Notre Dame Continues To Be A Top Program For Ta'Mere Robinson

With the long road back from a knee injury that cost him the latter stages of his junior season, Pittsburgh (Penn.) Brashear linebacker Ta’Mere Robinson has been a hot commodity on the recruiting trail. Notre Dame has been one of the main players who has kept close tabs on Robinson.

Working back to before the dead period, head coach Marcus Freeman made it a priority to get out to see him, along with a host of other top programs. The pursuit of the 6-4, 210-pound athlete is going to be a battle. His head coach at Brashear, Andrew Moore, have some insight into this tumultuous time for Ta’Mere.

“It was extremely hectic before the dead period,” explained Moore. “There were a lot of schools who made the trip to come meet with Ta’Mere. Marcus Freeman came through and had a great time meeting with him at the school.”

While the race for Robinson is still wide open, there has been a small group that has separated themselves from the pack. Worthy of note: each of those programs have also been dealing with some turnover on their coaching staff this off-season.

“Some of the main schools that have been in contact consistently are Notre Dame, Penn State, Clemson, Miami and Texas,” Moore explained. "It’s interesting because each of the schools have some type of change on the defensive side of the staff this off-season.”

When you evaluate each of the schools, defensive staff changes have made for some deep evaluation for Robinson. Relationship building is always a huge element of recruiting, and those coaching changes can make for some uncertainty.

With Freeman now the head coach, Notre Dame will be breaking in Al Golden as the new defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. Penn State, who Moore describes as being “right in their backyard”, are also replacing former defensive coordinator Brent Pry, who took the head coaching position with Virginia Tech.

Of course Clemson was tasked with replacing long time defensive coordinator Brent Venables, who took over at Oklahoma for the departed Lincoln Riley. The Hurricanes are bringing in a whole new coaching staff, which makes them a huge wildcard in this race, especially with Robinson’s relationship with Mike Rumph, who is the assistant Director of Recruiting for the team.

Texas is the lone program with not a ton of turnover on the defensive side of the ball but there appears to be some ground to be made up here, at least for now. The Longhorns do have a huge bonus with Brennan Marion coming on the staff as the passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach. Marion was the first to extend an offer to Robinson when he was at William & Mary at the time.

Keeping Freeman in the fold is obviously a huge layer for Notre Dame’s chances. The Irish also received another huge bonus this off-season for this recruitment specifically.

“Coach (Al) Washington was a huge get for Notre Dame," Moore noted. "He was someone who Ta’Mere had a relationship with while he was at Ohio State. I’m interested to see how that relationship continues to develop.”

Robinson is currently ranked as a consensus top 200 recruit by every major recruiting platform. He comes in as the No. 103 player according to On3. That includes being ranked as the No. 8 linebacker in the country and No. 2 player in the state of Pennsylvania.

On the field, it’s easy to understand why so many programs are enamored with Robinson. He is the type of moving chess piece who could assume a variety of roles for any defense.

“This type of versatility is special,” Moore explained. “He started at defensive back for us as a sophomore and even played some quarterback for us after we had an injury at the position. We can even ask him to punt. Ta’Mere can do anything you ask on the field.”

Depending on the snap, you could see Robinson playing as a traditional stacked linebacker, coming off the edge or working from depth in pass coverage as a de facto safety in the backend. His skill set allows him to do a lot.

“Obviously his size is big, it allows him to do so much," Moore explained. "He is the type of athlete that can work in space and he just loves to hit people.”

The next few months is going to be a huge stretch for Robinson’s recruitment. School visits this spring and summer are going to be a huge indicator of momentum on that front.

“I know Ta’Mere is still in the process of finalizing his visits,” Moore explained. “Notre Dame is a place he for sure wants to get to, especially after he had to cancel his trip to Junior Day last month because of the weather.”

On top of visiting South Bend, Robinson also wants to get down to both Clemson and Miami at a minimum. This stretch promises to be well traveled for the talented linebacker.

No matter what program ends up with Robinson, the enrollment plan remains the same. He hopes to make a huge impact early on at his prospective program.

“Ta’Mere is planning on graduating early so that he can enroll in January,” Moore said. “He obviously wants to have a decision made by that early signing day.”

This is going to be a battle but Notre Dame has separated themselves right near the top of the pack. The Irish will have every opportunity to close on this one if they make the push.

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