Notre Dame Football: DT Ja’mion Franklin Talks About Contact From Notre Dame

Watch Ja’mion Franklin’s film and tell me he’s a 2 star.

Go ahead. I’ll call you crazy.

Franklin has a lot of what you want in a defensive tackle recruit. Size, quickness, tenacity, solid technique and a huge motor.

What’s really great is that behind his massive exterior and impressive skill is a very intelligent, well spoken young man who boasts a 3.47 GPA.

He has caught the attention of the Notre Dame football staff.

I spoke with him last night and right off the hop, I mentioned that I had just watched his film and couldn’t understand his low rankings. Here’s how he responded.

“I don’t either man. It’s all good though. I have no problem being an underdog. I’ve been an underdog all my life and I’m finally seeing my hard work pay off, so it’s all good.”

I asked Franklin how his recruiting was going so far and who has been giving him the most attention.

“I have 11 offers so far. I’m getting a lot of interest from three of the schools so far. I’d say Virgina is pretty heavy, Rutgers and Temple as of late.”

He then mentioned his contact with Notre Dame.

“I’ve been talking to Coach Elko, Coach Lea and the D line coach Mike Elston as well. I’ve been talking to them, called them and talked to them about my film and I’m working on getting up there for a visit.”

He gushed about the Notre Dame staff. He spoke about how things went and what they spoke about.

“They’re great guys, just from having conversations with them on the phone. They’re very well spoken. It’s nice to have conversations with them and it just keeps going and doesn’t stop. They talk about their past and past jobs and everything. I’m really interested to get up there and talk face to face with those guys.”

"“Mike Elston is awesome, two of the best worlds – recruiting and coaching the D line.”"

Franklin is a massive young man. So big, he wasn’t allowed to play as a youngster.

“This will be my fifth year. I was always too big, I guess they used to say, when I was little, to play with guys my age. So my first year was the 7th grade. I’ve been playing ever since then.”

"“I didn’t know that I was too big to play football but I guess that’s how it goes down here.”"

Ja’mion is really excited about his high school program, North Caroline High School. He spoke to me about his expectations for next season.

“We’re loaded. We’ve got me and this stud running back David Bailey and we’re going to be the leaders. We’ve got a pretty good team returning. Our JV team went undefeated for the second year in a row.”

“We lost in the region title game but with our leadership and us two highly recruited guys, the guys will look up to us and work hard in the weight room and we can pull it off this year. I want to go out with a bang.”

Considering his high GPA, I figured he takes academics seriously. He explained.

“Definitely. The mind last way longer than the body. Football has to end sometime so I’ve really learned that to be a reason so I really want a meaningful degree for when it’s all said and done with and I have to hang up the cleats.”

I asked Franklin what his visit plans looked like and when he was planning on making the trip from Maryland.

“I’m working on the spring. Me and my coach are going to look at some spring practice dates and work on getting up there for that. I definitely want to get up there and get a feel for their coaching style and interact with the players and get the whole tradition feel for Notre Dame.”

It won’t be his first university visit. Ja’mion told me about other visits he’s been on.

“I’ve been to 4 so far. I was at Temple on Monday for a junior day. I went to Syracuse and Maryland. I also went to Virginia but it wasn’t for a junior day.”

I asked him what his overall impression is of Notre Dame.

“It’s Notre Dame man. It’s a prestigious academic school. There’s very few schools that compare to Notre Dame as far as football tradition. It’s an honor having interest from them.”

To close, I asked him how much he’s weighing in at and if he has an idea of what weight he would like to be at going into university.

“Right now, I’d say I’m about 310. For my size, I feel that I’m pretty quick so that’s probably going to be the weight I maintain. If not, I’m probably going to stay around 300 or 290. It all depends on how I feel.”

Here is Ja’mion Franklin’s junior season highlights

I was impressed with how concise, prepared and focused Ja’mion Franklin was. He seems to be very self-aware of what kind of football player he is and where he wants to be.

Notre Dame will continue their recruiting process with Franklin.

He certainly has their attention.

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