The Irish Roundup

The Nebraska Rivals site, HuskersIllustrated.com, reported this afternoon that Elkhorn (Neb.) offensive lineman Trevor Robinson committed to Notre Dame during Charlie Weis’s in-home visit to his family last night. This confirmed a wide range of message board rumblings from last night, including reports by an IrishEnvy poster with strong ties to the Youngstown area that Nebraska head coach (and former Mooney HS quarterbacks coach) Bo Pelini and AD Tom Osborne had failed in a last-ditch effort to win Robinson over.

Robinson’s decision caps a roller-coaster ride of a recruiting process, which included at least ten visits to the Notre Dame campus, a commitment to Nebraska followed by a decommitment that had Irish fans expecting an imminent announcement that he’d be coming to South Bend, and then what seemed like an eternity of (mostly impatient) waiting by fans of both teams. He was one of the first recruits offered this year by the Irish staff.

At 6′6″ and 304 lbs., Robinson is ranked as a four-star recruit by both Scout and Rivals, and is listed as the third-best offensive guard and a top-100 player by both services. He will enroll at Notre Dame early, and start classes this coming January.

Welcome to the Irish family, Trevor!

[UPDATE: Per BGI, Robinson's mother, Victoria, has confirmed his commitment. IrishIllustrated has a piece up, too, as does IrishEyes, including this great photo:

Good stuff. More here, from the NU football blog on the Lincoln Journal-Star. The South Bend Tribune has a piece up, including a few choice quotes:

"He's very relieved and excited to make a decision," said Robinson's father, Wade. "And excited for the decision he made."

...

"I think he's kind of been sold on them the last couple of weeks," Elkhorn coach Mark Wortman told the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald. "I think he's kind of slowly inched closer to Notre Dame as the process went along."

...

While Notre Dame wasn't exactly tearing it up on the field, Robinson was gaining a familiarity with South Bend. He visited for the Oct. 20 loss to USC and again last weekend for the annual football banquet. An in-home visit from Weis and recruiting coordinator Rob Ianello on Thursday ended Robinson's recruitment.

"He didn't want to commit and have to change his mind again. He's played the whole process pretty cool. He took his time and just waited for when it was right," Wortman told the World-Herald.

"I think (Trevor) just felt comfortable there," his mother, Vicki, told the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star.

Kudos to Ianello, eh? Also, check out GoshenGipper's brilliantly Simon and Garfunkel-laden announcement on IE:

Here's to you, Mr. Robinson

The sound of silence has been broken now that Trevor Robinson a 6’6” 304 pound OL from Elkhorn, NE has given his verbal commitment to the Irish. Trevor has been a silent commitment for at least several weeks, but it’s no longer just a little secret that just the Robinsons bare. It took a lot for Notre Dame to land Trevor because as he looked around at home all he saw were sympathetic lives, but when it came down to it he strolled around the grounds in South Bend until he felt at home. The final time taking place at last weekend’s football banquet. It has also been reported for a little over a week now that Trevor has been cleared for early enrollment at Notre Dame as well, which will probably cause Irish fans everywhere to love him more than he will know. With news like that no one will care if Joltin’ Joe Dimaggio has left and gone away, because with his commitment to Notre Dame Trevor becomes the 22 member of the Irish’s number one recruiting class, the 10th on the offensive side of the ball, and thus helps secure a position of great need as well coming that much closer to finishing with the number one class.

And HLS, in characteristically knee-slapping fashion:

All I can say is that this is good stuff. Good, good stuff. I mean, this is RECRUITING INSANITY, and this class is going to be legendary at Notre Dame. LEGEND-ARY.

And also, I will say that if I were to see Trevor, I would probably shake his hand. And I would probably smile and say some combination of the following words: Stud, Awesome, Family, You, A, To, Welcome, Are, The, Notre Dame.

And also check out Subway Domer's take on how impressive it is that the Irish won this recruiting battle:

During this process, an interesting thing happened that you don't see everyday. After the disaster that was the Nebraska season, The University hired Nebraska coaching legend Tom Osbourne as interim Athletic Director. The writing was on the wall and Bill Callahan was promptly fired as the season ended. Osbourne then made himself the Head Coach of the Football program so that he could go out and recruit Trevor himself. This is what makes Trevor's decision so amazing.

Imagine this scenario... You are an 18 year old highly ranked prospect from Fort Wayne Indiana. You are not a hardcore crazy, but have been a lifelong fan of Notre Dame. After a miserable 2007 season for the Irish, ND fires Kevin White as Athletic Director and hires Lou Holtz as an interim AD. Holtz then fires Weis and places himself as the Head Coach so that he can come visit and recruit you to ND. Then you commit to Tennessee. Wow.

This has been a gut wrenching time for Trevor and his family. And he should be commended for following what he felt was the best decision for himself.

Here's to you indeed, Mr. Robinson ...]

Tags: Charlie Weis, Kevin White, Lou Holtz, Rob Ianello, Trevor Robinson

This entry was posted on Friday, December 14th, 2007 at 12:45 pm and is filed under Recruiting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.