Tag: Del Alexander

Notre Dame parting ways with wide receivers coach

Notre Dame is officially looking for a new wide receivers coach. Who do you want?

You can officially add “Wide Receivers Coach” as an open position at the University of Notre Dame as multiple reports Monday state that Del Alexander will not be returning to the staff in 2022.

Alexander joined Brian Kelly’s staff at Notre Dame in 2017.  He had success in developing receivers that played at Notre Dame but getting them to campus and then keeping them on campus was a different story as evidenced by several transfers and the most recent recruiting cycle bringing in just one wide receiver despite originally having three players committed at the position.

We will keep you posted as to the names that possibly emerge in the running for the newly open position.

Stay up to date with our Notre Dame coaching staff tracker

 

Details emerge of Brian Kelly’s final Notre Dame recruiting trip

Details about Brian Kelly’s final recruiting visit as Notre Dame’s head coach emerge…

Tobias Merriweather will be the answer to a trivia question years from now.

“Who was the recruit that Brian Kelly was visiting right when news of him leaving for LSU came out?” will be the question.

Meg Wochnick of The Colombian has details on what wound up being Kelly’s final recruiting trip with Notre Dame and perhaps his most memorable.

Some highlights of her report include:

  • The Vancouver visit to Merriweather featured Kelly as well as Tommy Rees, Brian Polian, and wide receivers coach Del Alexander
  • The conversation included Kelly discussing his 2009 exit from Cincinnati but not once did him ever potentially leaving Notre Dame come up
  • Kelly left in the middle of the visit to take a phone call that lasted roughly 15 minutes
  • Kelly had three servings of the home-cooked burnt ends

Be sure to check out the full story by Wochnick for one of the crazier recruiting moments you’ll ever hear about.

Merriweather, a four-star wide receiver remains verbally committed to Notre Dame but says Michigan, UCLA, and a host of other programs have contacted him since Kelly’s departure.

I can’t wait for the documentary that comes out in a decade where Tommy Rees spills the beans as to what was said in the SUV when reports of Kelly’s exit surfaced.

There was no word in the report on if Kelly spoke on that 15-minute phone call with a southern accent or not.

Related:

Notre Dame rooting guide for conference championship weekend

5 reasons to love the Marcus Freeman hire

See It – Brian Kelly arrives in Baton Rouge

Notre Dame active with offers, see which prospects the Irish contacted

A busy hump day for the Irish

It wasn’t all fun and games for Notre Dame yesterday, they were extremely active on the recruiting front. It was an interesting offer day, which saw multiple players get their coveted Irish offer. It was assistant Del Alexander making the most waves, as three of the four offers were from him. Take a look at the newest prospects that have jumped onto the board for Brian Kelly and his coaching staff.

Notre Dame presents offer to two-way recruit Kye Stokes

Notre Dame wants this two-way athlete to play safety.

The two-way college football player pretty much has become nonexistent. By the time a player gets to that level, they’re expected to focus on one position. Kye Stokes from Armwood in Seffner, Florida, is listed as an athlete in just about every recruiting profile online. He’s a receiver on offense, but Notre Dame appears to want him as a safety based on him tagging Chris O’Leary and not Del Alexander in his tweet announcing that the Irish have made him an offer:

With one year to go before making the jump to college, Stokes now has received offers from 28 schools. These include Nebraska, Miami, Indiana, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, USF, UCF, Syracuse, Virginia, Wake Forest, Duke, Northwestern and Illinois. Whoever lands Stokes will get someone who is ready to play football and do so by running downfield whenever a ball is in the air. Anyone would be lucky to have someone capable of doing that on both offense and defense.

Notre Dame presents offer to receiver recruit Johntay Cook II

Everyone and their mother knows by now how much Notre Dame was hurting at receiver throughout 2020.

Everyone and their mother knows by now how much Notre Dame was hurting at receiver throughout 2020. Such is the case when you’ve just lost your go-to target in Chase Claypool. That’s why the Irish are eager to replenish the position by any means possible, even if that help won’t arrive for a couple of years. On Wednesday, Del Alexander made an offer to Johntay Cook II, a high school sophomore from DeSoto, Texas:

Cook also runs track, so you know right away that his speed will be a valuable commodity for whatever school he ends up with. He’ll have his pick, too, because several prominent programs already have thrown their hats in the ring for him. They include Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas, Baylor, Florida State, South Carolina, Texas Tech, Kansas, Arizona State, Oklahoma State, USC, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, Auburn, LSU, Illinois and Nebraska. There obviously are high hopes for his future if he’s getting all of these offers now, so Notre Dame would be extremely lucky to land him.

