(UHND.com) – Notre Dame got its 13th commitment early on Tuesday in the form of Ian Williams and didn’t need to wait too long for its 14th when Golden Tate committed to the Irish as well. Tate, a talented wide receiver/running back prospect out of Tennessee picked Notre Dame over Vanderbilt.
Tate (6’0”, 180, 4.4) is a wide receiver with a lot of speed who can challenge for playing time the return game early on in his career. As a receiver, Tate might need some work on the intricacies of the wide receiver position such as route running after playing a mix of running back and wide receiver in high school.
Tate brings a lot of elusiveness and athletic ability to the Irish offense. His pure athletic ability makes him very dangerous in open space with the ball in his hands. He can make sharp cuts and can use his speed to take short passes the distance.
It’s not completely known if Tate will be used primarily at receiver, or if Weis will try the Tennessee native out at running back as well. Tate ran for 1,027 yards on 137 carries (7.5 yards/carry) out of the running back position for his John Paul II High School team.
Recently Tate was named the Mr. Football Division II A/AA for Tennessee. Tate won the award over a couple of other Notre Dame prospects – Chris Donald and Harrison Smith. The three Tennessee natives are all very high on Notre Dame’s priority list this year.
Tate likely ends Notre Dame’s wide receiver recruiting for the year joining Greg Little and Duval Kamara as current Irish commitments. All three receivers are fairly different receivers and they compliment each other very well. Kamara is a huge target with good speed, Little is a phenomenal athlete with good size and speed, and Tate is a straight up deep threat for the Notre Dame offense.
Some people may be concerned that Tate’s other finalist was Vanderbilt since the Irish have not had many recruiting battles with schools like Vanderbilt since Weis has taken over, but Irish fans need not worry – Tate is a big recruit for the Irish. He has the kind of speed and athleticism that the Irish have lacked over the past several years and can be a very dangerous weapon in Weis’s offense.
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