Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM MARCH 2026 39 2026 FOOTBALL RECRUITING ISSUE really well. The Irish keep dipping into southern states for their running back recruits, too, which can't be a bad thing. They make them different down there. Just look at Jadarian Price. The question for these two will be, what are Ja'Juan Seider's plans for the rotations without Jeremiyah Love and Price in the fold? Is he starting from the absolute bottom and giving everyone an opportunity in the offseason to earn their stripes and set the pecking order that way? Or will there be deference to experience? In that event, Aneyas Williams and Kedren Young are to 2026 what Love and Price were to 2025, with redshirt freshman Nolan James Jr. play- ing the break glass in case of emergency middle-man role, and Walton and Os- borne essentially sitting out the season like James did last year. All of that can be moot if Walton and/ or Osborne are good enough to alter the hierarchy and receive reps as true fresh- men. They're certainly constructed to be on that level. On paper grade: A+ WIDE RECEIVER Signees: Four-star Kaydon Finley of Aledo (Texas) High, four-star Bubba Frazier of Savannah (Ga.) Benedic- tine Military School, four-star Devin Fitzgerald of Phoenix Brophy College Prep, three-star Brayden Robinson of Red Oak (Texas) High, three-star Dylan Faison of Boca Raton (Fla.) Saint An- drew's School Synopsis: This group includes two sons of former NFL players (Finley is the son of Jermichael Finley and Fitzgerald is the son of Larry Fitzgerald), the brother of a current Notre Dame wide receiver (Faison is the brother of Jordan Faison) plus two more signees from southern states. Notre Dame has had success in getting wide receivers from Texas. What is there not to like about bol- stering an already burgeoning Irish wide receiver room with a deep, tal- ented class? For so long a weak spot on the Irish roster, wideouts are quickly becoming a strength. To make it feel like Notre Dame hit a home run here, at least one of these guys needs to break free from the must- redshirt route and get into the regular lineup this season. That didn't happen for any of the Irish's 2025 wide receiv- ers, and that was also a crew that in- cluded a couple NFL legacies in the son of Jerome Bettis Sr., Jerome Bettis Jr., and the son of Plaxico Burress, Elijah Burress. Those two are still trying to get firmly into Notre Dame's two-deep, and the Irish brought in two transfer wide re- ceivers from Ohio State in Quincy Por- ter and Mylan Graham to make matters even more difficult as they relate to see- ing the field on Saturdays. If any wide receiver from this cycle puts himself in a position to play this season, it will speak to undeniable tal- ent and a heck of an offseason's worth of work. But no matter how it all unfolds, Notre Dame did a masterful job in get- ting all five of these wideouts to sign. On paper grade: A- TIGHT END S i g n e e s : Five - s ta r I a n P re m e r of Great Bend (Kan.) High, four-star Preston Fryzel of Toledo (Ohio) Central Catholic Synopsis: Premer is the No. 1 tight end in the entire recruiting class. We often say, "This guy is the next great Notre Dame tight end!" because of the way the program has pumped out NFL prospects at the position. It can get overdone, especially when it becomes a yearly exercise. And it most certainly has become just that. But it's impossible not to say it about Premer. Just watch his highlight reel. He's the real deal. And the Irish were able to supplement the class at this spot with an extra body in Fryzel, too, which is not a bad thing considering how thin Notre Dame was at tight end during the 2025 season. Notre Dame was an Eli Raridon injury away from a tight end disaster last sea- son. Luckily, the oft-injured Raridon stayed healthy and started all season, and he turned in a rather impressive 12 games at that. Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock called Rari- don exactly what we started this blurb with — the next great Irish tight end. In many ways, he lived up to that even if his NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL 2026 SIGNEES Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Hometown (High School) Khary Adams CB 6-1 178 Baltimore (Loyola Blakefield) Ja'Kobe Clapper LB 6-1 209 Cincinnati (St. Xavier) Thomas Davis Jr. LB 6-2 215 Weddington, N.C. (Weddington) Micah Drescher* K 6-3 198 Hinsdale, Ill. (Hinsdale Central) Rodney Dunham DL 6-4 230 Charlotte, N.C. (Myers Park) Ebeneezer Ewetade DL 6-4 217 Raleigh, N.C. (South Garner) Dylan Faison WR 6-2 180 Weston, Fla. (Saint Andrews School) Kaydon Finley WR 6-1 200 Aledo, Texas (Aledo) Devin Fitzgerald WR 6-2 197 Paradise Valley, Ariz. (Brophy Prep) Bubba Frazier WR 5-10 175 Savannah, Ga. (Benedictine Military) Preston Fryzel TE 6-4 208 Holland, Ohio (Central Catholic) Sullivan Garvin OL 6-5 308 Allegan, Mich. (Allegan) Elijah Golden DL 6-4 275 Fredericksburg, Va. (Cardinal Mooney [Fla.]) Noah Grubbs QB 6-4 209 Lake Mary, Fla. (Lake Mary) Tiki Hola DL 6-3 280 Bastrop, Texas (Bastrop) Teddy Jarrard* QB 6-3 190 Kennesaw, Ga. (North Cobb) Grayson McKeogh OL 6-7 294 Perkasie, Pa. (La Salle College) Tyler Merrill OL 6-6 329 Mechanicsburg, Pa. (Cumberland Valley) Ben Nichols* OL 6-5 320 Davison, Mich. (Davison) Joey O'Brien S 6-5 188 Philadelphia (La Salle Prep) Javian Osborne RB 5-9 197 Forney, Texas (Forney) Gregory Patrick* OL 6-5 275 Portage, Mich. (Portage Northern) Ayden Pouncey CB 6-3 172 Orlando, Fla. (Winter Park) Ian Premer* TE 6-6 235 Great Bend, Kan. (Great Bend) Nick Reddish S 5-10 184 Charlotte, N.C. (Independence) Brayden Robinson WR 5-7 156 Red Oak, Texas (Red Oak) Jasper Scaife P 6-5 215 West Perth, West Australia (Warwick Senior) Chaz Smith CB 6-1 163 Knoxville, Tenn. (Knoxville Catholic) Charlie Thom OL 6-7 274 Darien, Conn. (Avon Old Farms) Jonaz Walton RB 5-9 200 Carrollton, Ga. (Central) * Summer enrollees