Notre Dame presents offer to receiver recruit Xayvion Bradshaw

Notre Dame could stand to have more options at receiver going forward.

Notre Dame could stand to have more options at receiver going forward. Who knows how differently the 2020 season could have turned out if there was only one elite Irish player there? Del Alexander knows he has a tough task replenishing that position, but that won’t stop him from trying. He hopes he has the opportunity to strike gold after making an offer to Xayvion Bradshaw of Graham in Bluefield, Virginia:

Unlike most other recruits the Irish have offered, Bradshaw has yet to reach double digits in offers. In fact, Notre Dame might be the most prominent school that has expressed real interest in him thus far. Sure, you have schools like Purdue, Arizona State, Virginia, West Virginia and Kansas, but they don’t have anywhere near the history Notre Dame offers. Unless it’s really important for Bradshaw to play close to home, it would be crazy if he didn’t select Notre Dame based strictly on that history and prominence, but stranger things have happened in recruiting.

Notre Dame offers Rutgers ‘22 WR commit; less than an hour later he decommits

Shortly after Notre Dame offered Rutgers commit Addison Copeland, the New York wide receiver decommitted from the Scarlet Knights.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Notre Dame coaching staff was working the phones on the 2022 class. A call from offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and wide receiver coach Del Alexander resulted in an offer for New York receiver Addison Copeland.

Copeland tweeted the good news, and the now former Rutgers commit then posted he will reopen his recruitment.

Does this mean the Irish offer will result in landing Copeland? It could be  the Notre Dame staff has been recruiting the talented wide receiver for some time.

The 6-foot-3-inch, 185-pound Copeland has offers from Indiana, BYU and a few others. Now the Irish are in the mix for recruiting the New York star.

Notre Dame’s Del Alexander offers Tennessee star ‘22 wide receiver

After a call with Del Alexander, Tennessee wide receiver Taylor Groves receives a offer from Notre Dame.

It is offer season and the Irish are in full bloom. It seems to me like the staff has gotten around to reviewing multiple prospects in the 2022 class and the Notre Dame staff has been quick to offer those prospects. Today, after a conversation with wide receiver’s coach Del Alexander, Tennessee wide receiver Taylor Groves got his Irish offer.

Standing six-foot-three-inches Groves weights 190-pounds and is a rising prospect in the ‘22 class. Previously Cincinnati had offer, with Marcus Freeman potentially letting Brian Kelly know that Groves was worthy of an offer.

Groves isn’t just a big body, as the tweet above shows that he has elite speed to go along with a fantastic frame. Aside from Cincinnati, Groves also sports offers from LSU, Penn State, Texas A&M and others.

It seems as if Notre Dame is going after a large amount of bigger receivers, as the majority of the current offers are out to players who stand over six-feet-one-inch. When you pair the size and speed that Groves has, it’s not surprising that plenty of teams are in on his recruitment and now the Irish have put their hand in it as well.

This past week in Notre Dame Twitter

Take a look at the best Irish tweets from the week.

Going forward, we at Irish Wire will bring you the best of what we saw during the week on Twitter every Sunday. Hope you enjoy!

Irish 2021 defensive tackle commit Gabe Rubio getting some work in:

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly preaching the team’s new motto:

Great qualifications for associate head coach Mike Elston:

Happy birthday to transfer wide receiver Bennett Skowronek:

Recently drafted Notre Dame pitcher Joe Boyle signs his contract with the Cincinnati Reds:

Notre Dame hockey shows off its sweet helmets:

The hype for Irish linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah continues:

Irish in Top 4 for Class of 2021 Michigan WR

Notre Dame makes the cut for a very intriguing wide receiver prospect in enemy territory.

Over the weekend, Michigan standout wide receiver Andrel Anthony released his final 4 schools, as instate Michigan and Michigan State along with Penn State joined Notre Dame as contenders for his commitment.

Although Anthony has yet to set a commitment date, the 6’2” and 175-pound wide out will be difficult to lure out of his hometown of East Lansing. The Spartan’s are viewed as the favorite in Anthony’s recruitment, so Brian Kelly and DelVaughn Alexander have their work cut out for them.

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At this stage of the 2021 Irish recruiting class, there is just one wide receiver committed, Ohio’s Lorenzo Styles Jr. Notre Dame is definitely looking to add another player to the position group, as they previously had a commitment from Georgia’s Deion Colzie. It seems like the search to find a pairing to join Styles Jr. is continuing and Anthony would be a welcome addition to the group if Notre Dame can lure him away from the Mitten state.