Mitch Jeter Ready For Some Big Kicks At Notre Dame

Recruiting has been tremendous under Marcus Freeman since he came to Notre Dame. This offseason, we have seen a big push to maximize and hit the transfer portal at a higher volume. The team has brought in some tremendous players, and some other extremely underrated ones.

One of the most important pickups that won’t be talked about enough is place kicker Mitch Jeter, who was a tremendous specialist for South Carolina over the last few seasons. During his time with the Gamecocks, Jeter nailed 92 percent of his field goals while handling kickoff duties as well. Jeter just made it to South Bend permanently this week and is excited about continuing that transition.

"It's great to be here and the transition is going really well,” Jeter told Irish Breakdown. "Moving in the past couple of days has been pretty smooth. I went to a couple of stores around town, made sure I had all my stuff of everything I needed for my room and am just ready to get started.”

Jeter was welcomed in South Bend by snow, which is something he isn’t very used to growing up and playing in the Carolinas. Otherwise, Notre Dame isn’t too steep of a transition. It is already a place he is getting more and more comfortable at.

"It's definitely different,” Jeter explained. "Snow in North Carolina is few and far between. So getting up here and already seeing snow on the ground was definitely a change, but it's good. I think the weather is probably the biggest difference. Culturally, I think it's pretty similar, at least where I'm coming from. I'm right north of Charlotte. We kind of had some similarities there.”

The North Carolina native is now going to have the chance to work with Marty Biagi, who is considered one of the more well respected special teams coaches in all of college football. He also worked with a couple greats in South Carolina in Pete Lembo and Shane Beamer. Being around those types of football minds is something that Jeter does not take for granted.

"It’s a big credit to Coach Beamer and Coach Lembo at South Carolina,” explained Jeter. "Obviously, those guys have great special teams minds and helped us really be successful and really build our team off of our success on special teams at South Carolina. I'm thankful for those guys, thankful for every opportunity that they gave me.

"Then to be able to come to Notre Dame and be able to work with Coach Biagi, it's definitely a really cool opportunity,” he continued. "It’s going to be a really cool experience because not only was he a place kicker and punter in college, so he has that knowledge already.”

Obviously Jeter’s time at South Carolina really prepared him for this month. It was his tireless work ethic that eventually gave him the opportunity to wear the blue and gold, and continue on a great academic track.

"At South Carolina, I was able to be a part of a really big time special teams unit over the past, for three years under their new coaching staff,” he said. "My goal is to eventually play in the NFL down the road. I wanted to give myself the best opportunity to do that while also taking everything I can in from college football at the same time.

"At South Carolina, I graduated in December,” Jeter added. "I had the opportunity to graduate early from there with a biological sciences bachelor's degree. I ended up hopping into the portal and kind of to see what was out there for me for my final year of college football. With everything that's changing in college football, it was something that I really wanted to explore and kind of put my name out there to see if I could give myself an opportunity to come play at a big-time school like Notre Dame.”

Despite playing a position that gets undervalued regularly, there was a massive demand for Jeter once he landed in the portal. Being able to be around the Irish staff, as well as understanding the overall brand, it became a bit of a no brainer for him.

"Out of all the schools that I was interested in that had mutual interest in me, Notre Dame was probably the best option for me from a kicking standpoint, as well as still being relatively close to my family,” Jeter stated. "I wanted them to still be able to come and watch my games. It was something that I saw in Notre Dame and Coach (Marcus) Freeman and the staff here and what they were building with the culture in this team that really wants to excel and be a great team with great leadership and hopefully get a chance to go compete for national championships.”

Jeter will be a master program focused on business. There are a couple ways he could take that degree, either business or sports analytics. Still, he is most excited for what he can accomplish on the football field this fall. He will have the chance to make some high pressure kicks in some big situations.

"Obviously playing for Notre Dame, you have a big time standard and a big time reputation to maintain,” Jeter said. "So being able to come out here and still be on a big stage is big. Obviously playing in the SEC, you're playing in pretty much packed houses every single week.

"I expect really nothing different coming up here to Notre Dame,” he added. "There's always opportunities. I try to think every kick is a pretty big kick because any kick can affect any outcome. Whether that's in the first quarter, in the fourth quarter, I try to treat them all the same and not really take the game situation into like too much of my thought process or anything going into the kick.”

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