Dorcelus reacts to ND situation

The announcement of Ty Willingham's departure as head coach of Notre Dame surprised a lot of people and it's sure to impact a lot of the Irish's recruits. How did wide receiver Todd Dorcelus take the news?

"I was just shocked man. I didn't see that coming at all. You build a relationship with these coaches over a year or so and then something like this just hits you out of the blue. My coach told me the news today and I was just like, 'Are you sure? Are you kidding me?' I really liked Coach Willingham and I didn't think anything like this would happen.

"I actually thought they had a pretty good season. You can't judge their whole season based on that game against Southern Cal. I mean, they won the national championship last year and they're probably going to win it again this year. He was still building up something over there."

What was the 6-foot-1, 172-pound athlete's interest level in the Irish before the news broke, and how will it change his involvement with the school?

"That's funny, because I had actually just started talking to my coach about really building my grades up for a place like Notre Dame. I'm not saying I was going to commit there, but I was very interested in them.

"Now I just don't know where to go with them from here. I had gotten to know them so well, they offered me and this is just a huge step back. Notre Dame is still Notre Dame, but it's a tough situation. There will be a transition with the new staff, and that's going to be tough. I'll just try to get in touch with whoever is going to be on the new staff and see where things go from there."

Dorcelus has also recently scheduled a couple of official visits.

"This weekend I'm taking an official visit to UConn and then the weekend after that I should be at Indiana. I've got a couple of in-home visits with the coaches from those schools here this week and next. Right now I'm pretty much looking at UConn, Indiana, Minnesota, Boston College and Notre Dame, but obviously things are tough with them at the moment."

For a while the Irvington, N.J. prospect was planning on making his decision around Signing Day, but those plans have apparently changed too.

"I know I said I was going to wait things out, but I'm changing things up a little," he said. "I can't give you any specifics about schools or anything, because I'm not 100-percent. But I can tell you I'm not going to wait until Signing Day. I could have a decision in the next month or so. Talk to me after my visit this weekend or the next one and I might know a lot more."

On the season Dorcelus caught 40 passes for 659 yards and 10 touchdowns. He returned 19 kickoffs and punts for a combined 365 yards, putting him over the 1,000 yard mark for total yards on the year. Irvington finished with a 7-3 record.