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Lake Taylor's Ewell Chooses Irish

Lake Taylor four-star lineman Darnell Ewell made his college choice on Friday at a press conference held at the Norfolk school, giving a verbal commitment to Head Coach Brian Kelly and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Rated #125 overall in the nation by Rivals and eighth at his position for the Class of 2017, Ewell selected the Irish after trimming his list of more than 40 offers down to five schools. His other finalists were Alabama, Clemson, Michigan and Ohio State.

The 6-foot-4, 295-pound Ewell visited Notre Dame on June 24th. That was sandwiched in between trips to both Michigan and Ohio State, where a couple of his former teammates - Jalyn Holmes and Wayne Davis - currently play.

Plenty appealed to Ewell, who holds a 3.7 GPA, about Notre Dame. Not only have the Fighting Irish won 11 National Championships, they’ve produced 99 consensus All-Americans and seven Heisman trophy winners. What drew him to them the most?

“The academic side,” Ewell told Rivals.com’s Mike Farrell at the Five-Star Challenge. “It really is tremendous. With that school, you’ve got connections worldwide.”

Ewell is the 16th commitment in the Class of 2017 for Notre Dame and ninth prospect with a four-star rating. He's also just the third football prospect in the past 16 years from Hampton Roads to choose the Irish, following the likes of Hampton's Carlos Campbell (2001) and Salem's Isaiah Gardner (2003) from Virginia Beach.

"Darnell is a big, strong kid and has a lot of upside to him. He's a two-time All-State football player on both sides of the ball. He's got a high-motor and a high-energy," declared Lake Taylor Head Football Coach Hank Sawyer.

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Lake Taylor four-star lineman Darnell Ewell will play his College Football at Notre Dame (Matthew Hatfield)

In six seasons under Kelly, the Irish have gone 55-23 with three bowl victories. It's rare for some players from Virginia to pick Notre Dame over other major suitors, be it in-state or out-of-state. But Ewell is a different breed

"He grew up liking Notre Dame and I don't think he even believed he would get the offer because he told me from time to time over the last two years, 'Coach, I would like to get that Notre Dame offer.' I said to him, 'Well, is that where you're going to go to school?' He said, 'Well, I'm not necessarily saying that, but I've always liked what they stood for,'" recalled Sawyer.

"They didn't want to offer too early because they really wanted to evaluate his tape to make sure he is what people say he is. All of us old guys who are 50 years old or older know what it means because Notre Dame football used to be elite."

In 2015, Ewell took his game to another level on defense with 63 total tackles from the defensive tackle spot along with 15 stops for loss, four sacks and a touchdown. That appears to be where he will play at the next level as opposed to offensive guard.

"He wants to play defensive football and he has that type of desire that it calls for," Sawyer believes. "He plays both ways for me, but when he goes to college if he plays one way, not so much as far as being in shape as just having to concentrate on one position, he'll have a chance to be phenomenal. They don't come around like him every day."

Ewell will look to help the Titans reach the State Championship for the fourth time in five years in 2016 and capture the program’s third title.


Matthew Hatfield
has covered football and basketball since 2004 for VirginiaPreps.com, part of the Rivals.com Network, and is a staff writer for Tar Heel Illustrated. Check out Hatfield’s Twitter page for more sports related updates, and you can also read his work in the Suffolk News Herald. To contact Matthew, please e-mail hatfieldsports2k4@yahoo.com, and don’t forget to listen to him every Saturday at 10 AM on ESPN Radio 94.1, plus watch him on the Cox 11 Sports Report.

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