4-star DT Brayden parks chooses notre dame over oregon
For nearly three years, Brayden Parks was one of the most coveted names on Notre Dame's board. On Thursday, that pursuit finally came to an end when the four-star Brother Rice defensive tackle put pen to paper — or, in this case, made his announcement on a CBS Sports special — and chose the Fighting Irish over Oregon in one of the more drawn-out recruitments of the 2027 cycle.
Speaking with Irish Breakdown afterward, Parks summed up just how long the process had felt: "Everything feels like a relief, honestly. I've been going through this recruiting process since my freshman year — coaches reaching out, trying to contact my family, all that. But now that it's over, I feel relieved. From that camp last year until now, man, it feels like it's finally come true."
But to understand why this commitment means so much to Notre Dame's program, you have to go back to where it started: a performance at Irish Invasion that first turned heads in South Bend, and a coaching relationship that very nearly didn't survive to see the finish line.
Long before Parks became a household name in recruiting circles, Notre Dame's staff had circled him as a priority target. That belief was reinforced during his showing at Irish Invasion in the summer of 2025, Notre Dame's marquee on-campus recruiting camp. Evaluators who watched him that day came away convinced that his twitch and explosiveness at his size — he was already pushing 305 pounds — put him in a different tier than most interior linemen his age. It's the kind of performance that gets internally referenced for years afterward whenever a staff needs a reminder of why a prospect was worth fighting for.
That early standout showing set the tone for what would become one of the more significant recruiting battles of the cycle, and it cemented a truth that would hold for the better part of two years: Notre Dame was not going to let Brayden Parks leave the board without a fight.
The Washington-Sebastian Connection
At the heart of Notre Dame's pursuit was the relationship Parks built with then-defensive line coach Al Washington and defensive line assistant Nick Sebastian. Washington, who joined Marcus Freeman's original 2022 staff after previously coaching linebackers at Ohio State and Michigan, built a reputation as one of the more respected recruiters in the country — he was later recognized as a top-10 recruiter nationally for his work on the 2026 class. Sebastian, who followed Washington to South Bend from Columbus that same year, became just as central to the Chicagoland pipeline, playing a lead role in landing five-star edge Rodney Dunham for the 2026 class.
For a Chicago prospect like Parks, that combination mattered. Washington and Sebastian weren't just recruiting him from a distance — they were regulars in the building at Brother Rice, familiar faces who built the kind of trust that's hard to replicate overnight. It's the kind of groundwork that had Notre Dame firmly entrenched as the perceived frontrunner for much of Parks' recruitment, well before his final decision ever became a two-team race.
Parks himself made that clear speaking with Irish Breakdown after his announcement, describing just how far back the relationship went: "I've been talking to Coach Washington since my freshman year, the first time I went out there. He's been there since I started this whole thing." When Washington's move to the NFL came up, Parks didn't hesitate to speak well of it: "I'm happy for him. It's a huge step up in his career. I'm grateful for what he did, and Coach P picked up right where he left off."
A Crack in the Foundation
Then came January.
In the span of about a week, Notre Dame's defensive staff was gutted by the NFL. Secondary coach Mike Mickens left for the Baltimore Ravens on January 25. Days later, Washington — who had just been shifted from defensive line coach to linebackers coach following Max Bullough's departure — announced he was leaving to coach linebackers for the Miami Dolphins under new head coach Jeff Hafley. It marked the third defensive assistant Notre Dame lost to the NFL in a matter of weeks, and it meant the Irish would be replacing position coaches at every level of the defense heading into 2026.
Freeman moved quickly to stabilize the room, hiring veteran defensive line coach Charlie Partridge to take over up front. But for a recruitment as relationship-driven as Parks', Washington's exit still mattered. It didn't sever the pipeline — Sebastian stayed on and remained a constant presence — but it did open a window that programs like Oregon were happy to climb through. Over the following months, the Ducks built real momentum, and at various points the industry buzz around Parks trended firmly in Oregon's direction. Ohio State and Michigan also lingered in the periphery of the process without ever fully displacing the top two.
What had once looked like it might be a formality turned into a genuine dogfight. The last several months of Parks' recruitment played out like an endurance test rather than a sprint — visits, momentum swings, and a decision date that kept extending as both Notre Dame and Oregon dug in for the long haul.
Closing the Gap
When Washington left, he didn't just leave behind a coaching vacancy — he left behind a standard. Sources close to the program had made clear that Washington and Notre Dame were prepared to do whatever it took to land Parks, and it fell on Charlie Partridge to carry that same energy into the final stretch without missing a beat.
Partridge didn't waste time trying to build something from scratch. But it wasn't a one-way effort. Rather than treating the coaching change as something that put the burden of relationship-building entirely on the new guy, Parks did his own homework on Partridge before they'd even met in person — digging into his background, his coaching stops, his track record in the NFL. It's a small detail, but it says a lot: Parks wasn't just being recruited by Notre Dame at that point, he was actively buying in. That kind of initiative from a prospect is often as telling as anything a coaching staff can do, and it's part of why the Irish never fully lost their footing even after Washington's departure.
