Notre Dame Has A Chance To Reverse Safety Recruiting Trend In 2025

The 2025 recruiting class has a chance to be a truly special one for Notre Dame. After less than stellar results recruiting the safety position over the last few cycles, the Irish staff appears to be in a great spot to put together a big time class.

Chris O’Leary has some question marks as a recruiter. He is a good coach but can he brings in high level talent? 2025 is his best chance to prove that he can do so. There’s a chance this 2025 safety haul could be the best Notre Dame has gotten in some time.

THE MISSES

Safety recruiting has been a very troubling topic over the last couple of years. There have been some good, but more misses to feel comfortable with. An uptick attracting difference makers on the backend needs to be better.

In the 2022 recruiting class, Notre Dame was in a good spot with standout Xavier Nwankpa, who eventually signed with Iowa. There were some circumstances behind that recruitment that wasn’t entirely on O’Leary but it is still a miss. Nwankpa has become a starter for the Hawkeyes, a school who quietly does a tremendous job developing secondary players and defenders in general. The Irish staff was unable to land a single safety recruit in that class.

In 2023, Notre Dame was able to land New Jersey standout Adon Shuler and Ohio native Ben Minich, which is a nice two-man haul. On paper, that’s a good class. The problem is that the Irish also had Peyton Bowen (Oklahoma) and Brandyn Hillman (Michigan) committed in the class. Everyone knows about the Bowen drama, which unfortunately lost a five-star talent from the class. Then Hillman was not admitted into school, which again, isn’t the staff’s fault necessarily. In the end, however, they lost out on two potential difference makers in the 2023 recruiting class.

Then the 2024 recruiting class happened. Once again, Notre Dame gained commitments from several talented players. Getting Brauntae Johnson to stay in state was huge. If developed properly, he could be special. Notre Dame also has Ohio native Taebron Bennie-Powell and Arizona star Kennedy Urlacher in the class. Both players have a lot of traits to get excited about.

It was the process that was far from perfect. During the quest of that three-man class, the staff had a lot of misses along the way. Names like Jaylen McClain (Ohio State), Demello Jones (Georgia), Dejuan Lane (Penn State), Oliver Miles (Texas Tech) and Paul Mencke (Duke) were some of the players that Notre Dame had some traction with but for various reasons, they weren’t able to close.

BIG TASK IN 2025

We use the term “make or break” too often at times but 2025 is absolutely a huge recruiting cycle for Coach O’Leary and the safety room moving forward. That is especially true with Notre Dame seemingly in a great spot with several big names in the class. The staff must show that they can close on big time players on the board.

THE 2025 BOARD

As of right now, the magic number seems to be two safeties in the 2025 recruiting class. Could that number get pushed to three? It’s possible but as of now, it is two. Here are the most reasonable targets on the board currently.

Ivan Taylor - Winter Garden (Fla.) West Orange

Things are in a great place with Taylor, who is the son of former Pittsburgh Steeler great Ike Taylor. The Florida standout has visited South Bend four times, including twice for games against Pittsburgh and Wake Forest this season. Notre Dame has a chance to close on an elite prospect.

Ethan Long - Greenwich (Conn.) Brunswick School

Notre Dame has seemingly been in a great place with Long for quite some time now. He has made multiple trips to campus already, and has continued to say a lot of great things about the program. In the most recent update, Long mentioned that he is eyeing a December decision. Notre Dame promises to be in it until the end.

JaDon Blair - Winston Salem (N.C.) Mount Tabor

Notre Dame has also received multiple visits from Blair, who appears to be high on the Irish. Blair does not have a firm timeline but it feels like Notre Dame will be in it as long as they don’t fill up with too many safeties in the class. It helps that Blair also saw the Irish several times on away visits this season as well. Timing of wanting to make a commitment will be the thing to watch.

Trey McNutt - Cleveland (Ohio) Shaker Heights

If McNutt wasn’t overly interested, he wouldn’t have taken multiple visits to South Bend. There is obviously some level of interest there. McNutt just feels like a bit of a long shot right now. Ohio State feels like the leader here but the Irish do have an outside chance. It is just less likely compared to the others.

One interesting note to watch is that new Irish commit Cree Thomas does have the talent to play safety down the road. While he was targeted as a cornerback, it will be interesting to see if that versatility can free up an extra cornerback spot if that’s viewed as his long term spot. As of now, that is just something to keep on the back of your mind.

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Irish Breakdown Content

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Notre Dame 2024 Scholarship Offers

2024 Commit Rankings - Offense
2024 Commit Rankings - Defense

2023 Recruiting Class Grades - Offense
2023 Recruiting Class Grades - Defense

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