A school I didn't end up at was recruiting me and said they pulled transcripts for the All Miami-Dade County teams (3 all county teams = 15 guys) and I was the only one who could even qualify academically for their school. Now, I can't paint a brush for the entire state of Florida, but a huge population of the big time college prospects that are playing high school football in Florida are not at all fits for Notre Dame and what they offer. When a Nicholas Petit-Frere comes along and goes to a really good academic school like Berkeley Prep, then you need to go after him. Chez Mellusi was a surprise that the coaching staff didn't love the fit because he came from Naples High School which is one of the better academic public schools in southern Florida, but the staff has shifted their focus to Georgia a ton. It makes sense because some of the private christian schools in Georgia are the best football teams in the state, whereas a lot of the best football schools in Florida are public schools where kids might not be academically challenged as much.
St. Thomas Aquinas - Good academically, private Catholic school, lets almost any kid in for football so you have to see transcripts on a case-by-case basis cause some are smart kids and others wouldn't be fits. Also, this program is owned by football factories so they get everyone
Trinity Christian - Good academically, see above for football factory ownership
Berkeley Prep - see Nicholas Petit-Frere
IMG Academy - lots of out-of-state kids, a lot of elite football players, and ND has some players from there in the past and present (Houston Griffith)
Most of it is going to be a case-by-case basis for Florida prospects because the recruiting battles are so difficult and not a lot of football programs down there produce consistently high academic fits for Notre Dame. Jaylen Harrell is a DE prospect that is from Berkeley Prep that could be a fit with Duke, UNC, and Michigan offers, Fred Davis II goes to a private christian school and has an offer from ND, and other guys will fit the profile, but ND is going to have a really hard time getting in on Florida kids when they don't have tons of pipelines down there because not many schools produce high academic, elite athletes every few years.
