Notre Dame lands walk-on commitment from 2022 Ohio kicker Zac Yoakam
The offseason special teams additions continued for Notre Dame with a commitment from 2022 kicker Zac Yoakam on Friday.
Yoakam, who hails from outside of Columbus and attends Upper Arlington (Ohio) High, will walk on to the team in South Bend. The Notre Dame staff hosted Yoakam for a visit last weekend.
The 5-foot-8, 155-pound senior had a standout season in 2021, helping lead Upper Arlington to a 14-1 record, including a 10-0 regular season. Their year ended when they lost a state semifinal game in November.
Individually, Yoakam posted some impressive stats. He made 100 percent of his 43 extra point attempts and went 6 of 7 on field goals.
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In total over his high school career, Yoakam went 71 of 71 on extra points and 9 of 14 on field goals. Three of the kicks were blocked and his longest was 44 yards.
In total, he amassed 98 points for Upper Arlington during his career as a three-year starter. As a result of his 2021 performance, he was named second-team Ohio Capital Conference and all district at the end of last season.
According to his Twitter account, he also held offers from Air Force and Darmouth. Additionally, he took recent visits to Ohio State and Cincinnati.
An interesting note: Upper Arlington is the alma mater of current Notre Dame guard Dane Goodwin.
Irish landing multiple new specialists
Notre Dame’s special teams room already looked immensely different from the way it did just a month ago, and Yoakam will also be a new face. Clearly, new special teams coordinator Brian Mason has been busy.
In addition to losing punter Jay Bramblett to the transfer portal and having kicker Jonathan Doerer use up his eligibility, the Irish added former Arkansas State kicker Blake Grupe on Jan. 13 and former Harvard punter Jon Sot on Jan. 18. Like Yoakam, Sot is a walk-on.
Grupe is expected to take over the kicking duties in 2022 because the only other scholarship kicker on the team will be Josh Bryan, who was a true freshman in 2021.
Notre Dame will actually have two long snappers on scholarship next season: Alex Peitsch and Michael Vinson. The latter just earned the opportunity for the upcoming year.
Mason brings wealth of experience to largely inexperienced room
Mason is one of the bright, young special teams minds in college football and brings an impressive resume from which the special teams room is sure to learn a lot. He joined the team after four years in the same role at Cincinnati.
Mason’s unit contributed substantially to Cincinnati’s historic season this year, one in which they went 13-1 and earned the Group of Five’s first berth in the College Football Playoff. The Bearcats blocked six kicks in 2021, which was tied for first in the nation. They averaged 10.7 yards per punt return (29th nationally) and 23.82 yards per kickoff return (28th nationally).
