Standout 2025 Defender Matthew Johnson "Honored" By Notre Dame Offer

Notre Dame has had a couple key recruiting victories in Concord (Calif.) De La Salle over the years, including former Irish star pass rusher Isaiah Foskey and 2023 tight end signee Cooper Flanagan. On Thursday, the Irish staff extended an offer to another Spartan star in 2025 defensive lineman Matthew Johnson.

That offer was met with a lot of optimism, and a ton of joy. It was a moment that Johnson will never forget, especially while he was able to share it with his family.

“I was super excited to get the good news,” Johnson told Irish Breakdown. “I couldn’t wait to tell my dad. Notre Dame is his favorite team so he was super excited too. The Irish are one of the most historic programs in college football so it’s an honor to be recruited by a program like that.

“Recruiting has been really good so far for me,” he continued. “It’s early, but I’ve been blessed to get a lot of exposure.”

Only a sophomore, Johnson has a lot of time to figure out which school best fits the criteria he has laid out. There are visits to be made, conversations to be had and relationships to be forged. There are also, however, certain things that are nonnegotiable for the California standout.

“I’m looking to go somewhere where I can thrive, and also be pushed,” Johnson explained. “I want to go somewhere where I’ll be held to a high standard because I expect that of myself. Going to a winning program is probably one of the biggest factors for me.

“There’s lots of factors that go into making a final decision about schools but at the end of the day, it’s about winning football games,” he continued. “Winning makes everything okay. Adversely, losing makes everything worse. You can have individual success on a bad team and you still won’t be satisfied if your team loses.”

The Irish program seems to fit that list of criteria very well.

“Notre Dame is a historically successful program in terms of wins and losses and that’s a big reason why I like the school personally,” Johnson stated.

Johnson is considered a four-star recruit on both the On3 Industry ranking and the regular On3 rankings. The latter has him pegged as the No. 133 overall player and No. 12 defensive lineman in the 2025 recruiting class. That ranking also has him as the No. 16 player in the state of California, a state that has traditionally developed a ton of next level talent.

The 6-5, 240-pound defender is also receiving massive attention from the recruiting side. So far Johnson holds offers from Notre Dame, USC, Oregon, Washington, Ole Miss, Oregon State, Washington State, Arizona State and Cal among several others.

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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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