Less than 48 hours after announcing over Twitter that he would be visiting Notre Dame this weekend, defensive lineman Marcus Griffin has reportedly canceled his trip to Notre Dame and is no longer considering Notre Dame.
'14 DT Marcus Griffin tells me he is no longer visiting #NotreDame this weekend. Wants to visit #Arizona instead.
— Tyler James (@TJamesNDI) January 23, 2014
Notre Dame coaches visited Griffin on Monday and things were looking good for the Irish with Notre Dame getting an official visit scheduled for this weekend on short notice. At the time an offer had not yet been extended to Griffin as Notre Dame had just received his transcripts. It was assumed at the time that an offer would be coming this weekend, but that does not appear to be the case now.
Coaches from Arizona were by Bellevue High School in Washington to visit with Griffin on Wednesday and now Arizona is in the mix for a visit this weekend instead of Notre Dame.
With Griffin off the board, Notre Dame’s list of late season defensive line targets just got a bit smaller. Scott reviewed all of the new defensive recruiting targets earlier today. This is unfortunate for Notre Dame as things were looking good here just 48 hours ago as Notre Dame searches for a replacement for Matt Dickerson in this year’s class after the California native decommitted two weeks ago.
Daniel Cage was going to visit Notre Dame mid-week this as well, but that visit got pushed back a week. As of now, Cage is still planning on visiting Notre Dame. Getting Cage on campus will be vital for the Notre Dame defensive staff since none of Chris Nelson, Michael Sawyers, or Pete Mokwuha currently have official visits scheduled to Notre Dame – that could change quickly however as we’ve seen with the visit schedule of Griffin.
Well, like it or not here is the next man in for a jan 31 Official:
Pete Mokwuah
Defensive Tackle
Staten Island, NY (St. Joseph by the Sea)
Ht: 6-5 | Wt: 305
Tough time of year to be bringing a Cali kid in for his only visit to tropical South Bend! Those wanting to relax the entry standards for athletes are just morons. Notice the term STUDENT comes before athlete! How would it be right to turn down a kid putting himself through college that is a point of two below the standard SAT score for ND, but let a kid in that falls 100 points short?
its not the academics there are lots of smsart guys out there, stanford, ucla, etc
Really bj,
UCLA a great academic institution. Standford also is in Cali and get second tier players that they coach up. Look at the star ratings which you state ND doesn’t get. ND beats Stanford in every recruiting cycle. Also, say what you want but Stanford would get beat by at least 2-3 SEC schools. Under the current standards Zorich, one of the greatest D-lineman ND ever had wouldn’t get in. Also, look at the B.S. with with Machenzie. Look Ivory tower, keep this shit up and guess what ND will be Princeton. Give a kid a dam shot at the Country Club Judge Smails!
This is the issue, I bet his transcripts didn’t cut it. I blame the coaching staff, you can’t wait until the last minute to get a bunch of d-lineman. You need to make the D-line a priority like the O-line. The main problem is the targets are so narrowed due to the admissions standards. Again I will say it to the board of trustees, Your school would be the St. Mary’s of the midwest if it wasn’t for the football program. Get you head out of your rear end and let some kids in that are border line so ND can have a few d-lineman.
Transcripts didn’t cut it. I don’t know why offensive lineman are so much smarter. Seems on defense, wanted 6’2″ plus, 300 lbs. plus, IQ 125 plus and athletic is a tall order year in, year out. Not that we didn’t blow it. But I have said before, we need Hiestand’s equal on the D Line.
Unrelated, but good to see Yahoo Sports has Tuitt at 11, Nix at 15 to the Steelers, and Zach Martin at 27 to New Orleans. It would be great for the program to have 3 1st rounders.