Two-Sport Nevada Star Athlete Enticed By Notre Dame
What happened to Robby Snelling this week is something that is rare. Snelling, a longtime Stanford commit, received a Notre Dame offer to play football and baseball for the Irish. You have to be a special athlete to earn that offer at Notre Dame and Snelling fits the bill.
“I first talked to Notre Dame Monday morning and they just gave me the rundown on people that have played both sports at Notre Dame,” Snelling explained. “Coach [Brian] Polian mentioned Jeff Samardzija, Golden Tate, and more. I got the background on all the academics and some information with the football program as well, it was awesome.”
Shortly after the initial talk, Snelling had the opportunity to speak with other coaches about what it is like to be a dual-sport athlete at Notre Dame. At the end of the second conversation with the staff, Snelling received his offer.
Standing at 6-3, 200 pounds, the talented linebacker out of Reno (Nev.) McQueen, is just as impressive on the football field as he is on the baseball diamond. He is a quick, twitchy athlete with a great football IQ and also has a fastball that touches 91 on the radar gun. That is the kind of kid I want playing for me in football or baseball, much less both.
247Sports ranks Snelling as a four-star athlete, the No.27 outside linebacker, and No.8 player from his home state of Nevada.
The Notre Dame staff has made a great impact on the McQueen standout early on, and it seems Snelling had a major interest in Notre Dame even before the offer came.
“Growing up, I always heard the stories about Touchdown Jesus and how beautiful the campus was,” Snelling recalled. “I heard all of these stories from my dad about how great Notre Dame was and now I have the opportunity to see it for myself. Notre Dame might be even better now as the baseball in the ACC is the best in the country and then playing football in front of 80,000 fans on Saturdays is very enticing.”
Schools other than Notre Dame have also taken notice of Snelling’s dual-sport prowess and are pushing hard for him.
“All of my offers right now are for football and baseball, including Stanford” said Snelling. “At the moment, I am only committed to Stanford for baseball but they have talked to me about playing football as well. Arizona, Oregon, and others are also talking to me a lot about playing both for them.”
Finding a school that has a competitive football and baseball team is hard to find and that is a problem plaguing Snelling and his recruitment at the moment.
“Arizona’s baseball program is very good, I love their head coach over there,” said the Nevada product. “Oregon’s baseball program is fairly new. They have started to pick up some good talent over the past few years. Notre Dame really has good football and baseball and I love that.”
Ultimately, there are a variety of factors that will come into Snelling’s final decision. The quality of the football and baseball teams are important but there are plenty of other factors as well.
“In a perfect world, it would be nice for my parents and grandparents to be able to come and see me play football and baseball in college,” said Snelling. “The distance from home isn’t going to be huge for me in my decision but it definitely matters.”
Academics are very much a priority to Snelling as well, as his parents have instilled in him the power of a college degree, especially one from Notre Dame.
“With both of my parents being teachers, academics have always been important in my family, so Notre Dame is really fitting that mold for me,” said the McQueen star.
As it stands, Snelling is still committed to Stanford but is assessing all of his options in-depth. The Reno linebacker told Irish Breakdown that there have been some road blocks with the Stanford coaching staff that have not made him feel comfortable with playing football there.
Snelling is set on playing both football and baseball so this problem with Stanford has opened up his recruitment wide open and the Notre Dame staff is taking advantage. The staff has discussed the success of players like Samardzija and Tate, but also Cole Kmet, Torii Hunter Jr. and more.
For now, Snelling has no plans to narrow down a top group or decommit just yet, as he wants to take his time and be sure he is making the right decision. One thing is for sure though, Notre Dame is very much on Snelling’s radar and he would be a great pickup for the 2022 class.
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