Irish pick up Arkansas OT

After taking a visit to Notre Dame this weekend, Springdale, Ark. offensive tackle Bartley Webb has made it official and verbally committed to the Irish. What made the 6-foot-7, 290-pounder choose Notre Dame over offers from schools including Arkansas, Florida, Michigan, Texas, LSU, Oklahoma and Tennessee?

"Basically, that was the best place for me as an individual," he said. "Everything seemed to go and whenever I visited, I thought about going there. It was just an obvious decision. You can't beat Notre Dame's academics, a degree from Notre Dame is up there and prestigious with Harvard and Princeton. I'm looking to go into coaching so I'll possibly pursue Kinesiology or Education."

The coaches also had a lot to do with convincing Webb of going there.

"Coach Haywood, my recruiting coach, coach Latina, my position coach and coach Weis all stood out," he said. "I had a real good connection with coach Latina and seeing coach Weis's success at New England was unbelievable and then the fact that he's a straightforward guy and doesn't sugarcoat anything helps too. He told me, I'll tell you if you're good and I'll tell you if you're bad, I have a responsibility to you and the university and I respect him for that."

The three-star prospect is happy to have a decision behind him.

"Now I have nothing to worry about this year," he said. "I'm going to be working in the weight room to get in unbelievable shape and conditioning to head off to Notre Dame. They said I have a chance of playing early on the condition that I get in shape during the offseason and work in the weight room."

The No. 5 player in Arkansas is looking forward to helping out with some much needed depth in South Bend.

"I think I can bring knowledge of pass blocking as my high school team throws the ball a lot," he said. "I can also provide depth on the depth chart as I know they're really low on offensive linemen, they only have seven on scholarship."

The tackle plans to take in at least one game this season, but otherwise he'll surely watch the Irish on television.

"I haven't put much thought into a visit yet, but I'd like to go to the USC game if possible. It just depends on my schedule with my high school team," he said. "I'm going to really see this year how coach Weis's philosophy is being bought into by the players and see if it will be effective. I think it will be and I'm just going to be looking for promising features from the program and of course hoping Notre Dame beats everybody."

Webb should have no problem qualifying with a solid 19 ACT and 3.2 GPA.