The number of Irish offensive line recruits grew to a half dozen Thursday when 6-foot-7, 300-pound offensive tackle Sam Young verbally committed to play football for Notre Dame.
Young, listed as the No. 2 offensive lineman in the nation by Scout.com, made his intentions known in a press conference Thursday afternoon televised by ESPNews.
He attends St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and registered 80 pancake blocks in his senior season.
Matt Carufel, who committed to the Irish on Jan. 7, is the most recent offensive line recruit aside fromYoung. All six offensive line recruits - Young, Carufel, Dan Wenger, Chris Stewart, Bartley Webb and Eric Olsen - are rated among the top 52 offensive line prospects in the country by Scout.com.
Young chose Notre Dame over Southern California. Michigan and Penn State were also in the running for his signature.
"I just felt the most comfortable with Notre Dame in terms of the three big factors I was looking at," Young said. "The academics, the athletic program, and third, what I thought was most important, how I fit in on campus with the other players."
Notre Dame has tripled the number of offensive line recruits from last season, when Paul Duncan and Michael Turkovich were the only big men to sign with the Irish. Duncan and Turkovich were rated No. 22 and 35 nationally by Scout.com last year.
The year before that, Notre Dame also signed two offensive line recruits - Chauncey Incarnato and John Kadous - neither of whom are still with the team. Incarnato left the squad at the beginning of fall camp in 2005. Kadous is still enrolled at Notre Dame but is not on the team.
Note:
u Walk-on applications for the football team are due today. They can be picked up and dropped off in the football offices of the Guglielmino Athletics Complex.
