Five-Star OT Zach Rice Liking Notre Dame, Talks Recruitment
Virginia was the first state in the country to cancel its high school football season for this fall, leaving recruits in a predicament. Some have transferred to schools at states that are currently playing year, while others are staying active as much as they can in Virginia.
Lynchburg (Va.) Liberty Christian class of 2022 offensive tackle Zach Rice has been hitting the pop-up camp circuit over the summer and has been dominant against his peers. His camp performances coupled with his strong sophomore helped elevate him to five-star status on Rivals.
“I’m getting my own workouts in,” Rice said. “I believe if you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready.”
As one could imagine, the recruiting process for a five-star prospect is busy. Rice has not made any public cuts of schools he’s considering, so many of Rice’s near 30 scholarship offers have been pushing for him.
“The process is going really good,” he said. “I’m seeing coaches [on video calls] and seeing which colleges I like.
“They can’t call me, so right now, I call who I want to call honestly, but it will get hectic once they can call September 1.”
Among the schools pushing for Rice the hardest are Florida, Miami, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State and Virginia.
“I really like schools that don’t car salesman and tell me I’m going to start, because you can’t tell me that,” Rice explained. “You don’t actually know that.”
Rice has built a strong relationship with Notre Dame offensive line coach Jeff Quinn. The Irish offered him May 15, and they have scheduled calls every Tuesday. Rice notes that they’ve kept that plan steady for the past three months other than missing one week.
“He’s a really honest guy, and I like his coaching style,” Rice said. “It’s definitely old school. I feel like when you look at the people he’s coached, it’s crazy. I really look up to a lot of those players.
“I love the tradition there and the movie ‘Rudy.’”
While ranked the nation’s No. 11 overall prospect and No. 3 offensive tackle in America, Rice is only going to keep working harder.
“I’ve been going against my college buddies and I feel like I’ve improved everywhere,” he said. “I’m a lot stronger too. I’m showing a lot of physicality from these camps.
“I have so much work to do, man, it’s crazy. That’s the great thing about football; you can never perfect craft.”
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