That effort paid off in a memory Parks says he'll carry for a while. Recalling the first time the two actually met in person, he told Irish Breakdown: "The first time I actually met him, we were in my head coach's office taking a picture, and he tried to demonstrate a double-team drill — next thing you know, he slipped and busted his head open on the TV. That's one of those long-lasting memories me and Coach P will have forever."
Partridge and Sebastian didn't let the momentum stay with Oregon for long. Notre Dame hosted Parks for a pivotal official visit in June, part of a loaded weekend built around several of the program's top remaining defensive line targets for the cycle. By July, Parks had trimmed his list to two: Notre Dame and Oregon.
He set his commitment date for Thursday, July 23, and after weeks of speculation that could have gone either way, he chose the Irish.
By the Numbers
Recruiting services have tracked Parks closely throughout his high school career, and while individual grades have varied slightly by outlet, the four-star consensus has been consistent for over a year:
247Sports: Ranked him among the top defensive linemen in the 2027 class and the No. 7 prospect in Illinois, with 247Sports' individual metric rating him even higher than the industry composite.
Rivals: Slotted him as the No. 185 overall prospect, the No. 22 defensive lineman, and the No. 7 player in the state of Illinois in its industry ranking.
ESPN: Included Parks in its national recruiting rankings as one of the top interior defensive line prospects in the cycle, maintaining a recruiting profile that tracked his offer list as it grew to more than 40 schools.
On the field, MaxPreps logged Parks with 44 total tackles, six tackles for loss and two sacks as a junior in 2025 across 13 games, helping anchor a Brother Rice defense that won the CCL/ESCC Blue title and an IHSA 7A state championship. He was named the conference's Defensive Player of the Year for his efforts — a testament to an interior presence that scouts describe as disruptive against both the run and the pass, with an advanced hand-usage package for a player his age.
The Scene at Brother Rice
The energy inside the athletic building on commitment day was hard to miss. The school's top-ranked baseball team was in the middle of a summer league game outside, and the football team had just wrapped its final practice of the summer session before the state-mandated dead period ahead of fall camp. Walking past the locker room, players were still peeling off practice gear, showering, and changing into shirts and ties for the ceremony — more than a few of them trading excited chatter about Notre Dame and Marcus Freeman as they made their way toward the school's forum.
Throughout the process, Marcus Freeman was a steadying influence for Parks, and it went beyond what the program could offer on the field. Parks pointed to what Notre Dame provides outside of football as a major factor in his decision, and Freeman stood out among the other head coaches recruiting him for the way he showed genuine care for him as a person, not just as a football player. "Coach Freeman is a great person in general. He's a player's coach — he cares more about the person than the football player. That's one of the reasons I wanted to play for a guy like that. He cares about you and your family, not just when things are good, but whatever you're going through."
By the time the forum filled with teammates, coaches, administrators and family, the moment carried a weight that went beyond recruiting. The Brother Rice community is still grieving the loss of 2026 graduate and former football player Patrick Noonan, who died in a car accident on July 18 — just days before Parks' announcement. It was the kind of backdrop that made clear this was about more than one player's decision; it was a program and a school leaning on each other.
Parks took the moment in stride, thanking God, his parents, his sister, extended family, coaches, teachers and teammates before revealing the news — unzipping his jacket to show the Notre Dame logo underneath, officially closing the book on one of the more hard-fought recruitments in recent Chicago history. Asked what Fighting Irish fans should expect from their newest commit, Parks kept it simple: "They're getting a smart, disciplined, dominant defensive lineman."
What It Means Going Forward
Parks becomes the latest piece in what's shaping up as one of the more talented defensive line hauls of the Freeman era. He also arrives with family ties to the program, adding another layer to a recruitment that, in the end, came full circle back to where it started — with the relationships Notre Dame built long before the rest of the country came calling.
Parks' commitment also puts into focus just how much ground Notre Dame has made up in Chicago under Freeman. He joins St. Patrick's David Folorunsho and Mount Carmel's Roman Igwebuike as three of the best defensive prospects to come out of the city in this cycle — all of them products of programs that compete within the same Chicago Catholic League football alignment. Landing all three gives the Irish a defensive haul that's arguably the best in the entire 2027 class, and it's the kind of local sweep Notre Dame hasn't been able to pull off in years.
That matters because Notre Dame needed exactly this kind of moment. For a stretch under Freeman, the program had drifted to the outside looking in on some of Chicago's premier talent, watching top-tier recruits build relationships elsewhere before the Irish ever got a real shot. Parks' commitment — paired with Folorunsho and Igwebuike — signals that the hard work Freeman and his staff have put in has shifted the calculus. Notre Dame is no longer playing catch-up in its own backyard; it's back to being the offer Chicago kids grow up dreaming about.
