Eleven former players are attending Notre Dame’s Pro Day on Tuesday.
Left tackle Ronnie Stanley decided to return to Notre Dame after watching the 2015 national championship game.
Ronnie Stanley nearly added his name to the mix in January. But two days before the Jan. 15 deadline underclassmen had to declare for the 2015 NFL draft, he announced his decision to return to school through a Notre Dame press release.
The decision tore at Stanley in the two weeks following Notre Dame’s Music City Bowl win. He was re-recruited by head coach Brian Kelly flew to Stanley’s home in Las Vegas, Nev., with athletic director Jack Swarbrick among others and met with the left tackle. It was a more formal process than what he went through in high school and slightly awkward.
He wasn’t oblivious to the noise either.
Constant chatter about underclassmen declared for the NFL draft on television, articles online and questions from friends and teammates swarmed Stanley during those two weeks.
And the money talked too. The possibility of earning seven figures dangled under his nose. Notre Dame’s left tackle received a second-round draft grade from the league’s advisory committee, putting him in the mix for a lucrative financial deal.
“It was really difficult, especially playing in college where you don’t get paid really,” Stanley said. “So it was definitely a difficult decision actually seeing how much you could make in a year or for two or whatever.
“I was torn at a point where I just didn’t know where I wanted to go at that point in time and I thought I did at a point, and I had second thoughts about it.
“So it was just an ongoing process of me looking at myself in the mirror and asking what I really wanted to do.”
He looked to his mother and father for advice. He spoke to family members, former Notre Dame players in the NFL and teammate Sheldon Day, who announced his intention to return a few days before Stanley.
Dallas Cowboys left tackle Zack Martin reached out to Stanley as the deadline grew closer. It was the rookie Pro Bowler’s position along Notre Dame’s offensive line that Stanley took over last fall. Martin played a role in the final decision, but he never tried to force Stanley one way or the other.
“Honestly, he didn’t really want to give me a choice or he didn’t want to take what he wanted me to do,” Stanley said. “He wanted me to choose what I wanted to do, but he just gave me his information of what it was like and his perspective, pretty much.”
There was no epiphany. Stanley’s decision to return didn’t strike him in one single moment. But it’s no coincidence he announced his decision to return to school the afternoon following Ohio State’s win over Oregon in the College Football Playoff National Championship.
“I would say the most influential point was probably watching the national championship game,” Stanley said, “and really being kind of jealous of not being able to be at that top stage or where I want to be.”
Stanley returns with center Nick Martin as the veterans of Notre Dame’s offensive line with 50 starts between the pair. A 6-0 start before collapsing in the second-half of the season gave Stanley a glimpse of what the Irish could be.
With 18 of Notre Dame’s regular starters returning, he wants to take another shot at his goal.
“Last year we had the same amount of talent,” he said. “And you can go back in the film and watch the games because those things were lost by inches, and we just knew we could fix that…we knew we could do a lot better and we didn’t want to mess up this next year.
“One slip-up can cost you a whole game, and we realized that last year throughout the whole season. We expect to be perfect this season and that’s what we’re shooting for.”
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