Fleming Looking Forward to Signing Day

Chicago, Ill. linebacker Darius Fleming is excited to sign on the dotted line. After turning heads in practice at the Army All-American bowl, the 6-foot-2, 235-pound prospect is excited to move onto his next challenge—Notre Dame.

It wasn’t long before word spread at the Army All-American practices…Darius Fleming belonged. The Scout.com four-star prospect made a lot of noise early in the week.

“It was great. It was the best thing I could’ve done before college,” Fleming said of his all-star experience. “It really let me know what to expect when I get to Notre Dame. I know it’s not college players, but these are the best high school players, and I felt I did well.”

“I had to kind of get the hang of things,” he added. “After the first day I got back into the groove of things. The guys were a lot bigger than you face on the field, and they were a lot stronger, so you have to step up your game. It really showed me how you had to play with better technique on this level. You can’t just outmuscle these guys or run around them. Once I got used to that things went pretty well.”

They went so well that Fleming was singled out often as one of the best players on the East squad….that was until he was injured.

“Yeah, that was too bad,” he said of his injury during practice. “That slowed me down a bit. I was doing well until then. It took me a bit to get back to feeling good. By game time I felt better.”

Fleming also had the chance to make a huge play in the game, but just missed his chance.

“Missing that sack in the end zone was tough. I had him in my sights. My eyes got too big I think,” he said with a laugh. “My coach always told me ‘don’t reach for a guy. Run through him.’ I reached and I lost him. Just goes to show that the coaches know best and I need to play my fundamentals. I wanted that sack, man.”

Fleming also got to spend some time with some of his future teammates down in San Antonio.

“We had our group there,” he said. “We had a great time together. We all hung out together all week. We just made each other laugh. It was a lot of fun. I can’t wait to get to Notre Dame and play with those guys to see what we can all do together. That’s going to be exciting.”

Fleming also says he’ll be seeing a lot of Notre Dame in the future.

“I plan on going there a bunch,” he said. “I’ll be there as much as I can for spring football. I’ll try to get to a lot of practice. I may just go down there now and again just to hang out. I’ll be at the spring game. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Does Fleming have anything planned for the day he signs with the Irish?

“Nah, it will be pretty low-key,” he said. “I think my coach has something planned for it. I don’t really have anything planned. I’ll just be glad when it’s over with.”