The early returns for 2028 back that up. Notre Dame is already involved with several of the top uncommitted prospects in the Chicagoland area, and the brand is shining brightest with two names that happen to be Parks' own teammates at Brother Rice: five-star edge Kameron McGee and four-star tight end Jack McNamara. Both have been building relationships with the Irish staff, and having their own guy already in South Bend only strengthens Notre Dame's hand.
And Parks doesn't plan on sitting back and watching it happen from a distance. He made clear after his announcement that he considers this a homecoming, and that recruiting his own teammates to join him at Notre Dame is very much part of the plan.
But this moment wasn't just significant for Notre Dame. It carried just as much weight back home at Brother Rice.
For years, the standard in the Chicago Catholic League has been Mt. Carmel, the program Casey Quedenfeld and the Crusaders have been chasing since he took over. Brother Rice's rise — capped by last fall's IHSA 7A state championship — has started to close that gap, and Parks has become the face of that ascension. A recruit of his caliber, drawing this level of national attention, is a signal that Brother Rice can now stand toe to toe with the league's traditional powerhouse rather than living in its shadow.
Parks is also, by a wide margin, the highest-rated recruit to come through the program in recent memory, and the reaction inside the forum made clear how much that means to the people around him. When he pulled back his jacket to reveal the Notre Dame logo, the room didn't just applaud politely — it erupted, teammates and classmates included, a reflection of just how beloved he is inside that building and how much his teammates had been waiting for this moment right alongside him.
It wasn't a clean, wire-to-wire recruitment. Washington's departure tested it, Oregon pushed it to the brink, and the final months demanded patience from a coaching staff that refused to let go. But for Notre Dame — and for Brother Rice — Brayden Parks was always worth the fight.
‘28 5-star edge darreion prescott has notre dame in top 8
Illinois has been producing it’s fair share national-level defensive line prospects lately, and Darieon Prescott of Bolingbrook (Ill.) Bolingbrook is another one of those impressive recruits that the Irish staff has focused on. The 2028 edge rusher has built one of the most impressive recruitments in the country over the past year, and this week he took the next major step by trimming his list down to a top eight — with Notre Dame firmly in the mix after a string of standout visits to South Bend.
The 6-foot-5, 220 pounder tallied 65 tackles, 14 tackles for loss, 5 sacks, 8 pass breakups, 26 quarterback pressures, 3 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries, and 2 blocked kicks for the Bolingbrook Raiders. That kind of all-around production — stopping the run, rushing the passer, and even affecting special teams — is a big reason he was named to the MaxPreps Freshman All-America team as a first-year player and has continued to climb recruiting boards ever since.
Notre Dame Visits
Notre Dame’s recruitment of Prescott picked up serious steam this spring. He was originally slated to spend a weekend visiting Texas A&M and Nebraska before swinging back through South Bend later in April, but he shifted those plans to get back to Notre Dame earlier than scheduled. He told Irish Breakdown he wanted to see the Irish practice again, soak in the program’s culture, and reconnect with the staff — a sign of just how much South Bend had already grabbed his attention.
That trip included extended one-on-one time with head coach Marcus Freeman, who left a lasting impression on Prescott both as a coach and as a person, as well as a personal sit-down with first-year defensive line coach Charlie Partridge. Prescott said watching Partridge coach the edge group in practice — and then talking through technique and expectations with him afterward — was one of the most important parts of the visit. He left calling Notre Dame “a great place”, while noting he was already planning to return to campus for the Blue-Gold spring game and potentially again over the summer.
Prescott followed through on that plan. He was back on campus in South Bend two weeks ago, just ahead of Notre Dame’s final official visit weekend of the month, giving the staff one more extended look with him and his family ahead of the start of Bolingbrook’s summer prep for the season. Combined with his earlier trips, it marked at least his third documented visit to campus in a matter of months — a pace few other schools on his list have matched, and one that helped push the Irish into his final eight less than two weeks later.
“I always enjoy my time at Notre Dame,” Prescott said. “They always make me feel like a priority and show and we’ve been talking about getting back there over the summer, and my schedule allowed it to happen.
“I got a chance to build relationships,” Prescott continued. “I spent time with the coaches and the conversation with Coach P (Charlie Partridge) was really good. We talked about more than football, and I got to hear more about his plans for me in the scheme.”
The Top 8
Those visits have paid off for the Fighting Irish as Prescott announced his top eight schools on social media, and Notre Dame made the cut alongside a loaded group of blue bloods:
Notre Dame, Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, Oregon, Texas, Texas A&M and Miami
For a staff working to keep one of the state’s best players close to home, being included in that final group is a significant win — especially with the DL coaching relationship Prescott has already built with Partridge and Freeman.
