Chicago Marist wide receiver Carnell Tate entered Tuesday armed with offers from Cincinnati, Michigan State and Vanderbilt and ended the day with two huge Midwest offers.
Although he’s played just one year of high school football, Tate, a class of 2023 prospect, picked up new offers from Michigan and Notre Dame — with the Irish offering about six hours prior to the Wolverines.
“It was a great day — just seeing that I’m on two top programs’ radar early,” Tate said.
Tuesday marked the day that college coaches were allowed to initiate contact with recruits in the 2022 class, but it was Tate who stole the show.
Notre Dame offensive coordinator and Chicago native Tommy Rees got in touch with Marist head coach Ron Dawczak to have Tate give him a phone call.
“I was excited; my adrenaline started pumping,” Tate said after receiving the offer. “Notre Dame is a top program, and they don’t give out many offers early.”
Tate was in some contact with Notre Dame after his freshman season and also saw Rees come by Marist during the winter.
“He’s a great guy,” Tate said of Rees. “He’s telling me all about Notre Dame and its connection to Marist — how their players go to Notre Dame.”
The 6-2, 170-pound playmaker hasn’t been to Notre Dame for a visit yet, so there is much more familiarizing that he needs to do with the Fighting Irish. However, what he does know is more on the educational side of things.
“I know their academics are top notch,” he said. “A lot of kids at my school talk about Notre Dame and its education.”
One of those kids is class of 2021 offensive lineman Pat Coogan, who committed to Notre Dame in the spring shortly after receiving the scholarship offer.
“He’s been talking to me a lot,” Tate said.
Tate is looking to take his recruiting process slow and not make any major decisions about his recruitment until his junior year.
“I’ll say this — Notre Dame is definitely going to be at the top of my list when it comes down to that,” he said.
Tate caught 48 passes for 844 yards and nine touchdowns as a freshman.
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