In October 2022, Eric Goins, a US Army Signal Corps officer, was in Poland in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The communications officer had been deployed for almost eight months and was looking for his next assignment.
As he discerned whether his future was in the military, he decided to apply to Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business Master of Business Administration program. Upon receiving his acceptance in December, he threw a Hail Mary pass to Notre Dame’s football program: Could he be a walk-on to the team?
Goins had been a record-setting kicker as an undergraduate at the Citadel, a military college in South Carolina. He still holds the school record for field goals made. But he was now 30 and not a typical recruit. To further complicate things, because he was deployed, he couldn’t send current film to prove his skills, he said.
Goins turned his attention to the long process required to leave the military, and in July 2023, he was able to officially separate from active-duty service. He was due at Notre Dame just five days later.
Once he arrived for classes, he emailed the special teams assistant coach and asked if he could walk on in the spring. The response was positive.