Six years ago, her son Andrew was a standout defensive end at Bishop Guilfoyle Academy in Altoona, Pa. That junior season he had 20 sacks and won All State honors, as he would his senior year, too.
He’d drawn interest from several mid-major schools, but then in March of 2020, the COVID pandemic laid siege to the country and shut down college campuses and their sports programs.
Andrew’s senior season in 2021 was played in something of a bubble and college recruiting was not the same.
“He’d had some scholarship offers – St. Francis, RMU (Robert Morris), some other Pennsylvania schools – but when COVID hit everything got quiet and schools were dropping their offers,” Claire said. “Campuses weren’t open; you couldn’t talk to the coaches.
“The only scholarship he still had was at RMU, so we thought, ‘Let’s go walk around the campus on our own and see if he likes it.’”
They made the hour 45-minute trip from their home in Bedford, Pa., to Pittsburgh right before Christmas.
“When we finished, he said, ‘Mom, I just don’t see myself here,’” Claire said.
“Honestly, I remember my prayer as we were driving home.
“I said, ‘Lord, I don’t care if he doesn’t play another football game, just put him in a place where he can grow in his faith, and grow as a young man.’
“And a week later, out of the blue, he gets a phone call … from Notre Dame!”
As he stood on the field at Welcome Stadium on Sunday, Yanoshak recalled that surprise call:
“Notre Dame really wasn’t on my radar. I hadn’t applied there, but they wanted me to come in as a preferred walk on and they said they’d help me with the admission process.”
Three days before Christmas, he signed with the Irish and soon was part of one of the most storied programs in college football history.
“I still believe God’s hand was on this one,” Claire said.
After redshirting his first season – following a torn ACL in an All-Star game a week before he was to report to school – Yanoshak spent three more years in the Notre Dame program coached by Marcus Freeman, the Wayne High and Ohio State standout who has lifted the Irish program to grand heights again, most notably last year’s 14-2 season that culminated with a berth in the national championship game against Ohio State.
This past spring Yanoshak graduated from Notre Dame with both a marketing degree and a yearning for a chance to contribute more on the field while getting his master’s degree.
As he entered the transfer portal, Claire sent another prayerful plea toward the pearly gates.
Again, she wanted the best for her son, who was drawing interest from schools like Eastern Kentucky, Southern Utah, South Carolina State … and the University of Dayton.
For this look-see trip, Claire drove over to Dayton from Bedford while Andrew came down from South Bend. They toured the campus, talked to the football coaches and various academic people and finally visited a Flyers’ spring practice.
“That’s when I realized these are people I wanted to be around,” Andrew said.
That didn’t surprise Claire:
“What’s so ironic is that Dayton already had been on the radar. Andrew had been accepted at Dayton coming out of high school.”
Back then though, it was his academics that got him in the door. He said the Flyers didn’t recruit him as a football player.
‘He wants to get on the field’
The Flyers held their Football Media Day Sunday at Welcome Stadium, which has more in common with a high school facility than Notre Dame Stadium with Touchdown Jesus towering on the outside of Hesburgh Library north of the field.
Notre Dame football is steeped in landmarks and lore and overwhelming achievement like 11 national titles, eight Heisman Trophy winners and 109 consensus All Americans.
It’s the world of Knute Rockne, The Gipper and The Four Horsemen. It’s Johnny Lujack and Paul Hornung, the Golden Dome and the 23.9 karat gold in those shiny gold helmets.
After being part of all that, I asked Yanoshak: “How does this feel out here today? How does UD football compare?”
Without hesitation, he nodded at the turf field he was standing on:
“Coach Freeman always said, ‘No matter where you go, the football field (from the back of the end zones) is 120 yards by 53 1/3rd yards. That doesn’t change.
“Football is football. I’m good with this.”
In fact, he’s excited about it because it’s almost certain he’ll see more time on the field this year than he did in any of his previous seasons at Notre Dame.
