Styles Prescod Making The Early Enrollee Adjustment At Notre Dame
Making the move from high school to college is a big transition for anyone. Making that transition in the middle of your senior year of high school, while becoming more and more common for college football players, still adds a different degree of difficulty.
Styles Prescod is one of Notre Dame’s 15 early enrollees who arrived on campus in January. The Fishers, Ind native has handled the transition in stride in his first few weeks on campus.
"It’s been great,” Prescod said during his first interview as a member of the Irish program. "I’ve been having a good time adjusting to the workouts, getting to talk with the guys, meeting them, start building relationships with my teammates. Classes have been going good as well.”
Besides more rigorous college coursework, the most important early introduction to college football for Prescod, an offensive tackle, has been his introduction to new Fighting Irish Director of Football Performance Loren Landow’s winter conditioning program. The tempo is accelerated in comparison to what Prescod had at Hamilton Southeastern High School.
"I think the biggest thing is the pace,” Prescod said. "Just the tempo of the workouts whether you’re running or in the weight room, there are not many breaks. You get water here and there, but getting into it everybody is pushing each other. That’s probably the biggest difference. In high school you could have some guys that don’t take it that serious but everyone is here to get better and here to work.”
Like Prescod, Landow is new to Notre Dame after being hired to fill the position that was vacated by Matt Balis last summer. Landow’s personality and style have caught Prescod’s attention in the short amount of time they have been together this winter.
"His energy,” Prescod said when asked what stands out about Landow. "He is a very personable guy. He talks to everybody. He knows everybody by name. So, he’s definitely putting in the effort and the work to get to know us. But I mainly say his energy. I love his energy.”
The offensive lineman is officially listed at 6-6, 273 pounds on Notre Dame’s spring roster. His goal is to be around 285-290 this spring. Where his playing weight ends up in the future is up to offensive line coach Joe Rudolph.
"Whatever Rudolph needs me at,” Prescod remarked. "I’m open to playing wherever. If that means I top out super high or he doesn’t want me to put on that much weight, whatever he needs me to play, that’s the weight I’m going to be at.”
Former Irish offensive line coach Harry Hiestand started Prescod’s recruitment, but Hiestand retired last year after Tommy Rees left to become Alabama’s offensive coordinator. Rudolph took over his recruitment after taking over the offensive line.
“They made the whole transition pretty smooth,” Prescod said of the transition from Hiestand to Rudolph during his recruitment. “It started with Coach (Marcus) Freeman. He made sure to let me know I was a priority here for him. So when Rudolph came, nothing changed. The interest was still the same. It was just a different guy and a new person to meet.”
The involvement of Director of Recruiting, Chad Bowden, was key to the continuity of Prescod’s recruitment as well.
"My first interaction with him was my junior day,” Prescod recalled. "So, about a year ago. I was up here. Another energy guy. Very personable too. Fun to talk to. He’s a funny guy. Chad’s a great guy.
"When you’re recruiting, there are some guys you’re talking to like, ‘Ah, yeah, they’re here recruiting.’ Obviously, he’s doing his job,” Prescod continued. "But it feels more personable. It feels like a personal connection. He goes out of the way to talk to family and things like that too. When someone has a good vibe it just makes the place more fun. The energy he brings to Notre Dame and the recruiting staff is great.”
Prescod is one of three early enrollee offensive linemen on the Irish roster this spring. Anthonie Knapp and Peter Jones enrolled at mid-semester as well. Guerby Lambert will round out the freshman offensive line class when he arrives at Notre Dame for summer workouts.
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