How Important Are On-Campus Visits To Notre Dame Recruiting?
In the middle of May, the NCAA's recruiting dead period was extended through June 30 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning Notre Dame will go at least three and a half months without hosting a single unofficial or official visit.
Of course, Notre Dame is far from the only school dealing with the extended regulations—they all are.
The difference between the Fighting Irish and most other programs in the upper echelon of college football is that Notre Dame relays heavily on a national recruiting base and not local or regional prospects.
For instance, in the last four recruiting cycles (2017-2020), the Fighting Irish have signed a total of 87 players. Only 26 percent of them (a total of 23 prospects) hail from Midwestern states and just 2 percent come from Indiana (linebackers Jack Kiser and Paul Moala).
This results in Notre Dame needing to attract players who may not have a connection to the program and likely have never set foot in South Bend.
Often, Notre Dame is able to establish this connection through visits, even if a player isn't initially interested. While virtual visits via Zoom are great, they're not the same as a player setting foot on campus, meeting the current players and spending one-on-one time with the coaching staff.
In the fall of 2016, a then uncommitted Aaron Banks was in the midst of his final season of high school football at El Cerrito High School in California. The Notre Dame coach encouraged him to take a visit but the 335 offensive tackle and four-star prospect stated he wasn't overly interested.
“They kept preaching 'take a visit and take a visit,'” Banks said. “I was like, ‘I don't know. It's in the middle of nowhere in Indiana.’”
Reluctantly, Banks made the trip and instantaneously had a change of heart. Less than three months later, he committed to Notre Dame.
Four years later, he is expected to be either a three or four-year starter for the Fighting Irish at left guard.
Rising junior wide receiver Braden Lenzy, another former four-star recruit, had a similar experience. Growing up in Oregon, his dream school was actually Michigan State because of a family connection to former Spartan basketball player and current Denver Nugget Gary Harris.
When Notre Dame offered, Braden said he wasn't interested but his father Melvin, a Purdue alum, told him the Fighting Irish were a program that could meet all his needs. Still, Braden Lenzy was skeptical when he scheduled his first visit.
"Honestly, I didn’t even want to go," Braden said in a Players Tribune article announcing his second and final commitment to Notre Dame. "Like most people with no real connection to Notre Dame, I didn’t really like the Fighting Irish. I couldn’t tell you why exactly. It’s kind of the same way how a lot of people hate Duke basketball. It’s the type of team that’s so established that its rival is basically anyone else.
"So I showed up in South Bend pretty certain that the visit was a waste of time.
"That all changed within 30 minutes."
Melvin Lenzy says he left the trip feeling his son would commit to Notre Dame. While Braden would eventually flip to Oregon before eventually signing with the Fighting Irish that winter, the initial visit to South Bend made Notre Dame a major player in his recruitment.
But does it play out this way for every Notre Dame commit?
2020 Fighting Irish signee and five-star receiver Jordan Johnson was apathetic with after his first on-campus visit to Notre Dame.
It took a major effort by the Fighting Irish coaching staff to rekindle the 6-2 wide receiver's interest in the program, get him back on campus a few more times, and eventually, Johnson made a commitment to play college football in South Bend.
We've also seen that Notre Dame can attract prospects such as Philip Riley and Jason Onye even when they haven't visited.
All this is to say that visits are incredibly valuable to Notre Dame.
Some of the most important commitments the program has garnered over the last few years have come as a result of a prospect reversing their preconceived notion about Notre Dame after getting on campus.
Right now, that can't happen, but that doesn't mean the Fighting Irish would have signed Will Shipley, Landon Tengwall or other top-tier recruits had they got on campus in March or April as previously scheduled.
Would the odds have improved? Of course, but right now, the best Fighting Irish fans can hope for is that more prospects can get on campus over the summer or in the fall.
Maybe then a few will even have that magical feeling when they get to South Bend and realize they desire to play beneath the outstretched arms of Touchdown Jesus?
There's no guarantee, but it's occurred many times before and, at some point, will again.
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