Notre Dame makes big impression on 4-star TE Ethan Rae
One of the nation’s top tight end prospects was in South Bend checking out Notre Dame recently and the Irish made quite the impression.
Orange (Calif.) Lutheran four-star tight end Ethan Rae made his way to the midwest for an unofficial visit to check out the Fighting Irish in early April.
“I loved it,” said the 6-5, 240-pounder. “I thought one thing that really stood out to me was that there were only 8,000 students on campus. A lot of the coaches kept pointing that out to me. They said the teachers and students would all know me. I liked that. It’s different. That’s pretty special to know that.”
Rae added that the weather wasn’t ideal, but said it could have been much worse.
“It was cold, but it wasn’t as bad as Chicago,” said Rae with a laugh. “We were there the day before and the wind killed me. I can deal with the cold, but the wind was really bad. It was all good though.”
While on campus, Rae spent time with tight ends coach Chip Long. The two really hit it off and that connection helped Notre Dame’s chances.
“I spent most of my day with coach Long, which was really special,” said the No. 7 tight end in the 2019 class. “We also sat down with coach Kelly, which was really cool. Coach Long is one of my favorite position coaches recruiting me. I like how involved he gets his tight ends involved in his offense. He kept expressing to me how he got Cole Kmet involved as a freshman and he has no problems rotating guys. He’ll always have double tight ends. He was showing me tape where he planned on having four tight ends involved. It was crazy. Then I saw it all at practice, which made it all easier to see. I liked practice a lot. It’s one thing to hear how the coaches talk about how they will use the tight ends, but when you actually see it at practice, it’s special.”
Rae also spent time with head coach Brian Kelly, which was a time he won’t soon forget. It also helped him get a much better feel for Long, who would be his position coach if he chooses Notre Dame.
“That was good. He was telling me about the family feel at Notre Dame and how the school is smaller, but the diploma is special and it means a lot,” said Rae of his talk with Kelly. “He talked about the networking. It was awesome to hear. He obviously touched on the football side of things and how important the tight end position is and how well coach Long uses them. He said that they didn’t really have a prior relationship when he got to Notre Dame, but that’s how highly he thinks of coach Long and how impressed he is how how he uses his tight ends. I really liked hearing that.”
Academics are very important to Rae and his parents, who joined him on the trip. His time with Adam Sargent made everyone very comfortable with Notre Dame as a whole.
“That was the first thing we did after practice. That was really cool as well,” said Rae of his time with Notre Dame’s academic advisor. “He’s a great guy. I was blown away by his speech, for sure. My parents liked all of this as well. They know that I’d be taken care of in that environment. The student to faculty ratio is really good. They know I’d be taken care of, so they wouldn’t mind if I went there.”
Up next, Rae says he’ll return to campus to check out the game day atmosphere. That’s exactly what Kelly, Long and the rest of the staff hopes to occur.
“Coach Kelly and the coaches were expressing to me that the next step would be to get to a game,” said Rae. “I agree with that. I’m going to look into that in the future and get that figured out.”
Notre Dame recruits California extremely hard every year. They nearly landed Julius Irvin, a Washington signee in the class of 2018, who just so happens to be good friends with Rae. The two spoke about the Irish a while back and that came up following this recent trip.
“When it was super early in my recruitment, he was telling me how Notre Dame is different, in a good way, and that I won’t understand until I visit,” said Rae. “After getting there for the visit, I see what he means now.”
Rae, the No. 193 overall player in the 2019 class, has an offer list that Arizona State, Ole Miss, Cal, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oregon, Penn State and many others.
Author
Tom Loy @TomLoy247
