Kyle Rudolph cites 'Jim Tressel's offense' in decision to sign with Notre Dame over Ohio State

Former Minnesota Vikings star tight end Kyle Rudolph made a somewhat surprising decision to turn down the home state Ohio State Buckeyes to attend Notre Dame back in 2007 after going through the recruiting process.

Rudolph attended Elder High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Ohio State recruited him hard. However, he felt like Notre Dame was the better spot for him.

Kyle Rudolph joined Andy & Ari On3 presented by Xfinity this week in New Orleans ahead of the Super Bowl and shared why he chose to play for the Fighting Irish.

“You think back to Ohio State at the time when I was in college, they were winning just as much, they had national championship games, they were going to BCS bowl games every single year,” Kyle Rudolph recalled live from Xfinity Studios on The Block. “But Jim Tressel’s offense – I would’ve gone and been a tackle.

“It might not have been a bad thing when I look at how much more money tackles make than we did. … But at the time, for me, I was like a skinny basketball player that had to put weight on just to play the tight end position. So then to think about what things would’ve been like to then have to block all the time, I didn’t wanna do that.”

Ohio State finished 12-1 in 2006, just a few months before Kyle Rudolph ended up committing to Notre Dame. That Buckeyes team had some excellent receivers, including Ted Ginn Jr. and Anthony Gonzalez, but it didn’t get the tight ends involved very much.

As for Notre Dame, Charlie Weiss was the head coach of the Fighting Irish, and he had shown that he had no problem featuring tight ends.

“So I took visits to Ohio State. I liked Ohio State a lot. I, just as much as coach Tressel told me, ‘No, no, no, we just don’t have a tight end like you. If you come here we’ll use you.’ I said, ‘Yea, you’ll put 30 pounds on me and make me a tackle,'” Rudolph said.

“So for me, having coach Charlie Weiss at Notre Dame, Anthony Fasano, John Carlson had both just been second-round picks in the NFL, were playing in the NFL, you have just this straight pipeline to the league.”

Kyle Rudolph is appreciative of the education he received at Notre Dame, as well as the connections he made. But his ultimate goal was to play in the NFL.

Going to Notre Dame clearly worked out for him in that regard as he spent 12 seasons in the NFL, mostly with the Vikings, after being picked in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft.

Rudolph made the Pro Bowl twice during his NFL career, including winning the MVP at the Pro Bowl once.

“To me, as much as I appreciated what Notre Dame offered from an educational standpoint and having a Notre Dame degree as your fallback plan, not a bad Plan B. But it was all about how can I get to the NFL, and I felt like Notre Dame gave me a better chance to be a tight end in the NFL,” Rudolph said.