“All of the schools are great programs,” Prescott shared. “Notre Dame was always a high contender in my top schools early on and that hasn’t changed. I have great respect for Coach Freeman and Coach P, and our talks let me know that they know what it takes to make it. The people there are always amazing and I can see myself playing football and going to school there.”
What’s Next
Prescott is still just entering his junior year, which means there’s plenty of recruitment left to play out — including a likely return trip to Notre Dame in the fall for a game day visit. Notre Dame has a leg up in this now 8-team race to the finish and the staff led by Charlie Partridge seem committed to going above and beyond to show Prescott how they feel about his fit with the Fighting Irish.
Where He Ranks:
Prescott’s ranking varies slightly by service, but he’s a consensus five-star-caliber talent across the industry:
247Sports
Composite: No. 18 nationally, No. 5 among edge rushers, No. 1 in Illinois (.9930 rating)
247Sports individual rankings: No. 7 nationally, No. 3 among edges, No. 2 in Illinois
ESPN
85 grade, No. 34 nationally, No. 7 among edge defenders, No. 2 in Illinois
On3 / Rivals
On3 Industry ranking: 94.80 rating, No. 18 overall, No. 5 at his position, No. 1 in the state
Rivals: 93 rating, No. 24 overall, No. 5 among edges, No. 2 in Illinois
Whichever service you look at, the theme is the same — Prescott is regarded as a top-25 national prospect and one of the two or three best pure edge rushers in the 2028 class, with a legitimate case as the top overall recruit in Illinois.
five-Star Edge Abraham Sesay Commits to Notre Dame
Charlie Partridge has done it again — and this time, the commitment that landed in South Bend is one that will reverberate across the entire 2027 recruiting landscape.
Abraham Sesay, the five-star edge rusher from Exton, Pa./Downingtown East, has committed to Notre Dame, choosing the Fighting Irish over a finalist group that included LSU, Penn State and Florida State. The 6-foot-4½, 225-pound pass rusher is ranked the No. 27 overall player and No. 6 edge rusher in the class according to the Rivals Industry Ranking — and joins a Notre Dame defensive line class that is rapidly becoming one of the most celebrated position-group recruiting hauls the program has assembled in decades.
The commitment came just two days after Sesay's official visit concluded — a weekend so comprehensive, so genuine and so convincing that the decision required no further deliberation. Notre Dame showed Sesay exactly who they are, exactly what they are building and exactly why South Bend is the right place for a five-star edge rusher with his combination of physical tools, competitive character and academic standards.
The answer was clear. Sesay committed. And Notre Dame's defensive line future just got significantly more dangerous.
The Production
Before the recruiting rankings, before the official visits and before the national attention that comes with being one of the most coveted pass rushers in the 2027 class, Abraham Sesay earned every bit of his recruiting profile the old-fashioned way — by dominating on the field against some of the best competition Pennsylvania high school football provides.
As a junior at Downingtown East, Sesay produced 13 sacks and over 80 tackles — numbers that transformed his recruitment from a regional conversation into a national one almost overnight. After a stretch of campus trips and a near-finalized board, Sesay had narrowed his list to five schools following his breakout junior season, with programs from every major conference competing for his signature.
The production tells only part of the story. Sesay is a multi-sport athlete who also participates in track and field and basketball — a detail that matters enormously in the evaluation of an edge rusher because it speaks directly to the natural athleticism, body control and competitive temperament that translates most powerfully to the pass rush position at the college level. A 6-5 edge rusher who runs track and plays basketball is not just a football player who happens to be tall. He is an elite athlete who plays football — and that distinction changes everything about the ceiling projection.
Sesay earned first-team all-state honors at defensive end for his junior season efforts, along with first-team all-league and county recognition at both defensive end and tight end — a dual recognition that reflects both his defensive dominance and the kind of versatile athleticism that elite college programs covet at the edge position.
The film
Pull up Abraham Sesay's film and the first thing that registers — before the statistics, before the recruiting ranking and before the offer list — is the physical profile. At 6-5 and 225 pounds with a frame that projects to carry significantly more weight as he develops under Notre Dame's strength and conditioning program, Sesay is built like the kind of edge rusher that keeps offensive coordinators awake at night.
Sesay has plus length with arms over 33 inches along with 10.25-inch hands — measurements that give him the kind of natural leverage advantage that most edge rushers spend years in a college weight room trying to manufacture. That length is not a passive attribute on Sesay's frame. It is an active weapon — the kind that allows him to keep offensive tackles at arm's length, disrupt their punch timing and win the initial engagement before blockers can establish their sets.
He explodes out of his stance with impressive burst, quickly threatening the edge and forcing offensive tackles into uncomfortable positions. His combination of size and speed allows him to win with raw athleticism, often beating blockers before they can properly set their feet.
