Former Ohio State commit Alex Anzalone has committed to Notre Dame, according to multiple reports.
The 6-foot-3, 225-pound native of Wyomissing, Pa., chose the Fighting Irish over Penn State and Florida while at “The Opening,” an all-star summer football camp at Nike’s world headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., Sunday.
Anzalone, who originally committed to OSU on April 21 while visiting the university for the Buckeyes’ Spring Game, de-committed less than two weeks later after a picture of Anzalone, two other recruits and a registered sex offender made its way to the Internet.
Charles Waugh, a registered sex offender in Kentucky, posted the picture of Anzalone, fellow Notre Dame commit Mike Heuerman and OSU commit Joey Bosa on Twitter.
After learning Waugh had been pictured with OSU student-athletes and recruits, OSU athletic director for compliance Doug Archie sent a warning email to Buckeye student-athletes.
“The university has become aware that an individual who is listed on Kentucky’s sex offender registry has recently been seen in pictures with our student-athletes,” Archie said an email to student-athletes, which was preceded by a warning text message.
Archie’s email to OSU student-athletes also contained an Internet link to a March 19, 2008, report in Ashland, Ky., paper the Daily Independent about Waugh entering “guilty pleas to five counts of possession of matter portraying sexual performances by minors.”
Waugh was arrested in his home days later for having violated his probation and also failed to comply with sex offender registration laws in Kentucky.
Anzalone’s father, Sal Anzalone, encouraged his son to de-commit from OSU after reports of Waugh’s status as a sex offender began to spread, according to ESPN.
“You would think that these kinds of people would be kept at a distance away from recruits,” Sal Anzalone told ESPN. “The fact that he got close to recruits was the issue. Keep people like this away from them. I can’t be everywhere.”
According to ESPN, Sal Anzalone told his son de-committing was in his best interest “because you don’t want the NCAA thinking that you’re being influenced by this joke.”
Sal Anzalone, however, backed off some of his comments concerning OSU shortly after and told ESPN that the Buckeyes were still in the mix for his son’s football talents.
“It’s a possibility,” Sal Anzalone told ESPN. “Things change. You can’t hold them responsible for other people’s behavior.”
Alex Anzalone’s intention to play Notre Dame marks the Fighting Irish’s 17th commitment for the class of 2013.
