Of course, at that point, he was far from a Hall of Famer.
High school Luke Kuechly was a tall, skinny kid, with the curly hair and the wire-rimmed glasses. There may be people who look like football players, but he wasn’t necessarily one of them at that time.
So as a recruit, he was getting attention, if not from the biggest schools.
Tom Kuechly, his father, said Luke dreamed of going to Notre Dame, even had the “Play Like A Champion Today” sign on his bedroom wall as a kid. When you grow up Catholic in the Midwest, that’s a common dream.
So when Fighting Irish assistant Jon Tenuta showed up to watch St. X against Cleveland’s St. Ignatius, Specht thought Kuechly might end up on Notre Dame’s radar.
“John came in on a Friday, and we’re sitting in my office, and I said, who are you looking at?” Specht recalled. “And he said, No. 3, and I said, ‘It’s about time,’ and he started laughing. He said, ‘No, No. 3 for Saint Ignatius,’ who was a player named Dan Fox, who ended up going to Notre Dame, and he was a great player.
“But I looked at John, and I said, well, I think you’re recruiting the wrong No. 3.”
Dan Fox was a captain at Notre Dame and had a fine career, even playing a couple of games for the Giants in 2014. He was not, as it turns out, the right No. 3 that night.