Sesay shoots out of both a two and three-point stance with little wasted motion as he builds speed and cuts down escape paths for both quarterbacks and running backs. He efficiently redirects with his agility and play recognition. That ability to operate effectively from multiple stances gives Notre Dame's defensive staff the flexibility to deploy him in a variety of alignments without asking him to sacrifice his effectiveness — a versatility that elite edge rushers bring to defensive fronts and that makes the entire unit more difficult to scheme against.
Sesay tends to win with speed on the corner but can also play through contact, and further mass will only help improve his block destruction. He is already finding success on stunts and should offer some value as a situational interior rusher, especially as he adds weight.
Perhaps the most exciting physical element of Sesay's profile is what happens when his speed meets power at the point of contact. Sesay is a twitchy, fluid mover who looks to have the movement patterns suited for bending around the edge. He is loose and flexible in his lower body, flashes good first step quickness and easily converts speed to power — punching above his weight from a power perspective and capable of walking offensive tackles back to the quarterback with his bull rush.
A speed-to-power conversion at 6-5 with 33-inch arms is one of the most dangerous combinations an offensive tackle can face — and Sesay already does it naturally, before years of Notre Dame strength development have had the chance to add functional mass and power to a frame that is still growing into its full potential.
The Visit That Made Everything Official
Sesay arrived on campus for his official visit with a clear purpose — to use the weekend as a direct comparison tool against every other school at the top of his list. By the time the visit concluded, the comparison had produced a decisive and unambiguous answer.
The current players made the first impression. Bryce Young, Ebenezer Ewetade and Rodney Dunham — three of Notre Dame's most impactful defensive line contributors — spent significant time with Sesay during the visit, walking him through what it actually looks like to be a defensive lineman in Notre Dame's program. They showed him the culture of the room, the standard the program demands and what a player with his talent can become under Partridge's coaching. The message was direct — Sesay would be a great addition to the defensive line room and to the Fighting Irish program. Coming from players already living the experience, that message landed with an authenticity that no coaching staff pitch can replicate.
Partridge sees Sesay similarly to current star Boubacar Traore — playing off the edge and doing what No. 5 has done and what No. 5 is going to do. For a prospect evaluating his developmental path at the college level, hearing a position coach articulate a specific, vision-driven comparison to one of the program's most productive pass rushers is exactly the kind of concrete development promise that transforms interest into commitment.
The fellow official visitors added another compelling dimension to the weekend. Sesay raved about the other recruits on campus — describing them as amazing people whose character and quality immediately reflected the standard Notre Dame maintains in the kinds of individuals it recruits and wants in the program. Seeing the caliber of person that Notre Dame attracts reinforced that the commitment he was considering was about more than football — it was about the teammates, the community and the environment he would be surrounded by for four years.
The new facility tour gave Sesay a tangible look at the investment Notre Dame is making in its football future. The renderings of the finished product showed him not just where the program is right now but where it is going — the financial commitment, the administrative support and the vision of what Notre Dame football's infrastructure will look like throughout his college career. Seeing that investment communicated something that words alone never fully deliver — Notre Dame is serious about competing at the absolute highest level for a very long time.
And then there was Marcus Freeman — present not for the scheduled moments where head coaches traditionally appear, make their pitch and move on, but for the entire visit. Sesay specifically highlighted the combination of great education and resources, along with amazing football development, as central to his decision — and Marcus Freeman's genuine care for the program as a key factor in his choice. Freeman put in the work to get to know every family on campus personally — a level of head coach investment that Sesay specifically noticed and specifically valued because it is not the standard at every program he visited.
Charlie Partridge Closes Another Elite Pass Rusher
The Sesay commitment is the latest and perhaps most significant testament to what Charlie Partridge has built at Notre Dame in a remarkably short time. Notre Dame beat out Duke, Florida State and LSU for Sesay, with Partridge serving as a key piece whose long-time reputation for defensive line development gave Sesay the confidence that his path to elite college pass rusher ran through South Bend.
Partridge did not just win this recruitment with a facilities tour or a depth chart presentation. He won it with a relationship — built through multiple visits, genuine football dialogue and the kind of specific, vision-driven development promise that only coaches who truly understand the position at the highest level can make credibly. The extended conversations Sesay had with Partridge during the official visit proved just how strong the relationship between coach and prospect had become — and that relationship is now the foundation upon which Sesay's Notre Dame career will be built.
An impressive Defensive Line Class
Sesay's commitment pushes Notre Dame one step closer to their best overall defensive line recruiting haul in decades. He joins David Folorunsho — the No. 9 overall player and No. 2 defensive lineman nationally according to Rivals — as the second five-star defensive line commit in Notre Dame's 2027 class. Sesay will also join edge rushers Aidan O'Neil and Jackson Vaughn in what is becoming a loaded edge class, with all three commits embracing the competition that the room will demand.
