Max Redfield: Notre Dame or USC
By Nick Combs
November 24, 2012; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Southern California Trojans head coach Lane Kiffin meets with Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly following the 22-13 loss at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
There have been reports that it has come down to Notre Dame or the University Southern California. He visited USC this past weekend and one of his old high school teammates, Tre Madden gave him a tour. Where will Max Redfield play football next fall? What is the best fit for him? His decision will be made during the Under Armor game on January 5th. Rivals.com reports that he is torn 50/50 between the schools at this point. He is very focused on academics and wants that to be an important part of his decision as well. Both Notre Dame (17th) and USC (24th) are ranked in the top 25 by U.S. News for academics, but Notre Dame is slightly better.
Playing time is a factor to all players, because they are accustomed to being the best player on their high school, middle school, and pee wee teams they always played a lot of minutes. Redfield would have a better chance of playing early at Notre Dame. While USC will be graduating two safeties they have two other guys that received a lot of playing time at the safety position this season. Notre Dame loses Motta, which won’t be an easy spot to fill. Matthias Farley will more than likely move over to Motta’s old spot and that would leave room for a competition for the other safety spot. Nicky Baratti has gotten some playing time this year and has played decently well. Max Redfield would be the better athlete out of the two, but it will come down to practice performance. There isn’t a lock for Redfield getting playing time for either team, but he will have better odds at Notre Dame simply because the secondary depth is so thin. Then again he could turn out to be a better college corner than safety, but that would put him behind Russell and Jackson.
Redfield has connections over at USC, two of them being guys he went to high school with and played football with. The factor that Notre Dame has a leg up on now is that Coach Kelly has had a home visit with Redfield’s parents, but Lane Kiffin will soon be doing the same sometime soon. Max was quoted in an article on rivals.com saying that his parents “liked him a lot.” Will it come down to his parents influence? I think it comes down to playing time and the coach. This would be Notre Dame’s 3rd 5 star recruit if they can convince him to come to South Bend.