SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Scott Booker’s four-and-half hour trip to Las Vegas in January could lead to Notre Dame hitting the jackpot down the road.
The Irish tight ends coach flew to Las Vegas with a pretty good idea that four-star tight end Alize Jones would offer his verbal commitment to Notre Dame. By the time Booker got on his flight back to South Bend, Jones — one of the prize commits of 2015’s recruiting cycle — was Irish.
“Viva Las Vegas,” Booker said.
The challenge for Jones has become finding a way to carve out a role in Notre Dame’s offense, which has proven to be a difficult task for freshmen tight ends. Tyler Luatua played in his first year on campus last fall, but didn’t catch a pass and was only used as a bruising downhill blocker.
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Only one freshman tight end has caught a pass during Brian Kelly’s tenure in South Bend — that being Ben Koyack in 2011. And he only caught one pass that year.
So why is Jones being talked up as a guy who could contribute immediately in 2015?
“He is a competitor and a perfectionist,” Booker said. “He definitely is not satisfied very often with a lot that he does. And he’s very confident in his own ability but he’s willing to learn, and he understands his shortcomings whether that be understanding the offense or whatever that may be. Right now he’s really doing a great job being part of the unit and competitive nature is really big.”
It helps that Jones is already 6-foot-4 and 240 pounds, so he’s just as big as redshirt sophomore Durham Smythe and redshirt freshman Nic Weishar. Like Smythe and Weishar, he has good receiving skills, whereas Luatua and graduate student Chase Hounshell are viewed more as blocking-first tight ends.
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But that muddled depth chart is also a reason why Jones could be part of Notre Dame’s offensive picture this fall. In previous years, Kyle Rudolph, Tyler Eifert, Troy Niklas and Koyack were clear-cut No. 1 tight ends. That player doesn’t exist this year — Smythe is the only one of the five with a catch at the college level — and Kelly expects everyone from the unit to play.
“I can split out Alize Jones and still have two tight ends or maybe three tight ends,” Kelly said. “So it just gives us more versatility. Then on the next play I can be in a power set formation and going. You know, you better not be in nickel. You've got to go out and cover Jones or you've got to go out and cover Smythe with a linebacker. So versatility is what it gives you.”