ESPN West recruiting Blog

Posted by Greg Biggins

Tight end Pierce Richardson (Encino, Calif./Crespi) tripped to Iowa State over the weekend and said he nearly committed while in Ames.

Fast forward 24 hours later and the athlete decided to go ahead and pull the trigger.

Richardson has had the Cyclones at the top of his board for some time now. Boise State, his other co-leader, offered the tight end the opportunity to greyshirt, but Richardson decided he was Big 12 bound Monday night.

"Yep, I committed to Iowa State," Richardson said. "I'm excited and I think it's a great fit for me. I almost committed on my visit but I wanted to talk things over with my family first and I was able to do that.

"There were just so many pluses about the school. I like the offense, the coaches and the fans are great as well. I was very comfortable there and I just think it's a great overall fit for me."

Richardson's visit to Iowa State was his first official trip and he turned down offers from San Diego State, Nevada, Wyoming, Utah State and New Mexico State.

Shaw strongly considering Irish

Joshua Shaw (Palmdale, Calif./Palmdale) has seen some amazing places this year on his official visit tour and was on hand to check out Notre Dame this past weekend.

Shaw has also already visited Ohio State, Florida and LSU.

"Notre Dame was great, I was really feeling the love there," the Under Armour All-American cornerback said. "I liked the school, I liked the people there and I loved the campus. Manti Te'o was my host and he's just an awesome dude.

"We hung out a lot on Sunday and honestly, getting to know him was probably the highlight of the visit, he's probably one of the coolest guys I've ever met. The game atmosphere was great and I love some of the traditions they have there.

"The crowd wasn't as loud as some of the other places I've visited, but it was still a great atmosphere and we all saw a great game. They wanted to throw me in the air for the pushups but I wasn't ready for that. I let my boy Dietrich [Riley] handle that.

"It's a real family atmosphere there at Notre Dame and everyone is really like a big family. Not just the football players, all the students on campus. I'm not so sure about the city of South Bend itself, might be a little slow for me but everything else there was great and I'm definitely considering the Irish."

Shaw's last visit will be to Oklahoma in November and then he plans to commit on Christmas day.