Notre Dame Football’s June Official Visits Off As NCAA Extends Dead Period
Everyone knew that when Notre Dame started lining up official visits for June, it was pretty optimistic to think that travel would be open enough and social distancing practices relaxed enough for them to happen. Wednesday night, the NCAA announced it was extending the recruiting dead period through June, thus wiping all of the visits Notre Dame had lined up off the books.
Division I extends its recruiting dead period. pic.twitter.com/Gt2Aq1Mkb9
— NCAA News (@NCAA_PR) May 13, 2020
Notre Dame was very wise to start lining up visits for June when it looked like maybe they’d be possible getting out ahead of other schools. Now the Irish staff will be forced to reschedule all of those visits once again.
Initially, Will Shipley was set to be the headliner of a June 12th recruiting weekend that the Notre Dame staff had hoped would replace the monster week in March that was canceled right as the nation went into lockdown mode as the COVID-19 outbreak started to spread nationwide. Even if the NCAA hadn’t extended the deadline, though, Shipley wasn’t coming on that visit after committing to Clemson last week.
The Notre Dame staff had hoped that recent commitments Philip Riley and Jason Onye, both of whom committed without ever visiting campus, would be able to visit in June. Pat Coogan, who also committed to Notre Dame during the dead period, was planning on visiting in June as well even before he committed last month.
With the dead period extended, look for the Notre Dame staff to continue to adapt its recruiting methods to the current environment. In the past, they never would have accepted commitments from prospects who never visited like Riley and Onye, but given the uncertain times, the staff has adjusted.
We’ll know in another couple of weeks if the dead period will be extended even further.
Frank Vitovitch has been Co-Owner and Editor in Chief of UHND.com since joining forces with Kyle Flavin in 1999. Since that time, he has written over 2,000 articles covering Notre Dame football, recruiting, and basketball. He also works with all staff and external writers on all articles published on UHND.com. Frank's love for Notre Dame football started at a young age watching Rocket Ismail give opposing coaches ulcers in the late 1980's. By day Frank works in marketing and holds a degree in Digital Media from Drexel University. Frank's work has been cited by online/print editions of NBC Sports, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated and has been quoted on air by ESPN's Collin Cowherd. He's conducted interviews with Notre Dame legends Rocket Ismail, Randy Kinder, Lee Becton, Reggie Brooks, Michael Stonebreaker, and Ned Bolcar among others over his 20+ years of covering Notre Dame football. He's also been published in the print edition of USA Today Sports Weekly and the USA Today College Football Preview multiple times. Other Published Works/Citations for Frank Three Reasons Notre Dame Will Beat Alabama - USA Today Notre Dame Suspends WR Kevin Stepherson, RB C.J. Holmes Indefinitely - Bleacher Report Notre Dame / Ohio State Fiesta Bowl Preview - Eleven Warriors Brace Yourself: The Fighting Irish are Relevant Again - Sports on Earth Interviews with the Enemy: A Q&A with Frank Vitovitch of UHND - Yahoo! Sports Five Good Minutes: Notre Dame Football Preview With UHND.com - BC Interruption Vicious Electronic Questioning with UHND - MGO Blog
I wonder how the schedule will even look this year. Will we even be playing Stanford and USC for instance. I’m not sure how California’s order applies to those schools but those games might be in jeopardy. Plus some conferences are looking at potentially eliminating non-conference games.
At this point I would not expect this season to look like the existing schedule. And if one school goes down for the years others will probably follow.