SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Last week, three-star safety Devin Studstill verbally committed to Notre Dame with a little help from Showtime.
Studstill, a Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. native who also held offers from Michigan State, Texas and West Virginia, among others, said Showtime’s “A Season With Notre Dame Football” program had a significant effect on his decision to play his college ball in South Bend.
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Consider that a positive upshot of Notre Dame allowing reality TV cameras into its football program and university this fall. Coach Brian Kelly said he didn’t decide to allow Showtime to film the inner workings of Notre Dame football to help the recruiting side of things, though he’s not complaining about how it’s been received from those blue-chip high school juniors and seniors.
“I didn’t go into it with this mastermind plan of, let’s bring Showtime in here and help recruiting,” Kelly said. “But the residual effect has certainly been a positive thing.”
It hasn’t been an entirely positive experience, though.
There was an early misstep that made Notre Dame squirm, when a preseason trailer for the show aired a clip of left tackle Ronnie Stanley apologizing to his teammates for having to decline a captaincy. That led to Kelly saying it was “unfortunate” the clip got out, and a week later, Stanley coyly said “parking” was the reason why he couldn’t be a captain.
But besides that uncomfortable hiccup, Kelly feels the net impact of Showtime’s series has been rewarding.
The Sheldon Day-Jerry Tillery relationship became must-see TV — “They should go on the road and do a comedy show,” Day’s mother, Carol Boyd, said — and the blend of football, academics and off-the-field activities presented Notre Dame in a favorable light.
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“I think for those that were not Notre Dame fans, I don’t think it moved them off that ledge,” Kelly said. “But for those that didn’t know much about our program, we wanted to open up our program to them and give them an opportunity to see who we are and what we’re about. I think it definitely was a positive thing for us.”
Allowing the cameras in was only something that became possible in Kelly’s sixth season in South Bend, with the metaphorical wheels properly greased in the inner workings of the team.
“Look, it was my decision to bring the cameras in because I felt our program was at the point where, this is who we are, we’re not changing, this is what you see is what you get,” Kelly said. “So it was a calculated decision to allow those cameras in and take a look at who we were without being scripted. Whatever happened, happened. And if there’s good things that happened and there were some not great things that happened. But I wanted them to be able to portray and show who we were and, from what I hear, it’s been a positive experience for those who have watched the show and I know from the recruits, they liked it because they got a chance to see a lot more of the program that they normally wouldn’t see.”
So would allowing the cameras back next year serve the same beneficial purposes it did in 2015?
“I don’t think it would,” Kelly said. “I would do it for one time knowing now what I know about how it’s been a positive thing, I would do it over again from that perspective. But I wouldn’t bring them back in the second year.”