6-8 OT Tristan Bounds Lands Notre Dame Offer: ‘I’m Super Interested’
Tristan Bounds played his junior football season at Alexandria (Va.) Episcopal during the fall of 2018. The following spring, he announced that he was transferring to Wallingford (Conn.) Choate Rosemary Hall for the 2019 season.
And with that transfer also came a reclassification from the 2020 to the 2021 class. Bounds played another junior year last fall in Connecticut.
The reclassification has helped his recruiting process. Bounds, a 6-8, 280-pound offensive tackle, has more than 20 scholarship offers and big-time programs continue to throw their hat into the ring.
“It’s going well,” Bounds said. “I’m blessed to be in the situation I am. I’m looking forward to narrowing it down and going from there.”
Bounds added Notre Dame to his offer list on Friday morning, and a couple hours after receiving that news he placed the Fighting Irish among his top eight schools. Boston College, Michigan, Texas, Vanderbilt, Virginia and Virginia Tech also made the cut.
“I expressed interest in Notre Dame to my high school coach [Lawrence Spinnato],” Bounds said. “He reached out and made the connection with Coach [Jeff] Quinn. I’ve been in contact with Coach Quinn in the past couple of days. I’ve been talking to him a lot; we talked for about an hour yesterday. We talked this morning and offered me.”
Bounds had been in some contact with the Fighting Irish staff prior to this week. He has been receiving mail from Notre Dame since last fall and had some correspondence with director of recruiting Aaryn Kearney.
“But it really picked up over the past couple of days,” Bounds noted.
Bounds hasn’t been to Notre Dame before, but what he knows about the program has him excited about the offer.
“It’s really storied; the tradition there is amazing,” Bounds said. “They compete for national championships, and obviously, the academic tradition there is very impressive as well.”
Sports Illustrated recently named Notre Dame “Offensive Line U,” which Bounds is aware of.
“I definitely know that from research I’ve done about Notre Dame and Coach Quinn,” Bounds added.
Bounds doesn’t have a timeline for his recruiting process moving forward, but Notre Dame should be considered a factor in his recruitment.
“I’m super interested,” he said.
The recruiting dead period is scheduled to end May 31, but it very well could extend into June. Schools are setting tentative official visits with recruits in June in the case that recruiting opens up in the summer.
Bounds hopes to seem some schools this summer. He doesn’t have a date set with the Irish, but June 12-14 seems like a strong possibility because Notre Dame is planning a big visit weekend then.
“Notre Dame as well as Michigan [June 19],” he said. “I’m not sure if those will hold up though. I haven’t set a date with Notre Dame yet, but I’m working on that.”
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