It’s no secret that Notre Dame football is on one heck of a run recruiting wise. They recently racked up several high profile commitments from some of the best players in the 2026 class. Those commitments included 4-star offensive lineman Gregory Patrick. It turns out that his commitment isn’t the end of the story.
In fact, Patrick’s father, Joseph took to X not long after his son pulled the trigger and had some things to say. At issue appears to be that Patrick hails from the state of Michigan. He is in fact another in what has been an interesting string of Michigan natives heading to South Bend. It appears that one On3 Michigan beat writer has been up to his old tricks in part because Patrick chose the Fighting Irish.
“For whom it may concern: any insight a certain UM recruiting reporter might be giving into my son's recruitment and his selection of Notre Dame are straight out lies,” the elder Patrick wrote. “Unless he knows more about his recruitment than his father.”
--The amount of time they have is finite, and if my son wasn't a player they wanted they surely had a weird strategy of offering him a scholarship as a sophomore and having on him on numerous visits and Coach Moore visiting his school twice. UM did a great job recruiting him..
— joseph patrick (@josephpatrick20) April 15, 2025
Notre Dame football commit’s family defends recruiting decision
Joseph didn’t called out EJ Holland by name, but he is the most prominent On3 Michigan beat writer. He’s also someone who has found himself in this kind of issue before. He once covered Notre Dame but was either fired or moved on depending on who you talk to. What is clear is that he’s long had a bone to pick with the Irish. Now an Irish commit’s family has a bone to pick with him.
Joseph Patrick went on to not specifically say which lies were told, but he did make it pretty clear the claims centered around a few issues:
“NIL was never discussed and it wasn't a factor in this decision. ND has NIL--THAT IS WHAT WE KNOW. Culture, relationships, education, development, tradition..that is what drove the decision. Nothing but respect for the UM program and their coaches.”
Patrick also alluded to comments made that perhaps Michigan never wanted the 4-star offensive lineman and that’s why he chose Notre Dame.
“The amount of time they have is finite, and if my son wasn't a player they wanted they surely had a weird strategy of offering him a scholarship as a sophomore and having on him on numerous visits and Coach Moore visiting his school twice. UM did a great job recruiting him”
Should Holland be the writer the player’s father is talking about, it would certainly fit what he’s done before. What is known at this point is that once the smoke cleared on Gregory Patrick’s recruitment, he chose the Notre Dame football team. That’s what’s really important here.