Notre Dame football: Irish make noise on recruiting front while away at camp

MARION, Ind. — While the Notre Dame football team continued to quietly make strides at its temporary off-campus hideaway, the program’s biggest news of the day came from way, way off campus.

On Wednesday the nation’s consensus top defensive end prospect in the senior class chopped his unwieldy list of suitors to seven, and the Irish made the cut. Lorenzo Carter, a 6-foot-5, 235-pound senior from Norcross (Ga.) High School, also included Alabama, Georgia, Florida, LSU, Oregon and Florida State.

Carter identified the Gators as the team to beat.

On Notre Dame: "They're a prestigious school all around,” he told Rivals.com. “I'm interested in engineering, and their program is awesome. I see them coming back and competing for a national championship."

Rivals rates Carter as the nation’s top defensive end, the top overall prospect in Georgia and the No. 5 prospect nationally regardless of position. 247Sports also ranks Carter as the nation’s top defensive end and has him No. 4 overall.

The Irish 2014 recruiting class currently has verbal commitments from 17 players.

Meanwhile, at the Shiloh Park Retreat and Convention Center, the current Irish team went through day three of fall training camp and the first in shoulder pads. Linebacker Dan Fox’s interception was apparently one of the highlights — to everyone but him.

“It was kind of lucky.” he told und.com. “I just jumped up and stuck my arm out, and it just stuck. So I guess it was the equipment guy’s nice gloves he gave me. It certainly wasn’t anything I did.”

Irish head coach Brian Kelly talked to the team about toughness in his theme du jour. The Irish conclude their Shiloh Park experiment Thursday, with practice No. 5 scheduled for late Friday morning back on the Notre Dame campus.

Preseason 11th-ranked Notre Dame opens the season Aug. 31 at home against Temple.