When you speak of the recruiting activities of the University of Notre Dame, you have to specify whether you are talking about football or basketball. For football fans, Notre Dame football recruiting is of great interest because they want to know all about the players that have signed on with the team for the coming season. The 2008 football season promises to be an interesting one, with the following players having already signed a contract with the team:

- Alex Bullard of Brentwood, California in the offensive tackle position

- Carlo Calabrese from Vernon, New Jersey playing in the linebacker position

- Dan Fox of Cleveland, Ohio, is also a linebacker

- Jake Golic from West Hartford, Connecticut, will play the tight end

- Theo Riddick of Somersville, New Jersey in the running back position

- Tyler Stockton from Princeton, New Jersey, will play defensive tackle

- Cierre Wood from Oxnard, California, will also be a running back

In addition, Notre Dame has recruited and made an offer to thirty-one other players and are still awaiting responses. Of all the offers they made to high school students in an attempt to recruit them to the University of Notre Dame to be part of the class of 2008 and members of the team, sixteen have declined and accepted offers at other universities. They will be some of the opponents that the team will be facing in the games of the upcoming football season.

Of the players that Notre Dame has recruited and signed, Cierre Wood is one of the highest rated running backs from high school football leagues to commit to Notre Dame in recent years. Tyler Stockton, although recruited and signed, won be playing for the team this year. He does have a higher rating than the defensive linemen of the previous season, with the exception of Ethan Jackson. Before he accepted the offer from the Fighting Irish, Alex Bullard had offers from four other universities, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida and Michigan.

This will give you some idea of how great a player he is. Jake Golic is following in his father footsteps by attending Notre Dame and playing on the football team. Both his father and his uncle are alumnae of the university and were both football players.

In order to recruit the best players for the team, Notre Dame has a team of scouts along with the coaching staff. These scouts attend football games at the various high schools throughout the country and interview players that show promise. When they find a player that has the skills and talents they are looking for, then they present an offer to the player to entice them to sign a contract with the university. This often includes a scholarship to pay for tuition and other bonuses.

The players not only need to have talent on the football field, but they must also be good academic students in order to keep up with their class work, practices and game schedules. High school students who excel at football know that there may be a scout or two in the stands and therefore always try to play their best game to live out their dream of becoming a professional.