Last year Notre Dame was able to pry OT Tate Nichols away from Stanford late in the recruiting and it looks like they have a chance to flip another lineman to Notre Dame this year – Kirtland, Ohio offensive tackle Chase Hounshell.
According to the News Herald of Northern Ohio, Hounshell decided against enrolling early at Florida but is still considering the Gators in addition to Notre Dame.
“I just don’t want to rush the most important decision of my life,” Hounshell said. “I was supposed to be moving down Wednesday, but it looks like I’ll be going back to school.”
“Right now, it’s between Notre Dame and Florida,” Hounshell said. “I will be waiting until signing day to make my final decision.”
Hounshell had originally committed to Florida while Urban Meyer was still the coach of the Gators, but once Meyer decided to step down, Hounshell began to rethink that commitment. Interestingly enough, Brian Kelly and staff could end up facing a familiar face on the recruiting trail already with former Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis stepping in as offensive coordinator for Florida under new head coach Will Muschamp.
Working in Notre Dame’s favor here is the fact that Hounshell had already taken his official visit to Florida before a new coaching staff was in place making it a little more difficult for the Florida coaches – especially Weis who has not been recruiting anyone during his one year return to the NFL – to build a relationship with Hounshell with just under a month until Signing Day.
This is great news for the Irish. Hounshell is a versatile lineman who could play on either the offensive or defensive line. With just four offensive linemen in the last two classes, picking up a talented lineman like Hounshell would be a huge get for Notre Dame in the class of 2011.
Kelly has had pretty good success recruiting the state of Ohio since taking over at Notre Dame. Hopefully that success continues with Hounshell.
any body tha talks bad about NOTRE DAME should not be recruited to play for them and teach them a lesson on the field when they see him on the grid iron playing football for someone else. show him why he shoundt try to be funny. florida dont want him we shouldnt etheir.let him go to a smaller school. we r the fighting irish n dont take crap from anyone!!!
we should cut off any and all severance payments to Charlie. if he isn’t competing with us, including for the likes of this kid, i don’t know who is.
just remember this is the same kid who called notre dame, notre lame when burton decommitted from us this year. hopefully he was just po’ed that he didnt have an offer from us yet because i dont want a kid coming here because florida might not want him now. dont get me wrong, i wanted the kid here but comments like that are hard to overlook.
If i read correctly this kid attends a CATHOLIC HS. His dad should go Micky Ward on his a$$ for calling Notre Dame “Notre Lame.”
Coach Kelly will bring Notre Dame back to the old days when we were fighting for national championships.
Besides you have to remind Hounshell that the pros want players that can play ball in the winter in places like Boston and Green Bay. Girlie boys can’t do that.
Would welcome him with open arms. We need bodies on the line