In a Zoom meeting with members of the media on Wednesday afternoon, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said a sense of or even return to normalcy from the global COVID-19 pandemic remains when it comes to recruiting. The NCAA has mandated a “dead period” through May 31. That means a college coach may not have face-to-face contact with college-bound prospects or their parents, nor watch the prospects compete or visit their high schools (not that it matters now with all schools on lockdown).

Will summer on-campus recruiting visits occur this June, or will shutdown mode remain? (NotreDame.edu)

What coaches are permitted to do is write and telephone student-athletes or their parents during a dead period. “Head down, really working hard on relationship building, be it through written correspondence, texts, social media, FaceTime, Zoom meetings, we are using all the platforms that are available to us,” Kelly said. “We’re really able to dig deep on what our distinctions are, what separates us. We’re utilizing our faculty and our support staff, we’re utilizing all the necessary means to tell our story of what our unique distinctions are at Notre Dame.

“This time in respite has given us that opportunity to really dig deep into this recruiting process, not knowing exactly what it’s going to look like in June and July.”

Regardless, nothing can replace or simulate the actual on-campus experience that comes from an official visit, where Notre Dame has tentatively arranged a couple of weekends in June — assuming the NCAA does not extend the dead period beyond May. The first is the weekend of June 12-14.

Four of Notre Dame’s current seven verbal commits for the 2021 recruiting cycle are scheduled to be in: four-star Indiana offensive lineman Blake Fisher, four-star Missouri defensive lineman Gabriel Rubio, three-star Illinois safety Justin Walters and recent three-star Texas defensive end David Abiara.

The other three verbals — four-star California quarterback Tyler Buchner, four-star Georgia tight end Cane Berrong and four-star Ohio wide receiver Lorenzo Styles — could likely join them that weekend. Five others, per BlueandGold.com’s Mike Singer, are slated to be in as well, headlined by highly coveted four-star North Carolina running back Will Shipley. Whether those June visits will shake out will not be known, or more formally addressed, until about five weeks from now and where the pandemic is at that time. “May 15 will be a day where we start to discuss whether there are the [recruiting] opportunities, whether they will exist, to do some selective things on campus,” Kelly stated. “If there is a chance to do some things, then they’ll be investigated as such. “No decision has been made that we have to cancel at this point … we want to leave open the opportunity for June and July if the NCAA does say that is an open opportunity.”