’s all changed,” said Ford.
“I know my phone rang a couple times when he transferred, saying, ‘Did you see Gunner left?’ I think the coaching staff’s opinion has changed a little bit, but I haven’t had a chance to talk them because they were on vacation.”
For now, Ford is looking forward to the visits he does have scheduled.
“The first one is Friday, I’ll be at Virginia,” he said. “The following Saturday, I’ll be at Rutgers on the 30th. The rest of April will kind of be scattered throughout. I’m not sure specific dates.”
Ford picked up offers from Temple and UMass in January. He had the chance to watch former teammate, 2013 tight end Adam Breneman, go through the process ahead of him.
“It’s definitely exciting,” said Ford. “Adam went through this process around this time two years ago actually, he committed around this time last year. It feels good to just kind of get this process going. I wouldn’t say I was getting frustrated with the process, but it’s kind of hard.
“Sometimes you have to be even more patient at the quarterback position because it’s a little bit slower process than other positions. It feels good to see things kind of pick up, but I wasn’t stressing out over it. I knew it would come and I think it’s going to be worth the wait.”
Ford will be taking a close look at each football program and each school.
“Most of these schools, I’ll be going back for a second time, so it’ll be how comfortable I am there,” he said. “Most of these visits, I’ll be sitting down with academic staff and sitting in some classes. It’s going to be more of the business side than the football side. We’re going to wrap it around practices, but we’re not just going to watch practice.
“I plan to enroll early next January, so what that would be and what classes I’d need to take to be ready for that.”
