At the beginning of last week, news circulated that Clemson graduate transfer Scott Pagano had canceled his visits to Arkansas and Oklahoma, but one of the prizes of the transfer market ended up visiting Oklahoma after. Pagano posted a picture to Instagram with Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield. Well that’s not as fun as the previous reports regarding him canceling those other visits.
As you can see in the Instagram post below, Pagano was definitely at Oklahoma this weekend and seems to be having a good time with Mayfield.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSW09XAhQqZ/?taken-by=scottpagano56&hl=en
Obviously it would have been much better for Notre Dame’s chances if Pagano did not visit Oklahoma this weekend – or ever for that matter – but the Irish are still very much in the race right now. He still has a visit for Oregon planned this coming weekend as well, but after that visit, he will be in decision mode with that decision potentially coming within a fews weeks of his last visit.
I’ve said it many times since Notre Dame became a player for Pagano, but I’ll say it again. Getting Scott Pagano would be a huge boost for Notre Dame. Some comments on previous Pagano articles have brought up the same old thinking of “well how can he be so good if he’s transferring” or “if he’s so good why isn’t he going to the NFL already”. Sometimes a player is just looking for a change and a new fit. Notre Dame would be a GREAT fit given the need on the interior defensive line.
It’ll be a few more weeks til we know if Notre Dame is able to lure Pagano to South Bend, but we now know it looks like a three team race instead of a Notre Dame – Oregon battle.
Hate to say it but there is no positive way to spin this development. We usually don’t do very well in head to head battles with Oklahoma.
Yeah, I have to agree. ND is certainly in the mix, but it depends on what his goals are. If he wants to win now he may go elsewhere including OK. There are a lot of question marks heading into next season for ND. The positive for ND is he will be a starter with the Irish. But him going to OK after supposedly cancelling his visit is not a good sign.
Unless it is making the visit as a courtesy after initially canceling . . . a show of respect. I have no idea what he’ll do. That he just won a NC at Clemson gives me some hope that he isn’t just looking for the team that is most likely to “win now.” He’s got his NC. Now start for Notre Dame and work on a graduate degree? Maybe. Hope so.
My feeling about his visit to Oklahoma is that he’s being thorough. I personally don’t think that our chances with him are diminished at all by his decision to have a look at them. We’ll see how his visit to Oregon goes. In the end, if he likes Oregon as well as Notre Dame, he’ll go there. But I feel like our program is pulling together more than Oregon’s at this point. Oregon has done some great things in the offseason, but I’d say that they have checked most of the boxes while ND has checked all of them. Unless Kelly himself is the source of all our problems, I feel like we have everything in place to make a serious run this year. If Pagano sees what I see, he’ll choose us.
Clemson just happens to have one of the best DL’s in the country without him. With Dexter Lawrence and Albert Huggins ahead of him, it’s unlikely that he would see the field. That’s true of most DT’s playing on other teams as well. So yeah, he’s not transferring because he isn’t any good. He’s transferring because Clemson has too many top-notch DT’s.