Notre Dame Is In Great Standing With Elite Safety Ivan Taylor

One player you will hear connected to Notre Dame a ton is 2025 Winter Garden (Fla.) West Orange star Ivan Taylor, who has pretty much been a priority for the staff since he camped in South Bend this past offseason. Taylor is coming off of two game visits to Notre Dame this fall, including their games against Pitt and Wake Forest.

That was the star safety’s fourth trip overall to South Bend. If that isn’t proof of interest, I don’t know what is. With his junior season done, things seem to be trending quickly toward a decision. If Notre Dame is able to keep momentum, they promise to be hard to beat.

Funny enough, this was a relationship that almost never happened. His mother should get a huge credit for pushing him to visit the campus. As soon as Taylor made the trip to Notre Dame, it was clear how much the fit made sense.

“In the beginning, I didn’t know much about them,” Taylor told Irish Breakdown. “My dad didn’t really want to go up there. My mom couldn’t wait to go up there. I wasn’t really expecting anything.

“Then we went up there, it's a beautiful campus, and we searched up how many people go to school there,” he continued. “It’s actually not a lot of people at all. Also I’m Catholic so it fits right in. We went to church before the camp. Before that day, it was more about breaking the ice. Then we saw the campus, did the tour, and the weather was sunny and 75 degrees.”

Taylor comes from a family that is Catholic and deeply devoted to their faith. Add in his love for academics, there is a lot that makes sense. It’s actually the relationships, however, who have been the separator.

“I would definitely say the coaches, the coaches hand down for me,” said Taylor about the main criteria for making a decision. “Right now Coach (Geno) Thompson is the head coach for West Orange and I have a great relationship with all my coaches. I feel like if I’m going to be there for three to four years, I want to have a good relationship with the coaches wherever I go.

“Like with Coach (Chris) O’Leary, I feel like we can have a Caleb Williams-Lincoln Riley type of coach and player connection,” Taylor added. “That’s how I feel about Coach O’Leary and Coach (Marcus) Freeman as well.”

Add in the fact that Irish 2025 quarterback Deuce Knight is in contact with Taylor daily, the relationships are definitely being built. There is no question how badly the Irish staff want him in the class.

Notre Dame is starting to develop the safety position at a very high level. With the fortunes of Kyle Hamilton, and now Xavier Watts, there is obviously a great chance to develop into a playmaker at the position. Funny enough, that isn’t something that really matters that much to Taylor.

“Honesty I don’t even look at that,” he stated. “If you just look at who Notre Dame puts out, it speaks volumes itself defensively. I feel like they have always put players into the league. For me, that doesn’t play a big role. If you’re good, they’ll find you so whatever college doesn’t really matter. It’s about the coaches for me.”

Notre Dame has made a tremendous move with Taylor over the last couple of months. A big reason for that is him experiencing the gameday environment. He loved both of those visits.

“It was definitely a good experience,” Taylor said. “It was an electric experience. It’s always basically sold out and there probably isn’t a home game where it isn’t sold out. The fans show up. The alumni come, a lot of successful people come. The student section comes. It’s really a great time.”

With things heading toward the finish line, Taylor is very adamant that Notre Dame will be in it until the end. They have always been one of his front runners.

“They’re definitely high up in the rankings,” he said. “They give me a lot of love. They are definitely in the top three for sure, for sure.”

If a decision is made in the near future, Notre Dame firmly feels like the team to beat. They have shown the Florida native that he can flourish from every standpoint.

Taylor is already a consensus four-star by every major recruiting platform. He is ranked as a top 40 national recruit by both 247Sports (No. 35) and ESPN (No. 30). Both of those outlets rank Taylor as a top five safety in the class.

The 6-0, 170-pound safety is being courted by some of the top prospects in all of college football. Taylor currently holds offers from the Fighting Irish, Alabama, Michigan, USC, Penn State, Florida, Tennessee, Florida State, Ole Miss, South Carolina and Pittsburgh among several others.

In only nine games as a sophomore, Taylor made his full impact on the back end. He finished the season with 65 total tackles, five tackles for loss, half a sack, three interceptions and eight pass breakups.

Taylor has forced a ton of turnovers as a junior. In nine games, the talented defender has intercepted three passes and three forced fumbles. Taylor has also broken up another pass as well, on top of recording 50 total tackles and six tackles for loss. Disruption is the name of his game.

Be sure to check out the Irish Breakdown message board, the Champions Lounge

Irish Breakdown Content

2023 Scholarship Chart
2023 Football Schedule

Notre Dame 2024 Scholarship Offers

2024 Commit Rankings - Offense
2024 Commit Rankings - Defense

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

———————

Become a premium Irish Breakdown member, which grants you access to all of our premium content and our premium message board! Click on the link below for more.

BECOME A MEMBER

Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!

Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channel
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes
Follow me on Twitter: @RiseNDraft
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook

Sign up for the FREE Irish Breakdown daily newsletter