Tommy Rees kept hearing the player’s name in 2018 offseason discussions with Notre Dame recruiting office staffers about class of 2020 quarterback recruits.
He wanted none of it.
Yet the words Jalen Suggs kept falling on his ears. The dual-threat quarterback from Minneapolis’ Minnehaha Academy was quickly emerging as a Power Five prospect. He had won his team’s starting job as a freshman. Tales of him throwing 50-yard rockets at age 14 had spread. Iowa and Nebraska had already offered him a scholarship. Ohio State, Iowa State and Minnesota would soon join.
Rees, though, initially thought he would be getting in the way.
“I wanted to scream at the recruiting office because this dude’s going to be an [NBA] lottery pick,” Rees told BlueandGold.com. “They said, ‘Well, he’s a really good football player and he’s entertaining it.’”
Furthermore, Notre Dame eventually landed a 2020 quarterback commitment from four-star Drew Pyne that April. Quarterback recruiting for the cycle could have been wrapped up there.
But Rees eventually relented and pursued. He extended an offer. Yes, before there was projected top-five pick in Thursday’s NBA Draft Jalen Suggs, before there was NCAA tournament hero Jalen Suggs, there was potential Notre Dame quarterback Jalen Suggs.
“I told him he has a spot here if this is what you want to do,” Rees said.
As has been well-established, it ultimately was not. Suggs, an elite basketball prospect as a point guard before he was a big-time football recruit, picked the former and flourished. He was Rivals’ No. 11-ranked basketball prospect in the 2020 class and signed with Gonzaga as the highest-ranked recruit in program history.
In his one college season, Suggs helped the Bulldogs win their first 31 games before they fell to Baylor in the national championship game. His game-winning three-pointer from just inside half court in the Final Four against UCLA is one of the most exciting moments in NCAA tournament history. He averaged 14.4 points and 4.5 assists per game, earned second-team All-America honors and turned pro after one season.
“It was a lot of fun to watch him this past season,” Rees said. “I only had a small connection to him, but I was pulling for him down the stretch.”
The offer to Suggs wasn’t just a token gesture followed by zero contact. Rees visited Minnehaha to meet Suggs. During the 2018 season, Suggs and two teammates visited Notre Dame for a November home game against Florida State. They donned gold helmets and posed for pictures. Interest was real.
“The atmosphere was most definitely second-to-none,” Suggs told BlueandGold.com after the visit. “I felt it as soon as I walked into the stadium. The crowd had amazing energy and so did the players and coaches. It was fun time, and I hope to get back down there soon.”
Most college coaches and recruiting analysts assumed he would pick basketball, but to only focus on that is to undersell his football accomplishments, how much he enjoyed the sport and the real consideration he gave to playing it in college.
“I think he was serious about doing it up until after football season his senior year,” said Chris Goodwin, Suggs’ high school coach. “I think he was pretty torn to have to give it up. But anybody who saw both games knew it was pretty obvious he was going to be a one-and-done.”
Even as he’s on the cusp of becoming a millionaire because of his basketball talents, Suggs still thinks about the choice.
“It was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make,” Suggs said earlier this month on the AP Pro Football Podcast.
Suggs was a four-year high school starting quarterback, a 2018 state champion, a 2019 state runner-up who was Minnesota’s Mr. Football and Mr. Basketball as a senior. He delivered a dominant state title game performance as a junior with three passing touchdowns, one rushing touchdown and an interception return for a score. He had a game where he threw for more than 300 yards and another where he rushed for nearly 300, Goodwin said.
He did all of it despite basketball taking up most of his time. Playing AAU basketball took priority over seven-on-seven and football camps. Suggs attended an Ohio State camp in spring 2018 and earned an offer after it. Notre Dame never saw him throw in person, but Rees was sold anyway. His skill set and Pyne’s were different, too.
“He really only played football in the fall,” said Rivals national recruiting analyst Josh Helmholdt. “That showed a little bit – he wasn’t real polished – but his raw talent was outstanding. He was a threat to run with the football, but his arm talent was certainty four-star quality. If he just focused on football, he would’ve been an outstanding quarterback.”
Perhaps in scarlet and gray. Perhaps in blue and gold.
In an alternate universe, Suggs could be competing right now for Notre Dame’s starting quarterback job as Ian Book’s replacement. But his choice to take the clearer path basketball offered as a potential one-and-done NBA Draft pick, in a way, a relief for Rees.
“I wanted him to play basketball,” Rees said. “I mean, he’s going to be the second or third pick.”
One bonus of Suggs choosing Gonzaga was the absence of a potential football distraction. Had he attended Notre Dame, Ohio State or hometown Minnesota with a plan to play solely basketball, the gridiron pull would’ve been hard to resist.
“I had no distractions,” Suggs said of picking Gonzaga. “I didn’t have to walk past the football facility and have it looking at me every day because I know that if I did, I would have taken that left or right into the stadium and I would have gone in and done something with the football team.”
Had Suggs picked football as his main sport, though, the consensus is Ohio State would have been a prime contender. He made a visit and clicked with the coaching staff. It offered high-level basketball opportunity if he wanted to try both. Helmholdt remembers hearing Suggs had a strong connection with then-Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer.
Perhaps Suggs even could’ve been the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback when they play the Irish in 2022 and 2023. Or vice-versa. That tweet, after all, is more than enough to stir imaginations.
“I think he really liked Ohio State,” Goodwin said, “but he still put on an Irish uniform and put it on Twitter.”
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