The Notre Dame football team has taken a ton of heat for its recruiting or lack of recruiting prowess this year. However, things started to change rather dramatically on Saturday afternoon.
The Fighting Irish secured their first commitment of 2025 in the form of 4-star edge Ebenezer Ewetade. And while it’s certainly a big deal that Marcus Freeman and company got their first commit of the year, that doesn’t actually fit into the list of reasons why this is an absolute massive get.
Notre Dame football beat out some serious power teams
Before he committed to the Irish on Saturday, Ewetade held offers from 16 Power Four schools before narrowing his recruitment to a top five of Florida State, Georgia, Alabama, Notre Dame and NC State. Among the other schools involved were Ohio State and Penn State.
BREAKING: Four-Star EDGE Ebenezer Ewetade has Committed to Notre Dame, he tells me for @on3recruits
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) April 5, 2025
The 6’4 230 EDGE from Raleigh, NC chose the Fighting Irish over Alabama, Georgia, & NC State
He’s ranked as the No. 36 Recruit in ‘26 (per On3)
“AGTG”https://t.co/4WURqYAkgI pic.twitter.com/icuNMdJDZT
That’s an incredible list of who’s-who that the Irish beat out. It can’t be overstated how important it is both for the present and the future that the Blue and Gold are able to demonstrate and ability to outrecruit the likes of Georgia and Alabama. Not to mention Ohio State.
Ebenezer Ewetade was an absolute nightmare for opponents
The 6’4” 221 lb Edge has shown that he can be a game changer on the defensive side of the ball. That’s why he was a 4-star prospect and the 10th best player in the state of North Carolina according to 247Sports Composite Rankings.
In 9 games as a junior in 2024, he posted 82 tackles, 28 stops for loss, 10 sacks and 5 forced fumbles. He’s often given props for being especially aggressive and quick. That will be fun to watch at the next level.
Notre Dame gets a boost in the commitment class
The Irish were somewhere in the low end of the Top 15 among most major recruiting services before today. They jumped from 16th to 11th in On3 rankings and inside the Top 10 on 247Sports.
This far away from December, that’s not a huge deal. However, Notre Dame football has a few more commits lineup up for June if all goes well. That is going to look good when trying to convince other big name players come to South Bend.