Recent Notre Dame offer could be foreshadowing unfortunate recruiting flaw the team still needs to find answers for
Notre Dame football has been on quite the roll with defensive line recruiting recently. Defensive line coach Al Washington and the Irish staff have managed to close on five-star pass rusher Rodney Dunham recently, as well as toolsy defensive end Ebenezer Ewetade. They are riding a lot of momentum. While defensive end recruiting is on […]
Notre Dame football has been on quite the roll with defensive line recruiting recently. Defensive line coach Al Washington and the Irish staff have managed to close on five-star pass rusher Rodney Dunham recently, as well as toolsy defensive end Ebenezer Ewetade. They are riding a lot of momentum.
While defensive end recruiting is on another level right now, the interior does still bring some question marks. Notre Dame is in a really good place with 2026 Bastrop (Texas) High School defensive tackle Tiki Hola who is announcing his college decision on May 10th. If Hola does select the Irish over finalists SMU and USC, it’ll be an important grab.
With Jared Dawson, Jason Onye, and Gabriel Rubio all running out of eligibility after this season, Notre Dame will have several to fill. They are interested in adding another interior player to the class, but outside of Hola, the board isn’t overly positive right now.
They are still actively recruiting players like Noah Clark and Khary Wilder, but there is a lot of work in front of them. Notre Dame has also faded with Florida star Elijah Golden. The Irish staff did opt to expand the defensive tackle board this week, which may be somewhat telling. Liberty Hill (Texas) High School defensive tackle Alister Vallejo was offered on Monday, and he brings a very odd recruiting profile right now.
Vallejo isn’t currently ranked by any major recruiting platform. His offer list has been expanding more and more this offseason. Some of his top offers currently include the Fighting Irish, Ole Miss, Oklahoma State, SMU, Kansas, Oregon State, Houston, Memphis, and Sacramento State.
The 6-4, 295-pound defensive tackle is coming off of a strong season for Liberty Hill. In 11 games, Vallejo managed to record 51 total tackles, nine tackles for loss, and seven sacks. He also posted another 16 quarterback hurries and four blocked kicks. Vallejo brings a modest recruiting profile right now, but does have some upside worth keeping tabs on.
Remaining top targets on Notre Dame’s 2026 WR recruiting board following the Bubba Frazier commitment
Remaining wide receiver targets on the board for Notre Dame
