Dickerson addresses ND situation

Matt Dickerson heeded the advice of his coach at San Mateo (Calif.) Junipero Serra not to pick a school solely based on coaches.

The four-star defensive end is happy he listened.

Notre Dame recently had some assistant coaches leave to take head coaching jobs including defensive coordinator Bob Diaco but Dickerson, who's been committed to the Irish since early August, said his decision will not be influenced by the moves.

The 6-foot-5, 260-pound standout called Diaco's departure "unfortunate" but Dickerson doesn't plan to reopen his recruitment.

"When I made my decision I didn't have it based on coaches because my head football coach at Serra always said coaches are a little bit of the added bonus," Dickerson said. "You want to be able to fall in love with the school and when I chose Notre Dame I fell in love with the school. The coaches there were just an added bonus to the school.

"I fell in love with the players. They're going to be there and the academics and everything like that. When I heard about Diaco I said it was unfortunate he was going to leave but Notre Dame is still going to be Notre Dame. I took his advice. I looked into it and I'm glad I made the decision based off that. I don't think anything is going to change."

Some schools might see this as an opening to start recruiting Dickerson again but the four-star promises he's not looking at others.

UCLA is showing the most interest in the Northern California prospect but Dickerson said he plans to stick with his Notre Dame commitment.

"I'm pretty much locked in," Dickerson said. "When I made my decision, I made my decision. UCLA continues to recruit me but I'm pretty strong with Notre Dame. Nothing is really going to change."