Gunner Kiel's wild recruiting process ended when he enrolled at Notre Dame on Tuesday.
The nation's top quarterback prospect originally committed to play for Indiana, but backed out of that pledge in October and decided he wanted to play for national champion runner-up LSU.
But as he got closer to having to report to LSU for the first day of classes, the five-star recruit changed his mind again and decided to attend college in his home state.
The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Columbus East product's last-minute switch could make it tough for him to win over fans outside of the Irish's fan base.
"There will be a perception," said Mike Farrell, a national recruiting analyst for Rivals.com. "You can't help but have a perception, because he's playing quarterback. He's the No. 1 pro-style quarterback in the country. He is the guy that is going to get all the attention.
"If this were a defensive tackle, a linebacker, somebody like that…we've had many kids commit to three schools during the process. But because it's a quarterback, because it is so late, because it was the day before he was set to enroll (at LSU), there is definitely going to be a lot of people looking for him to fail. LSU fans are certainly going to be keeping track of what he does."
Scott Kennedy, a national recruiting analyst at Scout.com, said he doesn't think Kiel's indecisiveness will hound him that much at Notre Dame.
"I think it will be accepted as part of the process," Kennedy said. "Fans are fickle. They were going to dislike him as soon as he chose someone else anyway. The Notre Dame fans were questioning his character when he de-committed from Indiana and chose LSU over them to begin with. Now all of the sudden, they are there with open arms. It's a level of fandom; they are going to embrace what is theirs and dislike what isn't."
Kennedy and Farrell both compared Kiel to former Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen -- and not just for the level of play of the two out of high school, but the publicity around their recruitment.
"Jimmy Clausen was as polarizing a figure as anyone who selected a team in the last five years," Kennedy said. "While (Clausen) was over-hyped by some people to begin with, he ultimately ended up being the guy we thought he was, the No. 1 quarterback in that class. He finished with great numbers at Notre Dame."
"The whole Hall of Fame thing where (Clausen) announced, was in the Hummer limo, flashing the state championship rings, all of that stuff put a target on his back," Farrell said. "I think he did a good job of living up to being one of the top high school football players in the country and being a top quarterback in college.
"Gunner is the opposite of that. He is not flashy at all. He is very quiet. He would prefer not to talk to any media. He's going to have to have a similar career. I'm not saying Jimmy Clausen won national championships at Notre Dame, but what he did at Notre Dame I thought was impressive. I think Kiel is going to have that target on his back like Clausen did for different reasons."
As far as Notre Dame's recruiting efforts going into National Signing Day on Feb. 1, Kennedy said that Tuesday's securing of Kiel along with five-star prospects Sheldon Day, a defensive lineman from Warren Central, and Tee Shepard, a defensive back from Washington Union in Fresno, Calif., was important for a program that lost two recruits in the last week.
"It's important to sway that positive momentum back again," Kennedy said. "If you look at the guys they brought in, and not just Kiel, there's a couple other five-stars they brought in. Those guys are big-time talents."
