Notre Dame Smart to Offer Scholarship to 6'5" Class of 2015 WR with NFL Speed

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are starting to get things rolling in their attempt to follow up the 2013 recruiting cycle with another dominant class in 2014, but there's already a 2015 recruit who's garnering some major attention.

In fact, he's garnering attention from quite a handful of notable programs as just a sophomore in high school.

George Campbell is this recruit's name, and to be fair, he deserves all the attention that he's getting. He checks in at 6'5'', 198 pounds and he's only a sophomore mind you. He also runs a 4.4 40-yard dash according to Rivals.com.

According to Jake Brown of IrishIllustrated.com, Notre Dame has offered the sophomore wideout:

“(Notre Dame) talked to my coach a lot and came down last spring and checked us out,” Campbell said. “They visited the school and talked to coach (Bob) Hudson I guess. Pretty much (Monday) they called coach Hudson and let him know I was offered.”

Campbell goes on to talk about what he likes about Notre Dame, per Brown:

“Pretty much they’re a private school and what an elite team it is,” Campbell said. “They made it to the national championship. Now it is blown up with the whole Manti Te’o thing basically coming up but that really doesn’t matter. It happened. Then pretty much academics stand out with that school.”

Notre Dame is making a smart move by extending an early offer to Campbell. He already has offers from the likes of Florida, Florida State, Michigan, Georgia and Ohio State amongst other according to his 247Sports interest/offer list, so it's important for the Fighting Irish to make an impression early on.

If the trend continues, he's going to be one of the more sought after recruits in the 2015 class, so getting his attention early on is an extremely wise strategy by the Fighting Irish. In many instances, it's the first programs that offer that really stand out in the mind of a recruit, so Notre Dame can couple the early offer with the success of the football program and the draw of the school—and at the very least the Fighting Irish should have a good pitch when it comes down to crunch time. 

Campbell already has the height to be a huge mismatch at the college level as a wideout, but it's that height combined with his speed that's going to set him apart. At least for now, that has to be a huge reason so many schools are interested in him.

With the NFL Scouting combine a hot topic right now, let's compare Campbell's speed to a few college wideouts trying to earn their way to a high draft pick.

At a 4.4 according to Rivals, Campbell would rank as the sixth best 40 time amongst wideouts at the combine, running faster than notable players like Denard Robinson of Michigan, Cordarrelle Patterson of Tennessee and Corey Fuller of Virginia Tech.

This is speed that should only improve, as he very well could get faster with more experience and technique. There's also the fact that Campbell runs track, which will only help his speed.

The big thing to take away from Brown's report on IrishIllustrated.com is the fact that Campbell's recruitment is wide open, and it's probably going to be a while before we start to see his interest list really take shape.

It is worth noting that his teammate, junior 4-star guard Mason Cole, just committed to Michigan, so Notre Dame's offer becomes even more important in an effort to prevent an impending pipeline for Michigan. 

Either way though, Notre Dame made the right move by offering early. The statement that offer makes could end up being a huge factor in the Fighting Irish's favor in the long run.