The day has come to find out if Notre Dame football will be adding another elite prospect to its 2026 recruiting class, as Pennsylvania 4-star safety Joey O’Brien will make his commitment later today at 7:15 p.m. ET.
The 6-foot, 3-inch and 185-pound star will be picking either Penn State, Oregon, Clemson or the Irish, and whoever wins out on his recruitment will be getting one of the nation’s best. O’Brien is currently ranked as the No. 65 overall prospect in the cycle according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings.
Many recruiting insiders have weighed in on who they believe O’Brien will pick, and starting off with 247Sports where there are two predictions, both having him selecting Notre Dame. It’s not just Irish insiders making the pick, as Austin Hannon, a Tigers reporter, also picked the Irish on Wednesday.
Over at On3, they also like the Irish’s chances, as 91.4% of their predictions have the Blue and Gold winning out. Their data is gathered from insiders, social sentiment, historical data and more.
Finally, looking at what Rivals thinks happens with O’Brien, they also like Notre Dame’s chances, with every one of its FutureCast’s going in favor of the Irish. At one point Richard O’Leary has picked the Nittany Lions, but changed his mind and switched over to the Irish.
Just by looking at the major three recruiting outlets, it very much looks like Notre Dame will be landing a star safety in O’Brien later today.
This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Recruiting insiders pick who they think 2026 star safety Joey O’Brien will commit to
Reporting by Michael Chen , Fighting Irish Wire / Fighting Irish Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
