Five-Star edge Rodney Dunham announced his commitment to Notre Dame on Thursday. A member of the 2026 class, Dunham hails from North Carolina.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d always go on a visit and compare each school to Notre Dame and say it doesn\u2019t give everything Notre Dame has,\u201d Dunham said to On3.com<\/em>. \u201cThere is only one place like Notre Dame, and it\u2019s Notre Dame. I grew up and realized the cold doesn\u2019t matter. I have to play in the cold someday. Then I picked the school for me.\u201d<\/p>\n The coveted Dunham, a formidable 6\u2019-4,\u201d 225 pounds, ultimately chose Notre Dame over Duke, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. He had additional offers from Alabama, Florida State, LSU, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Oregon.<\/p>\n In On3.com<\/em>\u2019s rankings, Dunham is the nation\u2019s No. 19 overall player and the No. 3 edge in his class. Irish head coach Marcus Freeman, defensive line coach Al Washington, and defensive line analyst Nick Sebastian all played integral roles in landing Dunham.<\/p>\n \u201cHe seems to be just a genuine person,\u201d Dunham\u2019s father, Rodney Sr., said of Freeman to Blue & Gold<\/em>. \u201cVery genuine. He speaks what he believes, and that\u2019s very important. Head coaches like to have like-minded assistants. Al\u2019s a very genuine, down-to-earth guy. He seems to be a good family man. The thing that stood out most is that he\u2019s a teacher. He\u2019s extremely detailed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe sat in on one of the meetings,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019ve been in some other team room meetings, and Coach Washington is extremely detailed. Down to every twitch, every move. That\u2019s really good. A great guy who\u2019s genuine and open.\u201d<\/p>\n As a junior at Myers Park in 2024, Dunham proved to be a force on defense for the Mustangs. He racked up 39 tackles with 10 going for a loss. He consistently pressured the quarterback, registering five sacks and 16 hurries. Dunham\u2019s standout 2023 season further illustrated his impact. That year, he recorded 54 tackles (16 for loss), six sacks, and an astounding 20 quarterback hurries. He demonstrated his all-around athleticism with three interceptions, three pass breakups, and a blocked field goal.<\/p>\n Dunham is Notre Dame\u2019s ninth commitment in the 2026 class. He is the second defensive line verbal, joining Ebenezer Ewetade, who committed a week earlier. Ewetade ranks as the No. 128 overall player and the No. 18 edge, according to On3.com<\/em>.<\/p>\n The 94th<\/sup> edition of Notre Dame\u2019s Blue-Gold Game<\/a> takes place on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET. Played at Notre Dame Stadium, this year\u2019s game will be broadcast live on Peacock.<\/p>\n The Blue-Gold Game will likely offer limited clues as to which of the three quarterbacks is trending to become QB1. Steve Angeli<\/a>, CJ Carr<\/a>, and Kenny Minchey<\/a> have reportedly looked good through spring practice. However, the absence of much of the starting offensive line, coupled with sidelined wide receivers<\/a>, and Jeremiyah Love<\/a>\u2019s participation limited, creates an environment far removed from normal game-day conditions. As a result, the Blue-Gold game may provide snippets. But any true evaluation of who holds the edge under center will have to wait, leaving the quarterback competition a compelling question mark heading into the summer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Main Image: \u00a0MICHAEL CLUBB\/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Five-Star edge Rodney Dunham announced his commitment to Notre Dame on Thursday. A member of the 2026 class, Dunham hails from North Carolina. \u201cI\u2019d always go on a visit and compare each school to Notre Dame and say it doesn\u2019t give everything Notre Dame has,\u201d Dunham said to On3.com. \u201cThere is only one place like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4854,"featured_media":73429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10906,8,11,35676,7316],"tags":[3109,35025,6850,35024,259,35026],"class_list":["post-73426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cfb","category-fbs","category-independents","category-notre-dame-fighting-irish","category-recruiting","tag-al-washington","tag-ebenezer-ewetade","tag-marcus-freeman","tag-nick-sebastian","tag-notre-dame-fighting-irish","tag-rodney-dunham-sr"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4854"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73426"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73432,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73426\/revisions\/73432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Rodney Dunham: An Elite Talent Headed to South Bend<\/h3>\n
Blue-Gold Game Set for Saturday<\/h3>\n