Tate has a golden trip to South Bend

Notre Dame had a big official visit weekend and one of the players making the trip to South Bend was Hendersonville (Tenn.) Pope John Paul II athlete Golden Tate. The 5-foot-11, 175-pounder enjoyed his trip, but was it enough to get him to commit to the Irish?

"The visit went really well and I love the tradition there," he said. "I got there on Friday and basically they showed me the campus, the traditional things they do on gameday and the field. I also was able to meet all the coaches and hang out with some of the players.

"I can say I was really impressed with the facilities there. They are really nice and I like the way they are set up. They've got the old school tradition and it looks all churchlike. I like that."

On the trip, Tate was hosted by George West.

"I liked him a lot, he kind of is like me," he stated. "He plays a bunch of positions. I was also able to hang out with quite a few other players too including James Aldridge, Demetrius Jones and Sergio Brown. They all basically told me if I want to get a great education and go to a BCS championship game every year, this is the place I needed to be."

As for the coaches, the four-star prospect talked to most of them.

"I got to talk to coach Ianello, Oliver, Minter and Charlie Weis," he said. "They told me that they'll let me play baseball and I should get a chance to come in and play right away if I work hard and my skill level is there. They also did state they are recruiting me as a running back, but since I'm versatile enough they'd look at me as a wide receiver too. Basically they told me that coach Weis will put me wherever he thinks I can play early.

"Towards the end of the visit, I was able to talk to coach Weis one-on-one. He told me all the facts about the school, education and sports program. Nothing really stood out, all the coaches basically answered my questions the same."

So is Tate close to committing?

"Everything stood out and I liked it a lot," he said. "Since I've visited there they are obviously on top of everybody, but I'm going to take some more visits and we'll see how those go. I know I do have a trip planned to South Carolina on January 19th. I'm still working on visits to Florida, Vanderbilt and Alabama."