Report: Irish setting up summer satellite camp in 2015

As the summer football camp becomes more and more important to a coaching staff’s recruiting, 247Sports is reporting that Notre Dame is planning a big move forward in their efforts.

According to Steve Wiltfong, 247’s Director of Recruiting, Notre Dame is working to set up a satellite football camp in the Atlanta area, teaming with Georgia State in the summer of 2015. Here’s more from Wiltfong’s report:

247Sports has confirmed that Notre Dame is currently working with Georgia State to work a satellite football camp in Atlanta during the summer of 2015. Sources indicate that this camp will indeed happen. Dallas and Los Angeles are two other cities that would be advantageous for the Irish to work satellite camps, with places like Orlando, Louisiana and Ohio also cities and states that could be good for ND as well. All are possibilities, it just depends on what colleges Notre Dame would work with. Georgia State head coach Trent Miles is a former assistant coach at Notre Dame and is an Indiana native.

This might not seem like a big deal from most fans’ perspective, but it’s another datapoint that Brian Kelly is serious about building his recruiting pipeline into Georgia, where a game with the Bulldogs is inching closer to fruition. The Irish aren’t the first to co-op a camp with Georgia State. James Franklin will take Penn State’s staff into the Atlanta area this summer. While NCAA rules allow coaches to hold camps within 50 miles of their campus, some SEC coaches have openly questioned this loophole, which allows a college coaching staff to work as guests of the host school. When asked about Franklin’s in-roads to his former conference, Georgia head coach Mark Richt thought it wasn’t in the spirit of the rule.

“To me, what I’m seeing is a loophole in that if another school sponsors a camp -- Georgia Camp featuring Penn State coaches -- or some Division II schools in Texas featuring Oklahoma’s coaches or Oklahoma State’s coaches or Texas’ coaches and then just barnstorming all around the place,” Richt said. “The rule says that everybody’s camp should be on their own institution, so it’s basically people finding a way around that rule. We think the rule was set for a reason and it ought to stay that way.”

The rich irony of SEC coaches crying foul when the spirit of a recruiting rule isn’t being followed shouldn’t be lost on anyone. (It certainly isn’t on Franklin or Brian Kelly.) And with Miles’ previous relationship with Notre Dame, and the mutual benefit earned by getting more talented recruits onto Georgia State’s campus, it’s a great idea for the Irish. Notre Dame works hard and spends a lot of money recruiting nationally. To be able to spend time in fertile recruiting grounds (as Wiltfong speculated, perhaps Dallas, Los Angeles or even Northern California are next) is a key piece of the puzzle.