McALLEN — Former McAllen Memorial and Stanford running back Trevor Speights, the Rio Grande Valley’s all-time leading rusher, announced his plans to transfer and play football in the fall for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish via Twitter late Thursday evening.
Speights, who graduated from Stanford in May, announced he would enter the NCAA’s transfer portal in January and will enroll at Notre Dame as a graduate transfer with two seasons of eligibility remaining.
“I am thankful for my time at Stanford and for everyone who has helped me while I was there. It has been the opportunity of a lifetime to be able to pursue my dreams on and off the field. I’m thankful to have had great teammates whom I have created lifelong bongs with, and I look forward to what y’all do in the future. I will miss y’all,” he wrote in a statement on Twitter.
“With that being said I’m excited to announce that I will be attending The University of Notre Dame next year to continue playing football and to pursue a graduate degree! Thank you to everyone who has helped me throughout this difficult process. It has been a long month, but I am grateful to have the support system in place to come to a big decision like this one. Go Irish.”
Speights chose to play for the Fighting Irish after also receiving recruiting interest from Duke and Rice. Notre Dame running backs coach Lance Taylor, who once coached at Stanford and recruited Speights to Palo Alto, took the lead in recruiting the graduate transfer to South Bend.
Speights played for the Cardinal for four seasons seeing action in two due to injuries. He tallied a combined 95 carries for 363 yards and one touchdown at Stanford and earned Pac-12 All-Academic Honorable Mention honors after his junior season.
Speights, a former four-year letterman in track and football, starred as McAllen Memorial’s featured running back over the course of four seasons. He led the school to a 32-13 record and back-to-back district championships as a junior and senior, when he rushed for 100 yards or more in each of his last 23 games.
The former Mustang tallied 9,868 rushing yards and 120 total touchdowns, averaging 10.2 yards per carry and 219.3 yards per game on the ground during his four-year high school career.
On top of being the Valley’s all-time leading rusher, Speights ranks as Class 6A’s all-time rushing leader and fourth in the history of Texas high school football at any level. He’s one of only five high school players to ever surpass the career 9,000-yard mark on the ground in the Lone Star State.
Speights figures to see significant playing time for the Fighting Irish, who are coming off an 12-1 season and bowl victory over Iowa State, and will have to replace their leading rusher.
Notre Dame is scheduled to kick off the 2020 season on Saturday, August 29th against Navy in South Bend, which will pit Speights against his younger brother Campbell — The Monitor’s 2019 All-Area Offensive Player of the Year and a Midshipmen signee — for the first time on a national stage.