When he tore his ACL right before reporting to South Bend, Claire said they feared Notre Dame, then coached by Brian Kelly, might pull the offer:
“They didn’t know him – he was a preferred walk-on they hadn’t even met – and now he had a torn ACL. Were they going to tell him not to come?
“But they were wonderful.
“They met him with open arms and said, ‘We’ll take care of him.’”
Yanoshak redshirted that freshman season as he rehabbed and Claire said she remembers the trainer telling her and her husband Steve not to expect to see their son, who the Irish had switched to tight end, take the field in the annual Blue Gold Spring Game in April.
“But then all of a sudden in the second quarter, Andrew’s not only in the game, but he catches a touchdown pass and his teammates were mobbing him!” Claire said joyfully.
The following three seasons, Yanoshak – known as Yano by his teammates – was a scout team staple and ended up actually being coached by Freeman who’d taken over the program when Kelly left.
“Being the head coach, he missed coaching position players, so he took over the scout team tight ends” Yanoshak said. “I got to know him pretty well. He’s a great guy. You can joke with him. And he really coached me up personally.”
Claire was just as high on Freeman: “He made a huge change in the dynamic there. The program became real family-oriented.”
And it has risen again to real national prominence.
Although Yanoshak played sparingly, he did have a jarring pancake block on a kick return against Virginia last season that once again got his teammates high-fiving him and pounding him on the back.
Wanting more chances for such moments is the only thing that prompted his transfer.
As Notre Dame was in the playoffs – knocking off Indiana, Georgia and then Penn State in the national semifinals before falling to Ohio State, 34-23, for the title – UD coach Trevor Andrews said Michael Orts, the Flyers passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach, told him he thought Yanoshak might transfer at season’s end.
UD was the first team to contact Yanoshak in the portal and eventually the Flyers suggested he could best help the team and get on the field if he switched back to his old high school position – defensive end.
Andrews was impressed by his response: “He said, ‘Whatever you need, coach.’ He watched a lot of football the past four years. He wants to get on the field.”
A blue dome
As Yanoshak is setting his sights on the season ahead – the Flyers open a week from tonight at Eastern Illinois – he was asked Sunday to take one more look back at his Notre Dame days.
Two years ago, he travelled with Notre Dame for their opener against Navy at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Over 39,000 Irish fans from the U.S. came with them and saw the 42-3 victory.
Over the past few years he’s dressed for games at Stanford; and when the Irish went to MetLife Stadium, home of the New York Giants and the Jets, to play Navy; and when they went to the LA Coliseum for the USC game.
He was in uniform in previous years for the Fiesta Bowl and Gator Bowl and throughout last year’s playoff run which included high stakes stops at the Superdome (Georgia), Hard Rock Stadium in Miami (Penn State) and Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta (Ohio State.)
But he said nothing beats the atmosphere at home games.
There was the traditional pregame walk from the basilica to the stadium.
“I loved the Players’ Walk and us getting a hug from him before each game,” Claire said.
Andrew talked about running out onto the field “through the smoke on a beautiful sunny day with the crowd cheering and the band playing ... It was a pretty unreal experience.
“There are things I’m not going to forget about Notre Dame: All the good people I met; the great players and coaches who surrounded me; the crowd; and a lot of the other things that make it special.”
Asked about the Golden Dome, he nodded and smiled: “Sometimes on campus. I’d just stop and look at it. Actually, it was pretty cool.”
As he was reminiscing, he watched some of his new teammates line up for a photo and that made him smile, too:
“I think this season is going to be pretty special, too.”
When Trevor Andrews was asked about Yanoshak’s transition from Notre Dame to Dayton, he smiled: “Yeah, well we have a dome, too. A blue dome!”
And he knows the Flyers can offer him one thing Notre Dame did not: playing time.
“He graduated with a 3.6, so he’s no idiot,” Andrews said. “He’s going to make the adjustment back to defensive end, no problem. He’s fitting right in already. He’s continuing to work his way up and he’s understanding the defense.
“He’s going to help us a lot this season, no doubt.”
It looks as if Claire Yanoshak’s football prayers have been answered once again.
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