Diggins has impact on ND football recruiting

Freshman football players Jarron Jones and Ronnie Stanley started
their first summer session of classes at Notre Dame on Monday.

They had moved into their rooms for the summer and started to
acclimate themselves to life on college campus.

On the morning of their first classes, both hit a mini-milestone of
sorts — they saw Irish women’s basketball star Skylar Diggins on
campus.

“Got class right across the hall from Skylar Diggins
#winningtothemax,” Jones tweeted.

Minutes later, Stanley followed suit.

“Skylar Diggins sighting !!” he tweeted.

The two future Notre Dame football players aren’t the first to raise
attention to the campus celebrity of Diggins. High school football
recruits account for a small part of the thousands of Twitter mentions
Diggins gets on her Twitter account @SkyDigg4. But does the national
popularity of Diggins help the Notre Dame football staff in
recruiting?

It may be small, but some say yes.

Diggins attended the Blue-Gold Game this past spring and recruits were
buzzing about getting the chance to take photos with her.

Freshman running back Will Mahone ran into Diggins that day. He spoke
with Diggins briefly and took a picture with her.

“My mom like ran up to her, and she was real nice about it,” Mahone
said. “Some people probably would be annoyed with stuff like that. She
was definitely really cool and really nice.”

Mahone, who verbally committed to play football at Notre Dame last
September, said when people talk to him about the school, it’s
football first, then Diggins second. He posted his photo with Diggins
on Facebook and got 50-plus “likes” on the update.

“Everyone was like ‘Oh, Skylar Diggins! Do you know her? Did you talk
to her? Did you hang out with her?’ ” Mahone said.

He left the game impressed by Diggins’ support for the football team.

“It definitely helps the program and says a lot about her character
that she cares about the school and isn’t really self-centered,”
Mahone said.

When athletes are deciding between schools, they usually mention the
school’s academics, facilities or graduation rate. But Mahone believes
that knowing that women like Diggins are on Notre Dame’s campus plays
a role in some decisions.

“When you pick a college, you want to know what people you’re going to
be around, because you’re going to be around there for a long time,”
Mahone said.

“It probably plays a bigger role than people think.”

Notre Dame 2013 commits James Onwualu, Devin Butler and Malik Zaire
also encountered Diggins during the Blue-Gold weekend.

The Friday before the game, Onwualu and Zaire ran into Diggins as she
was waiting to get help after leaving her keys in her dorm. Onwualu
pointed her out to Zaire and didn’t want to miss the opportunity to
talk to her.

“The first day I saw her I don’t think she really knew who I was,”
Onwualu said. “She was even in a bad mood for forgetting her keys back
in her room, but she was still cool with everything. She actually sat
there and talked to me for a little bit. She was really inviting both
the times that I saw her.”

Later that evening, Diggins tweeted: “Just met a couple ND recruits
... young men were very polite haha.”

A follower then replied to Diggins asking if she knew if Notre Dame
coaches used her name as a recruiting tool.

“I’ve done my fair share of recruiting,” Diggins responded.

Butler heard that Onwualu and Zaire saw Diggins and made it a goal of
his to see her the Saturday of the game. He met her that day and took
a picture with her as well.

The quality is blurry at best, and Onwualu can be seen making a goofy
face in the background, but Butler tweeted out the picture twice out
of excitement.

“When we saw her there, she was like, ‘Everybody’s on board.
Everybody’s committed, right?’ Tying up the loose ends,” Butler said.

Butler said Diggins was taking photos with everyone and was a real
crowd-pleaser.

“It really just shows the level of character that Notre Dame builds in
their students and their athletes,” Butler said. “It’s a very special
thing. It’s one of the most special things about Notre Dame — the
camaraderie among the community.”