Every football player on the Notre Dame roster is different and had a unique path in how they got to South Bend.
Most come on the team as scholarship athletes, some join the team later through the transfer portal and others join as walk-ons or even as preferred walk-ons.
PWOs, as they are better known, have proven to be important to top-tier football programs around the country, including Notre Dame. Some do not amount to playing much for the Fighting Irish but others break through and make a name for themselves. Just this past season, walk-on senior wide receiver Matt Salerno earned the job as the Notre Dame starting punt returner.
The belief that anything can happen through hard work and dedication is exactly what brings Altoona (Pa.) Bishop Guilfoyle’s Andrew Yanoshak to Notre Dame as a PWO.
Yanoshak, a 6-2, 235-pound defensive end, held offers from Robert Morris and Saint Francis (Pa.) but jumped at the opportunity to join Notre Dame after getting in contact with the staff towards the end of last year.
“Notre Dame is really well known for its academics; that stood out to me,” Yanoshak said. “A lot of people try to get into it and not many do because it is so difficult. My thought was that if I could get in and graduate and play football along the way, my network and future life would be set up.”
The Pennsylvania product got in contact with Notre Dame just a few days before Christmas and did not take long to make his commitment. In the days before he ended up committing to Notre Dame on December 31, the Irish staff got in touch with Yanoshak’s coaches at Bishop Guilfoyle to talk with them about how he would fit at Notre Dame, then got on the phone with Yanoshak soon after.
Yanoshak played as a defensive end for the Mauraders but found out through a phone call with Notre Dame recruiting coordinator Aaron Kearney that the staff sees Yanoshak as a tight end, a position that is familiar to the two-way star.
“Most schools have recruited me as a defensive end, but Notre Dame likes me at tight end,” Yanoshak said. “They run a lot of two tight end offenses, and they like me as the second or third tight end to come in on certain packages. Kearney told me that they wanted another PWO tight end, and they liked what they saw in me.”
There is plenty to like in Yanoshak’s game on film and on the stat sheet. Last season in nine games played, he tallied 17 receptions 195 yards, and two touchdowns at tight end, while adding 95 tackles, 22 tackles for loss, five sacks, five forced fumbles, and a fumble recovery.
Clearly, the Bishop Guilfoyle alum is talented and deserves an opportunity, and he told BlueandGold.com that he can’t wait to get started at Notre Dame next year.
“The opportunity to play at a Power 5 school is not one that many people get and I just could not turn it down,” Yanoshak explained. “It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to play at Notre Dame, and I didn’t want to look back and regret not taking this chance.”
There are certain characteristics that the staff will have looked for in recruiting Yanoshak to Notre Dame and his blocking prowess may be near the top.
Tight ends Tommy Tremble and Brock Wright have both decided to enter their names in the NFL Draft and will not be returning to the team next season. Tremble and Wright both proved to be tremendous blockers in the running and passing game for the Irish over the years and that may be just where Yanoshak finds his niche at Notre Dame.
“The Notre Dame coaches told me they liked that I play with an edge and that I am able to get physical in terms of blocking,” Yanoshak said. “A lot of high school guys don’t like contact but I do. I think they saw I am a tough player.”
Now in the fold as a preferred walk-on, Yanoshak has plans to visit his future school again soon. He visited Notre Dame as an eighth-grader just over four years ago, to visit his cousin who was a student at Notre Dame and a member of the band.
Yanoshak is the second preferred walk-on to commit to Notre Dame in the 2021 class, joining Chris Salerno, a punter, and kicker from Encino (Calif.) Crespi Carmelite.
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