(UHND.com) – The Notre Dame recruiting train kept on trucking Sunday with news that Joseph Fauria had decided to join the party as well. Fauria, a four star tight end from California native, was on hand to witness the absolutely gorgeous weather at Saturday’s Blue-Gold game and decided Notre Dame was the place for him.
Fauria, the nephew of NFL tight end Christian Fauria, is an absolute monster tight end in terms of size. Rivals.com lists Fauria at 6’8” and 250 pounds. Size like that will inevitably lead to a lot of depth chart engineering him to tackle, but odds are he will be a tight end for the Irish.
Fauria isn’t a Mike Ragone style tight end that is going to stretch a field with his speed, but rather he is a massive target and heck of a blocker. Having Fauria in at tight end will be just like having a sixth offensive lineman in the game which should pay dividends to the Irish rushing attack especially when combined with Kyle Rudolph who himself is 6’7”, 235 already.
For a team that has had a lot of trouble converting on short yardage situations for years, having two tight ends who are a combined 485 pounds as juniors in high school is definitely very promising for the future.
Fauria won’t, however, just be a glorified blocker for the Irish – he will make some plays in the passing game as well. He may not have field stretching speed, but he is massive target for a quarterback and shows good hands on the high school level.
With two tight ends in the fold, Notre Dame is most likely done at this position this year for this class despite having the interest of quite a few more highly rated tight end prospects. It’s hard to argue with the duo the Irish got – Fauria is a four star prospect on Scout.com with Rudolph gaining five stars- and the two should compliment each pretty well.
This latest commitment gives Charlie Weis a three year run on tight ends that includes two five star prospects, Konrad Reuland and Rudolph, two four star prospects, Ragone and Fauria, and then one three star, Will Yeatmen. Not a bad three year haul for Weis and his staff.
Before committing to Notre Dame, Fauria fielded scholarship offers from the likes of LSU, Stanford, Arizona State Maryland, Oregon, UCLA, Nebraska, and Colorado – his uncle’s alma mater.
