Marlon Pollard gave Notre Dame its 10th verbal commitment of the year on Monday and on Tuesday the Irish added verbal #11 in the form of Fort Wayne native Tyler Eifert.
From the Fort Wayne Journal:
In spite of the deep black and gold roots of Purdue growing up because his father played four years, including a starter in the 1983-84 season, Tyler had no qualms in choosing the Irish over the Boilermakers.
“It’s about how great the school is and the football tradition they have there,” he said. “It’s just an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. Definitely with John going there and Fort Wayne being such a big Notre Dame town, it definitely influenced me.”
Eifert hails from the same high school, Bishop Dwenger, as incoming freshman wide receiver John Goodman and stated that the thought of playing with Goodman for a few more years was definitely one of the deciding factors for him.
It’s not clear exactly where Eifert will play for Notre Dame. With his size, it is very likely that he will grow into a tight end on the college level, but if his 4.5 speed is legit, he would also pose an intriguing prospect for wide receiver. At 6-5, 225 pounds it seems more likely he will go the tight end route, but Eifert told the Fort Wayne Journal Tuesday that he could also end up on defense.
“Their tight ends have gone to the pros over the last couple of years, but I don’t know if I’ll play tight end there,” he said. “I might play defense or I might play (wide) receiver, they’re not sure.”
Eifert had been on the Notre Dame radar but it didn’t look like he would get a scholarship offer originally. A strong performance at Notre Dame’s camp, however, grabbed the staff’s attention and an offer was soon to follow. According to Blue and Gold Illustrated:
After surprising the coaching staff with his playing ability during the camp, Eifert needed to wait-and-see what the decision would be following the coaches’ meeting after the one-day camp on June 30.
He placed the call on the Wednesday after camp as requested, and the coaches extended an offer to Eifert as an “athlete” – wide receiver, tight end, or safety.
We need more multi-position players, the recruiting is outstanding and we will have another top 5 class.
this is great news except we’re pretty much set at safety for awhile with some good young depth and TE we hav mike ragone and a 5 & 4 star tight ends coming in as freshman plus wide receiver we’ve brought huge talent and he wont see playing time until late in his career but it’s great to have an athlete with good size and versatility