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Notre Dame freshman linebacker Carlo Calabrese came to South Bend from Verona, N.J., where he was a standout linebacker and three-star recruit from Rivals.com. Calabrese picked Notre Dame over Florida, Boston College and Pittsburgh, among others, and chatted with Insights before he left for Notre Dame about his expectations and his interesting little hobby -- cutting hair.
Irish Insights: As this has all been leading up, what have your emotions been? How have you been feeling about it?
Carlo Calabrese: "I'm excited for it. Real excited to come down for the summer classes and get started."
II: What's the one thing you're most looking forward to?
CC: "I'm looking forward to getting better. Just being a better football player, getting stronger and faster."
II: What about the going to college experience in general? Is there one thing you're really looking forward to with that?
CC: "Um, maybe being on my own, I would say."
II: On the reverse, what's the one thing that you're most concerned about going in since you're 18?
CC: "I'm going to miss my family. That would be the thing."
II: Have they been doing the 'Oh man, we're going to miss you' type of thing already?
CC: "Yeah. They've been saying that, yeah."
II: Do you say that too, or can you not wait?
CC: "I can't wait to go to college, really, but at the same time I'm going to miss them."
II: For you, what's your expectation level going in?
CC: "My expectation level? I want to get some playing time, definitely."
II: For those who haven't seen you, how would you describe the way you play?
CC: "I'm physical. I like to hit."
II: Is there one hit you've made that really stands out?
CC: "There was a bunch of them that I had. I can't really answer that."
II: So none that people come up to you and say 'Do you remember that?'
CC: "I guess freshman year, there's a picture of me standing over a kid. That hit. I was blitzing and it was a pitch and the kid was running my way and I just killed him, hit him hard."
II: You were a freshman. Did you feel like that was when people recognized you could be pretty good?
CC: "Yeah, cause, as a freshman I started making plays and people started noticing me."
II: Switching away from football, what do you like to do when you're not playing football?
CC: "My hobbies? I draw. I golf. I cut my friends' hair."
II: Cut your friends' hair?
CC: "Yeah. I cut everyone's hair in town. Everyone in town, I cut."
II: Is it just buzzing or do actual haircuts?
CC: "I can do actual haircuts."
II: How'd you start doing that?
CC: "My dad had a barbershop, and I just kept watching the barbers."
II: When was the first time you cut hair?
CC: "I'd say seventh grade. It was a friend."
II: Has it been a job for you?
CC: "They pay me a couple bucks for it, yeah, a little tip, $10 a haircut."
II: That's an interesting hobby for a football player to have. When you tell people you cut hair, what's their general reaction?
CC: "They are like 'Really?' They don't believe me, really. Then I show them my haircuts on my phone and they are like 'Wow.'"
II: Do you take pictures of every person's hair you cut?
CC: "When I did designs in people's heads for football, I took pictures of that."
II: What's the most creative thing you've done?
CC: "One of my friends, I did a Mohawk on him and designs on the side that looked pretty sick. It was like flames on the side of his head."
