Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Early Enrollee Gunner Kiel Is Ready To Compete FOOTBALL RECRUITING ISSUE BY DAN MURPHY Dame career, and it came down to the very last drive. When the Kiel fam- ily car left Columbus, Ind., Jan. 17 it pointed north on Interstate 65, turn- ing its taillights on the state of Louisi- ana and the Southeastern Conference and instead heading to South Bend. Finally, after three attempts at three I different schools over the course of six years, Kelly landed a Kiel. Gunner Kiel, the youngest and t was the biggest fourth-quarter comeback of Brian Kelly's Notre announced his plans to leave home for Les Miles, LSU and the spotlight of the SEC. Kelly remained persistent, and it paid off. There were no press conferences or hats pulled out of bags. No stretch limousines or pyrotechnic celebra- tions. Kiel's parents dropped him off on a Tuesday night (Jan. 17), and Wednesday morning he showed up for class at Notre Dame instead of in Baton Rouge where they were expect- ing him. As much as Kiel wanted to avoid most-heralded of Kip Kiel's three quarterbacking sons, met Kelly sev- eral times before the coach came to Notre Dame and started trying to con- vince him to do the same. He was a seventh-grader when by their father; they are more a prod- uct of their environment. Kip and Aleta Kiel didn't breed quarterbacks; they bred competition. "This is a competitive house," he Kelly first called the Kiel's country home wedged between the city of Columbus and an endless wall of In- diana corn. He was recruiting Drew, Gunner's oldest brother, to come play quarterback at Central Michigan, but Drew chose Illinois State. Two years later, Kelly was at Cincinnati trying to convince Dusty Kiel to ditch the home-state Indiana Hoosiers, but he was a little too late. Nonetheless, he continued to build trust with the Kiel family. "From a parent's standpoint, obvi- the fanfare, he couldn't. His last-min- ute change of heart was announced on ESPN's SportsCenter and mulled over by national experts. Miles played the role of the jilted lover well, ques- tioning Kiel's leadership and keeping his decision in the national media well past National Signing Day. COMPETITION WITH ANYBODY." COLUMBUS (IND.) EAST HEAD COACH BOB GADDIS ACTED LIKE HE BELONGED RIGHT OFF THE BAT. ... HE'S NOT GOING TO SHY AWAY FROM "HE STEPPED RIGHT IN AND existing relationship to wade through the long line of college coaches inter- ested in the youngest Kiel. Gunner's 6-4, 220-pound frame and a right arm that lives up to his first name made him one of the top two quarterback prospects in the country this fall. He took himself off the market in the summer, originally committing to play with his brother down the road at Indiana. That plan changed Oct. 21, and the following night Kiel was in South Bend to see Notre Dame play USC under the lights. It looked like Kelly would strike out with the Kiels Dec. 27, when Gunner overall player in the class of 2012. PHOTO BY LISA NAGY/AURORA IMAGING Kiel is listed by 247Sports as a five-star pros- pect, the No. 1 player in Indiana, the No. 1 pro- style quarterback in the country and the No. 24 www.BLUEANDGOLD.com ously it helped knowing him from before," Kip Kiel said. "But I don't think that was really that big of a fac- tor in Gunner's decision." Kelly would need more than a pre- riving on campus with national cham- pionship trophies rattling behind it like tin cans on the back of their new- lywed escort. Notre Dame has as many questions Irish fans imagined his chariot ar- said. "They fought all the time. My wife would go upstairs, and there would be fighting going on and she'd shut the door and tell them, 'Don't come out 'til I see blood.' That settled them down. They'd all stop and look at each other and say, 'What is mom talking about?' " The competitions started for Gun- ner at an early age in the well-worn family basement. The boys invented a game called "Chuckie" that marked the debut of Gunner's curiously strong and accurate right arm. "Like the little doll, Chuckie," Dusty Kiel said. "Gunner would just run around throwing balls at us, and if he hit us we had to go to jail. There were plenty of times when little Gun- ner would run around the corner fir- ing balls and one of us would get mad and throw a bean bag chair at him. We had a pretty good time with that game." The boys quickly outgrew the base- at quarterback as it had a year ago. Could Kiel be their answer? What does Kelly expect from his prized recruit? "In the recruiting process, we ment and moved outside. Young Gun- ner tried to keep up with his brothers who were three and five years older. He never won, but he never went away either. By the time he arrived at Columbus East High School as a string bean freshman, his competitive spirit was unmistakable. Bob Gaddis has coached the Co- clearly tell our freshmen, 'You bet- ter be ready to compete,' " Kelly said when asked about his plans for Kiel. "Whether it's Gunner Kiel or Sheldon Day or Tee Shepard, those early enrollees, you better be ready to compete." If competing is all that is asked of Kiel, he should have no problem ad- justing to life at college. Despite what the evidence may suggest, there is no quarterback gene in the family, says Kip Kiel. The el- der Kiel played under center at Butler University in Indianapolis. His older brother, Blair, started for four years at Notre Dame from 1980-83. His three boys all grew up to earn football scholarships as well. They weren't engineered to do so lumbus East Olympians for 11 years. In that time, he's asked only two freshmen to dress for the varsity team: Stevie Brown, a captain at Michigan and now a defensive back for the In- dianapolis Colts, and Gunner Kiel. Kiel didn't hit his growth spurt un- til the summer after his freshman year, but he became his older brother's backup as soon as he arrived on cam- pus. Gaddis said he inherited Drew's attention to detail in the passing game and Dusty's physicality running the ball — the best of both worlds. "He took over," the coach said. "He was taking the scout team snaps, and there were a lot of good players on the other side of the football. He stepped right in and acted like he belonged right off the bat. That part of it — he's not going to shy away from competi- tion with anybody." MARCH 2012 33