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Four-Star OT Jake Taylor Breaks Down New Notre Dame Offer

Heading into the Los Angeles Rivals Camp stop March 1, Las Vegas Bishop Gorman class of 2022 offensive tackle Jake Taylor held offers from Arizona State and Utah. He had a strong performance at the invite-only camp and impressed the Rivals’ staff.

Taylor couldn’t have predicted what happened next. Tenders from the likes of Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Penn State and USC came during the spring, and he is now up to 18 scholarship offers.

“Over the quarantine, it just sparked up,” the 6-5, 260-pounder said. “The offers started rolling in. Even the first offer I got was a surprise.”

Notre Dame is the latest school to offer the Rivals’ four-star recruit. It’s one that he’s excited about and certainly didn’t expect to happen so soon.

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Las Vegas Bishop Gorman offensive tackle and Notre Dame target Jake Taylor
Rivals rates Taylor as a four-star talent, the No. 7 player in Nevada and the No. 33 offensive tackle in the country. (Nick Lucero/Rivals.com)

“For it to come this early was a shocker to me. It’s the No. 1 offensive line school in the nation. They’re a great school and it’s just unbelievable.”

Taylor had been receiving camp and game invites from the Notre Dame staff for a year or two but hadn’t had much contact with offensive line coach Jeff Quinn. That changed on Sunday night when Taylor spoke with his potential college position coach.

“It was more of us getting to know each other,” Taylor said. “My mom and dad were on the call too. It was a good 30-minute call to talk about ourselves.”

Taylor reports that he and the Notre Dame staff are planning to have a Zoom call this week for the Irish’s “Excellence Presentation,” which goes over tons of academic information about Notre Dame.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know them more and hearing all of the great stuff,” Taylor said.

Bishop Gorman is one of the top prep programs nationally every year, and Notre Dame currently has four offers out to 2022 recruits at the school. Gorman’s defensive backs coach is Nicco Fertitta, who played defensive back and on special teams for the Fighting Irish from 2015-18. Taylor has spoken with Fertitta recently about Notre Dame to learn more about the university.

“You can make the same amount of money signing an NFL contract as you would getting a job with that Notre Dame degree,” Taylor added. “You can’t beat that.”

Despite the NCAA enacting a dead period that began in March and is currently set to run through the end of the calendar year, recruits have been taking their own self-guided tours of campuses. And if they can buy their own ticket to a game, they’re able to attend a college game as a fan.

Taylor hopes that he can visit a trio of schools moving forward.

“The plan is to visit Notre Dame, Clemson and Oklahoma both during and after the dead period,” he said.

Rivals ranks Taylor as the No. 33 offensive tackle nationally and No. 7 player in Nevada. Five of the top eight recruits in Nevada hail from Bishop Gorman.

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