The word that Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly had designated Matthias Farley as a potential freshman surprise of sorts reached the recently enrolled Irish wide receiver about the same time his cell phone service failed.
So his first reaction to the news came off as, well, dead silence.
“No I didn’t faint,” the 17-year-old Charlotte, N.C., product reassured once the technology snafu was rectified.
“I was surprised, but not that surprised. It’s an honor that he thinks I might be able to come out of nowhere. But then again, I kind of came out of nowhere to begin with.”
By September, the player with just two years of organized football - and too many growing pains to count -- on his résumé could be a candidate for meaningful playing time at ND.
“He has great speed and is mature both in his mental preparation and his body,” Kelly said last week.
“Bennett Jackson had that same kind of speed a year ago, but he hadn’t physically developed yet. Matthias has both of those qualities, and I expect him to make a lot of noise when he gets on campus.”
Farley arrived on campus Sunday, got his first taste of summer school and summer workouts Monday, and already tagged classmate and defensive end Tony Springmann with a nickname (“Squirrel”) that has the momentum to stick.
Kelly’s hope is that Farley is at least as successful with assimilating himself with the Irish offensive playbook.
“The good thing is I haven’t played long enough to develop any bad habits,” the 6-foot, 194-pound Farley said. “But let me tell you, when I first went out for football, I was terrible. When I went out for a pass, it looked like I was swimming every time I’d go into a break, so everybody knew what I was going to do. My arms looked like I was landing jets.”
Farley was a burgeoning soccer star at Charlotte Christian High School when a confluence of events pushed him toward football.
The three most significant were the school’s soccer team’s lack of success (2-12-4 Farley’s sophomore year), the football team’s perennial success and football coach Jason Estep’s persistence.
“I really did love soccer,” Farley said, “But that love died. And I think I was a bit too physical for it, too. When you hit people in soccer, you get yellow and red cards and stuff, and people are yelling at the refs to throw you out of the game. When you hit somebody in football, everybody stands up and cheers.”
The cheers came slowly, though, for Farley, who started working out with the team as a sophomore after soccer season ended. He was still quite awkward as a wide receiver and defensive back when he played in his first real game his junior year.
“My first practice, I was out there in green soccer cleats and everyone had a good time with that but me,” he said. “Even the following fall I was making a fool out of myself at times.
“But what got me over the hump was the summer between my sophomore and junior years. I went to a 7-on-7 camp and had a little success against really good players. I was able to build on that, even when I did slip back and make mistakes.”
Farley’s teammates and coaches stayed after practice to help him. He relentlessly studied the nuances of the game. And his confidence soared.
“It’s funny now, but I had to be talked out of quitting three or four times by my dad and my brother, Nathan, who played college football at Coastal Carolina,” Farley said. “It’s not like I didn’t know anything about football. I mean when Notre Dame started recruiting me, I knew who Knute Rockne was, who the Four Horsemen were, what Rudy was all about.
“Football is a game that looks easier than it is. The intricacies were what held me back, but not anymore.”
Once Farley’s talent started to catch up to his knowledge base, the scouts quickly found him. Wisconsin, North Carolina, N.C. State and UCLA were among the schools who offered Farley a scholarship before he snatched up ND’s invite on April 23, 2010.
Farley requested and was granted uniform No. 41 at ND as a tribute to Charlotte Christian assistant Eugene Robinson, a former 15-year NFL safety who refused to give up on his raw pupil.
Kelly originally recruited Farley to play safety, the position which Robinson was most helpful to Farley. But in May, Kelly decided to flip him to outside receiver on offense with the hope Farley could fast-track himself into the Irish receiving rotation.
“I was pretty neutral about the switch really,” Farley said. “I mean, I’m so young to the game that everything is still out of my comfort zone. I’m just excited to have a chance to play college football -- period.
“Whether it’s offense or defense, I want to be where the coaches want me. I haven’t had time to become attached to a position and demand to play there. ‘Oh, I’m a safety. Oh, I’m an inside receiver.’ What I really am is a blank slate that hopefully can get some nice things written on it at some point.”
