Crawford commits to Irish

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Notre Dame landed a commitment that was a year in the making on Sunday when four-star cornerback Shaun Crawford announced his pledge to the Irish.

"Making my Dad PROUD on Father's Day. I officially committed to the University of Notre Dame. The road to success," Crawford posted on Twitter.

Notre Dame first hosted the 5-foot-9, 165-pound athlete last summer when Crawford made a trip to South Bend to meet with the Irish coaching staff. Crawford didn't pick up an offer from the Irish during that visit and continued on to Michigan, where he committed last August.

But Crawford began to think twice about that pledge during spring and debated a Blue-Gold Game visit to Notre Dame. It took another month for Crawford to make it back to South Bend, but a May stop to sit down with defensive backs coach Kerry Cooks and defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder turned the tide to Notre Dame.

""I think it cleared a lot of things up," said father John Crawford. "I'm sure he's going to let everybody know soon."

Cooks set a different tone from former defensive coordinator Bob Diaco, who focused more on taller cornerbacks.

"Coach Cooks was very impressive. Not to bad mouth coach Diaco, but it was a total 180," John Crawford said. "It was a totally different turn talking to coach Cooks. He seemed really down to earth, was a really approachable guy. There was no arrogance there, it was more of a level conversation where we were on the same level together.

"The first visit, I looked around at it thinking, 'Why are we even here? What was the purpose of them asking us to come down here?' (This visit) was a major change."

Crawford de-committed from Michigan not long after the Notre Dame visit. He scheduled a trip to Ohio State that never occurred, paving the way for the Irish to land their fifth commitment in the last eight days. That run has been comprised of purely defensive prospects.

Crawford is the second cornerback to go Notre Dame in the past week, following Nick Coleman, also an Ohio prospect.

Crawford is the highest-rated prospect in Notre Dame's 13-man haul at No. 111 overall.

That the St. Edward's standout ended up at Notre Dame at all is a surprise from the standpoint he grew up a Michigan fan thanks to his father. Crawford attended games in Ann Arbor as a kid, which helped get him comfortable with the Wolverines before he was even a recruit.

"I know he grew up a Michigan fan because of me," John Crawford said. "We have 
family in Michigan. I didn't want him to go to Michigan (just) because of me. He's the 
one who has to go to practices. He's the one that's there. I don't want him to
 feel like he came there because of me. That's the last thing I want. Michigan 
fan or not, don't pick a school to make me happy. You have to make the
 decision."



Now Crawford has.

It's Notre Dame.