Latest news with #BerkeleyPrep
New York Times
02-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Notre Dame incoming freshman Dallas Golden maximizes his time and effort to play both ways
Dallas Golden arrives at Flex & Flow Fitness every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 5 a.m. For an athlete used to routines, the kind that helped grow him into a national prospect who signed with Notre Dame over offers from Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Georgia, this is simply the next one. The gym, located just south of the Tampa, Fla., airport, offers a stage for the former four-star prospect to play the part of an incoming freshman while still a senior at Berkeley Preparatory School. Golden may wish he could have done mid-year enrollment, but working out as the sun comes up in Florida will suffice for now. Golden will report to Notre Dame during the first full week of June, along with the 10 other incoming freshmen on the traditional summer schedule. 'Can't wait,' Golden said. 'So excited.' Notre Dame should be too, as it onboards an athlete with legitimate aspirations to play both ways. Golden has a stronger preference for jersey numbers — 'I want a single digit, hopefully No. 1 or No. 2' — than he does for positions. It's just not what you'd think. It's common for incoming freshmen to deflect when asked about their preferred position, basically falling in line with whatever gets them on the field fastest. And Golden does hope to play sooner rather than later. But instead of picking cornerback or receiver, he chooses and. Advertisement Basically, he wants to play both until someone tells him he can't. As a junior during Berkeley Prep's state championship season, Golden carried 205 times for 1,467 yards and 19 touchdowns to go with 32 catches for 394 yards and another five scores. On defense, he posted five picks. On special teams, he returned kicks and punts. A nagging foot injury limited Golden as a senior, to the point there was conversation about him shutting it down as Berkeley Prep struggled to defend its championship, stumbling to a 6-5 record. Golden kept playing. There were lessons there, too. 'We came into the season, we're gonna do it again, it's gonna be so easy. We found out real quick that it wasn't,' Golden said. 'You learn that being a leader plays a big role in how the team plays. You can't always be secluded. Sometimes you have to talk. Sometimes you have to make sure everyone is doing the right thing. 'I'm not gonna lie, I don't know if that's my natural personality. I'm more laid back. But sometimes you gotta be uncomfortable for the better.' Which is why Golden keeps showing up at Flex & Flow Fitness with his headlights on. Irish fans we on the way!☘️ Can't thank God enough!! @rasharddavis6 #GoIrish ☘️ — Dallas Golden (@DallasGolden8) March 18, 2025 When Golden arrives, he works with Jeremy Franklin, a trainer, former Florida State linebacker and longtime family friend. Golden and Franklin go back to youth football around Tampa, and Franklin has followed his career ever since. Golden already has a defensive backs trainer and sometimes gets wide receiver work via former Berkeley Prep star Nelson Agholor, who played at USC before a 10-year NFL career. And when it comes to old-fashioned conditioning, there's dad Pelham, who takes Dallas to run hills around Tampa on the weekends. Advertisement Franklin is here to help Golden get ready for the weight room more than the field, although mastering one probably gets him on the other. When Notre Dame sent its offseason workout program to Golden, he shared it with Franklin, whose goal is as much to get Golden stronger as make him more confident moving weight. Franklin went from walk-on to scholarship at Florida State. He understands there's only so much time the head strength coach can devote to a freshman. And there are only so many assistants, which can leave a freshman to follow the herd, ready or not. Does a freshman know how to do a three-position hang clean on Day 1? Some might try, just to keep up. 'You don't want to get in there and jerk it around because my teammates are doing it,' Franklin said. 'That's putting a band-aid on a bullet hole and you're gonna be hurt eventually.' Weight room technique is hardly the most interesting part of Golden's game, but it's something these morning sessions help get right. Considering he wants to be in Notre Dame's defensive back and wide receiver rooms at the same time, maximizing time makes sense. For Golden, it can get as technical as refining his squat, changing how he balances his feet in the rack. After doing an assessment, Franklin identified that Golden was putting too much weight on his heels, then adjusted his balance forward. Golden started to squat with more weight. 'It's watching the light go on. Do something foreign to him and then it clicks,' Franklin said. 'We did everything Notre Dame wanted him to do, plus more. He always asks for more.' That was Golden's reputation around Berkeley Prep, too. As a freshman, he tackled Arch Manning (Texas) and covered Jeremiah Smith (Ohio State). As a sophomore, he played wildcat quarterback when needed. The state championship came as a junior, including 183 yards rushing in the title win. And senior year turned into a test of leadership when the season started to go sideways. Advertisement 'As tremendously great as any young man I've coached,' said Berkeley Prep head coach Dominick Ciao, whose career included coaching Notre Dame's new general manager, Mike Martin, and former Irish tight end Gary Godsey. 'His humbleness, through all this, the power of him leading people, that's hard to do.' In barely one month, Golden will head to Notre Dame, not as the prospect who attended the 2024 home College Football Playoff game against Indiana or the one who returned for the spring game last month. He'll be taking the next step in his career, hoping everything leading to this point will have prepared him for it. From those 5 a.m. workouts to playing four years of varsity at Berkeley Prep, there's a good chance Golden will be as ready as any freshman could be. And with Notre Dame coming off a run to the national championship game with its growing reputation for developing top defensive backs, it's probably a good time for Golden to join, too. Unless he plays receiver, instead. But Notre Dame would welcome that just the same. 'They told me I could try both sides,' Golden said. 'Not just one. Do both, for sure. They want to get me on the field any way possible. Special teams, too.'
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Blue-chip OL Johnnie Jones high on Ole Miss, Vandy following officials
More than 30 college football programs are courting Johnnie Jones. The big blocker from Tampa (Fla.) Berkeley Prep is about to shift gears back to his program ahead of spring football, but he got in his second and third official visits over the last two weekends. Colorado kicked off the slate in early April. Advertisement As the case with most in the footprint, Jones began his latest on-campus swing in the heart of SEC country. Vanderbilt hosted him for a weekend before Ole Miss got the same nod last weekend. "They are both great football programs," Jones told Rivals. "Vandy happens to be in a big city and Ole Miss is in more of an old country town, where it's not like a big city life. "They were both great places, honestly. Vandy is more a militant style from the players and Ole Miss players are being more of themselves while still being serious." The time in Oxford afforded the four-star tackle time with Lane Kiffin. Advertisement "I talked to him on Saturday after the spring game," he said. "Just talked about how he's trying to build his team to be able to win a national championship and to be able to play for SEC championships." CLASS OF 2025 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Team | Position | State CLASS OF 2026 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Team | Position | State CLASS OF 2027 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Team | Position | State TRANSFER PORTAL: Full coverage | Player ranking | Team ranking | Transfer search | Transfer Tracker Most of the time with the Rebels was spent with current players, of course. It offered a realistic snapshot of what life on campus may look like. Advertisement "Being able to see how focused the players are even though there are little parties that go on during the weekend," Jones said. "Also to see how the everything is in one big building so you don't have to worry about traffic." While in Nashville, the apex of the trip also centered on the personnel. "The competition among the players and coaches," Jones said. "They have some of the most positive passion I've seen among the schools. "It was good to see the change that is happening." The Floridian has three official visits down and three ahead around the month of June with in-state trips to Florida (May 30), Florida State (June 6) and Miami (June 20) on the schedule. Penn State is currently penciled in for June 13, too, so there is plenty of twists and turns ahead in this recruitment. "I've just got to see everything before I make my decision," Jones said. "I don't have a list, I'm just breaking down the schools and I'm going to pick which one is the best fit for me."
