During a break in his Algebra II class recently, the nation's top-rated high school quarterback casually flipped open his black cellphone, began typing on its keypad and then pushed send.
Thirty miles away, a speedy defensive back felt his cellphone vibrate. Sitting in anatomy class at St. Bonaventure High School in Ventura, California, he sneaked a peak.
"GO IRISH," it read.
"Quarterbacks," said the recipient of the message, Michael Williams, who has a scholarship offer from Notre Dame, "I guess they do that."
Jimmy Clausen, the highly regarded quarterback, had already started introducing himself to the country's best prep football players before announcing at a news conference at the College Football Hall of Fame last month that he had chosen to play for Notre Dame in a year and a half instead of the University of Southern California.
Clausen passed for 2,778 yards and 30 touchdowns last season for Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village, California. He could break California's prep record of 132 career touchdown passes.
He used to initiate his telephone calls and text messages to destinations like Florida and Maryland with a self-assured greeting: "I'm Jimmy Clausen, one of the top quarterbacks from California." Now that he is preparing to enroll at Notre Dame in January, his calls and text messages include a pitch about joining him at the school. He said he specifically talks to players about the university's football tradition, academics and Coach Charlie Weis.
Clausen said that Weis was the main reason he had decided to attend Notre Dame, but that Weis had not pressured him to contact recruits.
He said that he did not contact players every day, but that on some days he sent as many as four text messages and made two telephone calls. He said he routinely stayed in touch with a group of eight players at least once every two weeks.
"It's going to be their decision," said Clausen, 18. "I'm just trying to establish a relationship and try to tell them how special Notre Dame is and try to get them to come in as well as the other guys that have committed to bring Notre Dame back to where it's meant to be."
Regarded as more talented than his older brothers, Casey and Rick, both of whom played quarterback at Tennessee, Clausen is keenly aware of the impact he can have on Notre Dame's recruiting.
Tailback Marc Tyler, who rushed for 2,196 yards and 39 touchdowns last year, lives with Clausen and has also been offered a scholarship by the Irish.
"I can't do it all by myself to win a national championship," Clausen said. "I need everybody around me."
His announcement at the College Football Hall of Fame, just a mile and a half from Notre Dame, took place five hours before the Irish's annual Blue-Gold spring football game, which attracted countless recruits.
Clausen said he obtained the telephone numbers of the players during visits to schools and from Internet recruiting analysts.
"The big thing is that great players want to play with other great players," said Jerry Crabtree, the national recruiting editor for Rivals.com, a network of college sports sites. "We've seen it at Texas. We see it at USC. We saw it at Florida State and Bobby Bowden when they made their run to the top of the recruiting rankings. With Clausen, you can expect Notre Dame to go out there and have some success at the skill positions."
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