Dawkins has favorite in mind

Brandon Dawkins has said that Notre Dame has jumped out as an early favorite, but so much can happen in his recruitment that it's far too early to make any commitment.

The 2014 quarterback from Westlake Village (Calif.) Oaks Christian currently has offers from both Notre Dame and Utah. He said that Alabama is showing a lot of interest, as well as USC and pretty much every school in the Pac-12 and SEC.

The Irish definitely hold an edge for Dawkins, who has already visited South Bend and seems enamored by everything the program has to offer.

"They've always been high on my radar for schools I want to go to," Dawkins said last week at the Army National Combine in San Antonio. "Just getting them to be my first offer was amazing. I had no clue it was coming.

"They showed up at practice and the next thing I called after practice and they offered. Having all that go down was amazing and a blessing to get interest like that from a big-time school. That was awesome."

Utah is clearly in the running as well, but even when Dawkins talks about his trip there, somehow the conversation gets turned back to Notre Dame.

"I took an unofficial (to Utah) a couple months ago," Dawkins said. "It was a lot of fun. It was a big win for their team and the crowd up there was crazy. It wasn't as crazy as Notre Dame. I haven't seen anything like Notre Dame yet, but it was fun going up there.

"When I went to see the USC-Notre Dame game it seemed like there were more Notre Dame fans there. I was like 'what the heck, it's crazy over there.'"

Alabama and USC are two other programs to watch for Dawkins, who was ranked as a four-star prospect by Rivals.com. He has visited both places already and seems to have a good feel for both programs.

Neither team has offered yet, but Dawkins has been encouraged by the communication.

"Alabama is sending me tons of mail every week," Dawkins said. "I went up there for the camp last year and I got a lot of interest and I went over summer to meet the coaches.

"It was amazing. Nick Saban just left so he wasn't there. Other than that it was great. The facilities were amazing and it was everything I expected.

"I've had contact with the (USC) coaches. I went to a couple USC games and talked to the quarterbacks coach and talked to coach (Ed) Orgeron. They said some pretty amazing things that shocked me. They said not to worry about the offer. It will all be coming in soon, so that was good. They said I'm the top quarterback in the class so to keep in contact."