Rivals250 RB Holyfield talks Irish trip, official plans

Almost every time his name is mentioned, Class of 2016 Rivals250 running back Elijah Holyfield is asked about his father, former world heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield. But until last month, the former world champ had never escorted his son on a recruiting trip. That changed when the duo visited Notre Dame to take in a spring practice.

"I went up there with my dad and it was a pretty cool visit," Holyfield said. "I had a good time, I had a chance to get a feel for it and see what it's like in terms of football and academics."

While the younger Holyfield is a veteran of on-campus visits, his said his dad was blown away on his first college trip.

"Everybody is always amazed on their first visit and it was the first college he's been to with me so he loved it," Holyfield said. "I'll take him to a couple more because I do want him to be a part of it and be comfortable with the place I'm going so he has some input. He really liked it up there."

During the visit the Holyfields got a first-hand look at a practice and had a chance to meet with coaches about how Elijah would fit into the Irish offense.

"They said they think I would fit in well," Holylfield said. "They think I can do everything and I can be an every down back for them. I got to watching practices and seeing what the running backs do and I'll be very interested to see how the running backs do this fall."

At practice, Holyfield kept a close eye on how the team's current players interacted with the staff and he said he came away impressed.

"I liked it a lot," Holyfield said. "It was my kind of style of practice. Players are self-motivated and there's not too much yelling. It's more on the player to know what to do and where to be and they're well coached so it's a smooth practice. I'm a self-motivated player, I don't need anybody to yell at me."

While touring campus and the facilities, Holyfield said he got a look at the program's storied football tradition.

"I think the tradition thing is pretty cool," he said. "With all the schools up north, they're big on tradition. I think that was pretty cool. They showed me a lot of stuff, all the past coaches, all the players they've put in the NFL and stuff like that."

Holyfield has talked in the past about potentially staying close to home and he admitted that it's going to take a special school to lure him out of the Southeast.

"Being far is not the problem, I just don't see point of going further from home unless they have something different to offer," he said. "If they have something that a school down south doesn't have, then it won't be a problem for me to go away from home. That's why I'm visiting schools like Notre Dame, USC, Oregon; I want to see those schools that have something different. Because if I can get the same thing close to home, why not just stay around here?"

With several trips already in the books and his own spring practice around the corner, Holyfield said he's starting to think about narrowing his list of possible options.

"I'm going to let all the coaches come in and stuff like that during then take a look at my options and narrow it down to five," he said.

Holyfield said he knows three programs that will make the cut for an official visit and his top five for sure, and said the Irish are in the mix for that distinction as well.

"It's between Notre Dame and a couple of other schools for my final two official visits," Holyfield said. "I know Tennessee, Florida and Auburn are schools that for sure will be getting official visits and then three more schools that are kind of in the race for the top five. They're in it, I'll just have to see."