Three edge rushers with legitimate pass rush credentials, complemented by Folorunsho's interior dominance — the defensive line class Notre Dame is assembling in 2027 reflects exactly the kind of trench-first, talent-driven recruiting philosophy that Marcus Freeman has preached since his first day as head coach.
Sesay becomes the 19th overall commitment in Notre Dame's 2027 recruiting class — and arguably the most impactful defensive addition yet in a class that keeps growing in both size and quality.
The Bottom Line
Abraham Sesay produced 13 sacks and over 80 tackles as a junior at Downingtown East. He earned first-team all-state, all-league and all-county honors on both sides of the ball. He brings a 6-5 frame with 33-inch arms, an explosive first step, elite speed-to-power conversion and a relentless motor that makes him a havoc-creator on every passing down. He is a five-star prospect, the second-ranked edge rusher in the 2027 class according to Rivals, and the No. 3 player in the state of Pennsylvania.
He chose Notre Dame over LSU, Penn State and Florida State — because of Charlie Partridge's development vision, because of what current players showed him the room can become, because of Marcus Freeman's genuine personal investment in every family on campus and because of what Notre Dame offers on and off the field that no other program on his list could fully match.
As Sesay himself said about Notre Dame — it is the combination of great education and football, the Notre Dame brand, the long history, the tradition and the great moral values. That is a great place to be able to play.
Abraham Sesay is a Fighting Irish. Charlie Partridge is building something historic in Notre Dame's defensive line room.
And the 2027 class just got its most explosive pass rusher yet.
chicago’s elite Defensive Tackle David Folorunsho Brings Top-10 Talent to Notre Dame
Notre Dame has landed one of the most uniquely gifted defensive tackles in the 2027 recruiting class, securing a commitment from Chicago's David Folorunsho — a St. Patrick standout whose combination of explosive speed, raw power and positional versatility makes him precisely the kind of defensive lineman that transforms how a coordinator can build and deploy a front. And in a story woven together by deep Notre Dame relationships at every level of his development, Folorunsho's path to South Bend feels less like a recruiting victory and more like an inevitable homecoming.
Folorunsho chose Notre Dame over Miami, Georgia, Michigan and Texas Tech, handing first-year defensive line coach Charlie Partridge one of the most significant early recruiting wins of his tenure and giving the Fighting Irish a cornerstone piece for a defensive front that is being built to play multiple looks, confuse offensive lines and dominate from the inside out.
A Swiss Army Knife on the Defensive Front
The first thing that jumps off the film when you watch David Folorunsho is that he doesn't fit neatly into a single box — and that is exactly what makes him so dangerous, and so valuable to Notre Dame's defensive system.
At 6-3 and 285 pounds, Folorunsho has the size, anchor and power to line up as a true nose tackle and own the interior against the run. But what separates him from a conventional space-eater is the explosion and lateral athleticism that allow him to slide outside, line up over a tackle and win in ways that interior linemen simply aren't supposed to win. He can two-gap, he can shoot gaps, he can be a three-technique on one snap and a nose on the next. That ability to play multiple alignments without losing effectiveness is rare at any level of football — at the high school level, it is almost unheard of.
For Notre Dame's defensive staff, this versatility is not a bonus — it is the foundation of why they wanted Folorunsho so badly in the first place. The ability to present different fronts, shift alignments pre-snap and keep offensive lines off balance requires players who can execute in multiple roles without hesitation. Folorunsho is exactly that player. He gives defensive coordinators a true chess piece — someone who can be the answer to multiple problems on any given game plan.
Explosive Speed That Redefines What an Interior Lineman Can Do
What truly elevates Folorunsho into the conversation as a national top-10 prospect is a first step that simply does not belong on a 285-pound defensive tackle — and yet there it is, every single snap, blowing up offensive linemen before they can establish their sets.
His get-off is elite. The moment the ball moves, Folorunsho is already in the backfield mentally and closing on the quarterback or ball carrier physically. That kind of explosion draws immediate comparisons to former Notre Dame defensive line standouts Sheldon Day and Rylie Mills — players who combined interior size with an athletic profile that made them impossible to account for on a one-on-one basis. Folorunsho is cut from that same cloth.
That speed off the line translates directly into production. In his dominant junior season at St. Patrick, Folorunsho posted 55 tackles, 18 tackles for loss and five sacks — numbers that reflect a player who is not waiting for plays to come to him but actively hunting them down with first-step quickness that offensive linemen at the high school level simply cannot match. As he continues to develop that explosion under Notre Dame's elite strength and conditioning program, the production that made the entire country take notice will only grow.
His hands are equally impressive — fast, strong and violent at the point of contact. He doesn't just use his speed to get into the backfield; he uses his hands to win the leverage battle and finish plays with authority. The combination of an elite first step with fast, powerful hands is what allows Folorunsho to rack up tackles for loss against double teams, against chip blocks, against every scheme an offensive coordinator has thrown at him. He finds a way to win.
