Can Notre Dame Open Pipeline to Cali Powerhouse with Foskey Commit?

The commitment of 4 star DE Isaiah Foskey is bigger than just landing a recruit.  Notre Dame wrapped up it’s 2019 class with the commitment of Isaiah Foskey. A 6’5 D end out of De LaSalle high school who many believe has the potential to be a game wrecker for the Irish.

Irish fans obviously have reason to be excited for a guy like Foskey who will report as a true rush end talent from day one unlike Daelin Hayes or Julian Okwara who were converted linebackers.

There is another reason to be excited about Foskey that has nothing to do with him personally, but where he played his high school ball; National power De LaSalle in Concord California.

Never heard of De Lasalle? Allow me to fill you in.

• Have won the California open division State championship 6 times
• Hold a national record for win streak: 151 straight wins between 1992-2004
• Have produced countless NFL names like Maurice Jones-Drew, Amani Toomer, and TJ Ward

You would be hard pressed to find 5 schools in the country with a better resume.

Why does this matter for Notre Dame Recruiting?

The answer is simple. It gives Brian kelly and his staff a building block for a good relationship with a national power. Notre Dame has a chance with Foskey to prove to De Lasalle coaches and parents that they can do right by their kids.

Coaches and parents of big recruits have a huge influence on where these kids choose to play. If in the future these people can look and say, “Foskey was given a fair shake at Notre Dame, so my kid will get one too.”

Don’t think coaches think about this kind of thing?

One of the first things Jim harbaugh did when he got to Michigan was hire Chris Partridge of Paramus Catholic in New Jersey, to be his director of player personnel.

Do you think it’s a coincidence that two of Michigan’s biggest recruits in the last decade ( Rashan Gary and Jabrill Peppers) are Paramus Catholic alums?

Harbaugh did something similar at a school named Lakewood St. Edward in Cleveland. The school is a midwest athletic power, and a constant battle ground for Michigan and Ohio State.

So what did Harbaugh do? Hired then St. Edward head coach Rick Finotti to be his Director of Football operations. Michigan has since landed several big recruits from Ed’s.

Urban Meyer, one of the best recruiters in College Football history, had a few strategic hires as well early on at OSU most notbaly hiring Kerry Coombs as his DB coach. It certainly was a decision based on recruiting versus Xs and Os considering Meyer later demoted Combs.

Coombs was the long time Head coach of Cincinnati power Colerain High School until none other University of Cincinnati Head Coach Brian Kelly recognized his pull in the Cincinnati area.

Coombs with ties to not only Colerain, but friendships with coaches in Cincinnati’s Greater Catholic League helped Kelly succeed at Cincinnati, and later Meyer at OSU in recruiting names like Justin Hilliard out of Cincinnati St. Xavier and Sam Hubbard from Moeller High School.

I still to this day don’t understand how Kelly wasn’t able to bring Coombs with him to Notre Dame.

Notre Dame has certainly had good relationships at these types of schools. At my own Alma mater, Elder High School, ND picked up Kyle Rudolph and more recently Tommy Kraemer.

Foskey isn’t the first De Lasalle product to end up in South Bend. Irish fans can fondly remember the career of De Lasalle Alum and Irish stand out Derek landri for his contributions to the 05-06 teams, but ND seemed to not capitalize on that momentum back then.  In case you forgot Landri, the one-time top 100 recruit racked up 23.5 TFL and 10 sacks over his final two seasons in South Bend.

But it seems ND will get another chance to leverage that kind of relationship with a hotbed for talent like De Lasalle in a state with the plethora of talent that California has.

The ND staff has taken some of the steps in that direction most recently in hiring Running Back Coach Lance Taylor who was responsible for recruiting Bryce Love and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside to Stanford.

A foot in the door at a place like De lasalle is huge for Brian kelly, and a staff who have made clear they want to recruit California better, and Notre Dame fans should be excited about the possibilities created with the Foskey’s recruitment.