Golic is a Go | by Pat

Another year, another Golic. After his brother kicked things off last year, Jake Golic accepted a scholarship offer on the spot and became ND's first public commit of the 2009 recruiting class. It was more or less expected that Jake would commit assuming he got an offer and Jake didn't deny it in the least.

"I wasn't waiting for offers. I was waiting for Notre Dame the whole time. I couldn't really care what happened besides that. I was just waiting for Notre Dame to come."

A self-reported 6'5" 220 pounds, Golic played tight end as well as a bit of wide receiver last year, but will come to South Bend as a tight end. His other official listed scholarship offer was from the home state UConn Huskies, although he reportedly had been receiving interest from a number of other programs. Last season Golic hauled in 410 yards and 2 touchdowns on 21 receptions,

Neither rivals.com nor scout.com have ranked him yet, but he did receive some praise last year during the camp and combine circuit. The summer before his junior year, he was named 1st Team Nike Underclass All-American at the conclusion of the national Nike camps. Later in the year he was listed as an Honorable Mention WR/TE at this past winter's US Army All-American Combine (the only TE who made the list). Check out this highlight video for clips of him both at the Nike camp and playing for Northwest Catholic this past fall.

With Mike Ragone, Kyle Rudolph, and Joseph Fauria all having at least two years left when Golic gets on campus, Jake won't need to be pressed into service and will have time to add weight and strength. In the meantime, he will help get the ball rolling on the 2009 recruiting class.

Taking a look at scholarship numbers for the latest recruiting class, if you add up the players who will have eligibility left for the 2009 season, approximately 69 of the available 85 scholarships will be accounted for. That leaves about 16 open scholarships for the latest recruiting class. That number will go up likely due to natural attrition or if any of the five eligible 5th year seniors (Sharpley, Schwapp, Hord, Washington, McCarthy) do not return. In all likelihood, Notre Dame's 2009 recruiting class will number around 20 players.