Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1540307
14 OCT. 18, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY JACK SOBLE N otre Dame became a dream for Tae Johnson when he was in third grade. Johnson was hooked on You- Tube, and he came across highlights of star Irish linebacker Jaylon Smith. He didn't know Smith personally, but he knew he was from his hometown, Fort Wayne, Indiana. And one day, Johnson hoped, he could wear the gold helmet like Smith did. "I didn't even know what Division I was," Johnson said on "The Separa- tion" podcast with his trainer and men- tor, Dre Muhammad. "None of that. I wasn't even thinking about the NFL. I was just thinking about getting to Notre Dame." At the time, Johnson had a teacher named Miss Johnson (no relation). One day, after a quiz, he told her he wanted to play for Notre Dame. The next day, he found a Notre Dame shirt in his locker. He asked Miss Johnson, "Did you put it there?" She said, "Yeah, I want you to go to Notre Dame, too." "That's really when the dream started for me," Johnson said. "I remember that vividly." It wasn't a straight-line path from there to South Bend, though. Johnson, now a redshirt freshman safety at Notre Dame, was a public school kid from Fort Wayne's inner city. He had the talent to play for the Irish, but did he have what it took off the field? "To come to Notre Dame, it's kind of hard," Johnson told reporters in late September. "It's not typical for a guy like me to be at Notre Dame." Four starts into his career, the Irish are glad he is. 'DIFFERENT TYPE OF PLAYER' Muhammad knew Johnson was spe- cial — and that he would play safety at the next level — at a seven-on-seven tournament when he was 15 years old. Johnson arrived at the tournament at Grand Park Sports Complex in West- field, Ind., (outside of Indianapolis) late due to a basketball tournament. He didn't even have a chance to warm up. Their team was struggling on defense, so Johnson, then primarily a wide re- ceiver, entered the game at safety. Muhammad couldn't believe what happened next. "Quarterback threw the ball, and his instinct, length, athletic ability and just his ability to read took over," Mu- hammad said. "What would have been or should have been a reception, Tae comes completely across to the other side of the field and makes a pick." It was not an interception, Muham- mad explained, that everybody could make. And this came from a player who, at the time, had next to no training at the position. Johnson had rare athleti- cism, instincts and football IQ , as well as the ball skills that came with his background as a receiver. "That's the play, when I watched him, I said, 'He's a different type of player,'" Muhammad noted. Notre Dame offered Johnson in June 2022, the summer before his junior year. Irish head coach Marcus Freeman took a leading role in Johnson's recruitment, building a close relationship with the Fort Wayne North Side High star. It was Freeman's goal, he said Oct. 9, to make Johnson understand what Notre Dame could do for him off the field. "You look at Tae, where he grew up, where he's from," Freeman said. "I don't know if he grew up understanding the value of what a place like Notre Dame can provide you. He knows about Notre Dame football, but there's so much to this place that provides value to the rest of your life." Freeman pointed to Smith, someone who went to a Catholic high school but grew up in a similar area, as an example. Smith is now an entrepreneur, most recently opening JINYA Ramen Bar on Eddy Street in South Bend. "You convinced him of that, but I think he's starting to see that now," Freeman said. "He's starting to under- stand that, being here." On the field, he was an easy "take," but Johnson still had academic hurdles to clear. His freshman and sophomore year grades weren't disqualifying, but there was an understanding that he would have to improve them as a junior and senior in order to be admitted. In order to handle the transition to Notre Dame, he would have to become a Notre Dame-level student in high school. As Muhammad recalled, Johnson was always intelligent. But he didn't fully comprehend the significance of his grades until he got the Notre Dame of- fer and began to favor the Irish as his eventual choice. "I think he had to realize, 'Maybe this opportunity won't exist if I don't take care of it,'" Muhammad said. "So, he went into overdrive and got the aca- demics done." When he shifted his mindset, Johnson quickly fixed his grades and earned a spot in the 2024 class without issue. "Obviously, when you see the grades, you think, 'Ah, we gotta make sure you get to this,'" Muhammad said. "And he's like, 'OK, cool.' But I think the makeup of who he is creates the confidence in him getting the job done." CHANGING THE TRAJECTORY For his first college interception, John- son looked a lot like his predecessor. He sat back in single-high man cov- erage. He read Boise State quarterback Maddux Madsen's eyes. And he put himself in perfect position, when the throw sailed over its intended target, to pick it off. The ball tends to find the best ball- hawks, and Johnson appears to be one of them — just like Xavier Watts, who moved on to the NFL and left his spot open for a competition, which Johnson won. The redshirt freshman earned the Johnson earned the starting safety spot two games into the season, and had totaled 22 tackles, 2 passes broken up and 1 interception through Week 6. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER DREAMING BIG Tae Johnson attending Notre Dame is an unlikely story, but the Irish have a future star on their hands