Power That Anchors the Run Defense
Speed and versatility tell only part of the Folorunsho story. The other half is the kind of raw, physical power that allows Notre Dame to line him up in the middle of the field and simply dare opposing offenses to run at him.
Folorunsho's ability to anchor against double teams, absorb contact without losing ground and still make plays at the point of attack gives Notre Dame's defensive front a true run-stuffing anchor when the game plan calls for it. He is not a finesse player who disappears when the line of scrimmage becomes a phone booth — he thrives in that environment just as much as he does in open-field pursuit.
That balance of speed and power is what gives Notre Dame's defensive staff the freedom to be genuinely creative with their front structures. They can ask Folorunsho to be a disruptive, gap-shooting interior pass rusher on one series and a two-gap run-stopper on the next. Offensive coordinators cannot simply account for one dimension of his game — they have to prepare for all of them, and that is an enormous advantage for a Notre Dame defense that wants to make life as complicated as possible for opposing offenses.
The Notre Dame Brotherhood That Brought Him Home
David Folorunsho's commitment to Notre Dame is not simply the result of a great recruiting pitch. It is the product of relationships built over years by people who love Notre Dame deeply and poured that love into a young man who was watching and absorbing all of it.
The head coach at St. Patrick is Tom Zbikowski — a name that needs no introduction in South Bend. Zbikowski was one of the most celebrated safeties in Notre Dame history, a hard-hitting, instinct-driven defender whose toughness and competitive fire defined his Irish career. As the head coach guiding Folorunsho's development at St. Patrick, Zbikowski brought Notre Dame's standard of toughness, discipline and preparation to the program every single day. Folorunsho didn't just hear about what it means to be a Notre Dame football player — he was coached by one, shaped by one and held to that standard throughout his high school career.
The Notre Dame thread runs even deeper at St. Patrick. School president Dan Santucci is himself a former Notre Dame starter and a teammate of Zbikowski's with the Fighting Irish. The culture inside St. Patrick's walls — the standard of excellence, the pride in academics, the understanding of what Notre Dame football demands — is not incidental. It is baked into the institution by men who lived it. Folorunsho has been immersed in that environment from the moment he arrived at St. Patrick, long before Notre Dame's coaching staff ever made a formal offer.
And then there is Kerry Neal of WIN Performance, Folorunsho's trainer — a man whose fingerprints are all over the physical transformation and athletic development that turned a three-star prospect into a consensus Top-10 national recruit almost overnight. Neal's work with Folorunsho refined the explosiveness, built the functional strength and honed the technical skills that made the entire country take notice after his junior season. The elite first step, the violent hands, the ability to play with leverage and power at 285 pounds — Neal had a major hand in building all of it. Notre Dame isn't just getting a great player; they're getting a great player who has been developed by an elite trainer who understood exactly how to maximize his gifts.
Together, Zbikowski, Santucci and Neal form a triangle of trusted, Notre Dame-connected mentors who shaped David Folorunsho at every level — on the field, in the weight room and within the walls of his school. When Notre Dame came calling, Folorunsho wasn't hearing about the program for the first time. He already knew what it stood for. He had been living it.
Charlie Partridge Wins Big in Year One
The significance of this commitment for first-year defensive line coach Charlie Partridge cannot be overstated. Landing the No. 2 defensive tackle in the country — the No. 9 overall prospect nationally according to Rivals and On3 — against Georgia, Michigan, Miami and Texas Tech in his very first recruiting cycle at Notre Dame is a statement that echoes across the entire college football landscape. Partridge didn't need a grace period. He identified the right player, built the right relationships and delivered one of the biggest defensive line commitments Notre Dame has seen in years.
A Class That Keeps Getting Better
Folorunsho becomes the 17th commitment in Notre Dame's 2027 recruiting class, joining a group that already features quarterback Champ Monds, running backs Lathan Whisenton and Isaiah Rogers, wide receiver Jackson Coleman, tight end Titus Hawk, offensive linemen Olu Olubobola, Jackson Hill, James Halter and Richie Flanigan, defensive end Aidan O'Neil, linebacker Amarri Irvin, cornerbacks Xavier Hasan and Ace Alston, safety Zayden Gamble, nickel John Gay III and long snapper Sean Kraft.
Adding a consensus Top-10 national prospect with Folorunsho's unique skill set doesn't just deepen the class — it changes the ceiling of what this Notre Dame defense can become.
The Bottom Line
David Folorunsho is the rare defensive tackle who can do everything — stop the run with power, rush the passer with elite speed and line up in multiple alignments without losing a step. He is a versatile, explosive, physically dominant interior defender who gives Notre Dame's defensive staff the freedom to be as creative and multiple as any front in college football.
