Notre Dame\u2019s red-hot recruiting spree continued Friday as the Fighting Irish secured verbal commitments from five-star safety Joey O\u2019Brien and four-star cornerback Khary Adams. With defensive backs coach Mike Mickens playing an instrumental role in landing the latest top-tier recruits, Marcus Freeman’s Irish appear poised to be building a defensive powerhouse for years to come.<\/p>\n
From Pennsylvania, O\u2019Brien is an elite two-way player with the ability to impact both sides of the ball for the Irish. He selected Notre Dame over Penn State and Oregon, among others. O\u2019Brien is a high school teammate of four-star offensive tackle Grayson McKeogh<\/a>, who announced his commitment to Notre Dame earlier in the week.<\/p>\n Adams, from Maryland, selected Notre Dame over Penn State, Oregon, Michigan, and South Carolina. Adams was the 18th<\/sup> player to commit to Notre Dame in the 2026 class and the third defensive back. He joins Ayden Pouncey from Florida and Chaston Smith from Tennessee.<\/p>\n The highly coveted O\u2019Brien is the No. 1-ranked player in the state of Pennsylvania. On offense, he racked up 1,029 receiving yards, a school record, last season as a junior. He scored 16 touchdowns as a wide receiver and had 13 pass breakups as a safety. At 6\u20194,\u201d O\u2019Brien has good height. He plays with quick acceleration and possesses excellent hands. His ball skills translate to the defensive side of the ball as well. It remains to be seen just how the Irish will best utilize O\u2019Brien. But he seems like a sure bet to fortify the secondary and bring some electricity to the wide receiver unit as well.<\/p>\n Adams, who stands 6\u20192,\u201d is the third-ranked corner and 36th<\/sup>-ranked player in the nation according to 24\/7Sports. Like O\u2019Brien, Adams also flexes his muscles at wide receiver. With a solid frame and length, Adams has drawn comparisons to former Notre Dame star Cam Hart<\/a> (drafted by the San Diego Chargers in the 2024 NFL Draft). Adams covers an incredible amount of ground and boasts excellent speed. He appears to have all the attributes that Mickens looks for in a cornerback.<\/p>\n While junior Christian Gray<\/a>, sophomore Leonard Moore<\/a>, and sophomore Adon Shuler<\/a> will hold down the secondary this season, the arrival of O’Brien and Adams signals a step forward for the future of Notre Dame’s defense.\u00a0O\u2019Brien brings elite ball-hawking skills and a commanding presence to both sides of the ball. Adams owns a blend of length and speed and is a shutdown corner. Together, they provide Notre Dame with the foundational talent needed to compete at the highest level far into the future. Their commitments are big recruiting wins for Notre Dame.<\/p>\n Main Photo: Matt Cashore-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Notre Dame\u2019s red-hot recruiting spree continued Friday as the Fighting Irish secured verbal commitments from five-star safety Joey O\u2019Brien and four-star cornerback Khary Adams. With defensive backs coach Mike Mickens playing an instrumental role in landing the latest top-tier recruits, Marcus Freeman’s Irish appear poised to be building a defensive powerhouse for years to come. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4854,"featured_media":74696,"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":[8,1479,11,35676,7316],"tags":[35219,35220,79,35132,35135,6850,8486,259],"class_list":["post-74693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fbs","category-editorials","category-independents","category-notre-dame-fighting-irish","category-recruiting","tag-ayden-pouncey","tag-chaston-smith","tag-college-football","tag-joey-obrien","tag-khary-adams","tag-marcus-freeman","tag-mike-mickens","tag-notre-dame-fighting-irish"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74693","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=74693"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74697,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74693\/revisions\/74697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Joey O\u2019Brien: An Elite Two-Way Player<\/h3>\n
Khary Adams Brings Speed and Length to the Secondary<\/h3>\n
Final Thoughts<\/h3>\n