Recruiting: Florida Cornerback High On Notre Dame

Florida cornerback Philip Riley has high interest in Notre Dame, who recently received an offer from the Irish.

Extending an offer this past week has put Notre Dame square in the mix for one of the best cornerbacks from Florida. One of the fastest rising prospects in the country, Riverview (Fla.) Bloomingdale corner Philip Riley makes the current board highly intriguing.

Although he currently living in Florida, Riley comes from a military family and has lived in Maryland, Ohio, Florida, Washington and now Florida again. Thus, he’s not your typical Florida prospect that is content to stay close to home.

The 6-0½, 190-pound talent burst onto the scene last fall. Prior to the Class of 2021 prospect’s junior season, he did not possess a single offer. That quickly changed.

He received a handful of offers early, including one by Southern Miss, before Maryland became his first Power 5 offer. A slew of offers started rolling in once Clemson jumped in with an offer.

As of Friday, March 27, Riley holds 35 offers.

On that day, I had the opportunity to sit down with Riley and talk football and recruiting. He’s a great young man that’s really intrigued by the nuances of playing the cornerback position, and he’s very excited to visit several schools.

You can listen to our conversation in the podcast link below:

With the COVID-19 outbreak, Riley knows it’s going to be difficult to fit in five official visits during a high school football season, but he’s ready to take on that challenge.

Even if he needs to take all five of his official visits this fall, Riley made it clear he’s prepared to do just that. His original plan of enrolling this upcoming January could be up in the air due to COVID-19, but he’s still going to attempt to make that happen.

Several schools have caught Riley’s attention, Notre Dame included. Cornerback coach Mike Mickens has quickly connected with Riley, and the Irish are in the hunt. Mickens discussed the Irish and the other programs contending for his signature during the podcast. 

Riley registered 28 tackles and an interception as a junior with Bloomingdale. During his sophomore season at Lakewood (Wash.) Lakes he caught 53 passes for 952 yards (18.0 YPC) and nine touchdowns to go with 22 tackles and three picks.