He is also a Chicago kid who was raised in a Notre Dame household by a Notre Dame coaching legend, developed by an elite trainer in Kerry Neal, and supported by a school president who wore the same Notre Dame uniform. When David Folorunsho commits to the Fighting Irish, it isn't just a recruiting win. It is a family reunion — and Notre Dame's defensive front of the future is better for it.
Charlie Partridge looking to turn up the pressure
The impact of new defensive line coach Charlie Partridge was on display as several Irish defensive linemen met with the assembled media after their seventh practice. Before they walked to the podium, their new leader shared his thoughts on how he’s re-shaping how the front four has been challenged to focus on consistently pass rushing collectively. .
Last season, the Irish sacked opposing quarterbacks 43 times and hurried them 210 times, but they were key moments in games where they allowed open lanes for players like Texas A&M quarterback Marcel Reed to scramble for first downs. Partridge has set the tone for his position room by setting a focus for each day.
“We're leaning in on pass rush lanes. I know Coach Freeman talked about that the other day with the media group.”
“That's something we've put a big emphasis on while still pass rushing aggressively, pass rushing together as a unit. Because so many times, if you don't pay attention to that, you may have somebody have a great rush and win on one side, but if you're not in good lanes on the other, it was for naught. So we put a big focus on that, and today's focus, like I said, was aggressively attacking our keys in the run.”
As he learns his athletes, Partridge has been able to lean on the familiarity he has with defensive coordinator Chris Ash to help with his transition. The relationship is built on mutual respect with an understanding that disagreement is not about personal feelings. They haven’t worked together since 2013, when they were both on the Arkansas Razorback staff. However, they’ve always been in contact with one another, including last season when he was a defensive line coach in the NFL for the Indianapolis Colts.
“It's kind of what I said when I got here, guys. I mean, me and Chris, our background goes so much. We've been through so much together in the football world that we can argue or discuss things that maybe we don't see the same way, and there's no feelings. You don't have to worry about hurting each other's feelings. Even if we get to a point where we're maybe arguing about something, it's all about getting together and getting on the same page, and then it's very, very healthy. He hasn't let me down one bit.”
“It's been a while since we've worked together. Last time we were together was Arkansas in 2013. Yeah, it was 2013, so it's been a while, but we talk all the time, and he's exactly what I knew he would be.”
With returning edge rushers like Boubacar Traore and Bryce Young, and the additions of defensive tackle transfers Francis Brewu and Tionne Gray. the Fighting Irish are working hard during spring practices to have four pass rushing threats that should lead to a more disciplined and consistent rush for opposing offenses. The linebacking corp added 13.5 sacks last season, but that number could decrease if the plans being laid by Partridge and his players continue to manifest through the rest of spring and fall camps into the regular season.
brian jean-mary loves talent and experience in lb room
While at Michigan and other stops like Tennessee in his coaching career, Brian Jean-Mary has consistently developed tough minded linebacker room that were good against the run and the pass. Now, he brings that magic to South Bend to replace former linebackers coach Max Bullough who returned to Michigan State, his alma mater, to be the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for Pat Fitzgerald.
He was the last hire of three new defensive assistants for head coach Marcus Freeman along with new defensive line coach Charlie Partridge and new defensive backs coach and co-defensive coordinator Aaron Henry. The linebacker room that he inherits is not short on talent or experience with five players totaling more than 100 snaps in 2025, and that’s something that has Jean-Mary excited.
"I had a little bit of an idea of what we were doing defensively and watched player wise some crossover tape," Jean-Mary explained. "I always admired from afar and now that I'm here, every new coach is going to try to dive into the film and try to learn as much as you can about the system. You have to build trust with the players and they have to get to know me the same way I have to get to know them. They've done a great job of opening themselves up and letting me pour into them. It's been great."
The Notre Dame defense got off to a slow start last season, but managed to remain stout against the run for the second straight season, giving up 98.9 rushing yards per game (9th in the nation) and 3 yards per rush (7th in the nation). That type of production from a unit that found a better footing in Chris Ash’s defense with each game is a great foundation, and a little pressure for the veteran coach.
"It's one of the best jobs in the country," Jean-Mary stated. "It's a blessing to be in a situation where we know what the expectations are every week; we know what the expectations are at the end of the year. Some people look at that as pressure. There's only certain schools that have that type of pressure. So when the standard is to be the best, that's a challenge for us as coaches and that's what you want to be a part of. I've been at those other places where the challenge is to just have a good season. I know that's not the case here."
One of the biggest advantages that he brings to the Irish staff is the relationship he has with some of the top 2027 and 2028 recruits that began while he was at Michigan. The 2027 board suffred the loss of Ellis McGaskin once Max Bullough left for Michigan State, but connections with players like Kaden Henderson, Noah Roberts, Roman Igwebuike and Brayton Feister immediately upgraded the board for the Irish.