Notre Dame Football Recruiting: Mike Elston is heading to Germany for more than a trip to the beer gardens

For the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to compete with the the college football elite, they have to continue to recruit nationally — coast to coast. They may have to start recruiting globally as well. According to Irish Illustrated, Irish assistant coach Mike Elston is leaving for a recruiting trip to Germany today.

I believe the proper usage of the word is, “anwerbung.”

Elston will be visiting 2020 defensive end recruit, Alexander Ehrensberger, a 3-Star prospect from Düsseldorf. Ehrensberger has an offer from Notre Dame in one hand and an offer from the FIU Panthers in the other. Seems like a fairly obvious choice at the moment.

If “defensive end from Germany” is ringing a bell in your head, that’s probably because of German, Bjorn Werner — also a defensive end. Werner became an All-American for the Florida State Seminoles in 2012, and went on to become a first round selection in the NFL Draft for the Indianapolis Colts.

Football has become increasingly popular in Germany since the early 90s. Back then, the World League of American Football kicked off with several German cities fielding a team, and then that developed into NFL Europe.

Ehrensberger isn’t the only recruit that Mike Elston plans to visit as he has a handful of 2020 and 2021 prospects that he’s going to check in on during his travels. There is, however, one more very interesting prospect that is part of the 2019 cycle. That prospect is 3-Star defensive tackle Joseph Appiah Darkwa.

Appiah Darkwa holds offers from schools like the Penn State Nittany Lions, Rutgers Scarlet Knights, and UCLA Bruins. He does not, at this moment, hold an offer from Notre Dame. That could change quickly on this trip, and an Irish offer could be a real game-changer for Appiah Darkwa as well.

With all signs pointing towards Asa Turner signing with the Washington Huskies soon, there is technically a scholarship “open” according to Notre Dame’s count. That count probably includes 4-Star DE Isaiah Foskey. It also most likely takes into account that J.D. Bertrand will be a preferred walk-on and Marist Liufau will use a grayshirt.

Notre Dame assistant Brian Polian is in Hawaii right now.

So yeah... the Irish are all over the world recruiting that same song. SING IT!