A top recruit learned what all Notre Dame fans already know about South Bend

Late visit to South Bend flippeds 4-star defensive back to Notre Dame football, highlighting Freeman's recruiting pull
Todd Kirkland/GettyImages

When the Notre Dame football team landed 4-star defensive back Joey O'Brien, it was obviously a huge deal for very obvious reasons. One aspect of his recruitment and subsequent recruitment people may not have known before now, however, is how close he came to not being a member of the Fighting Irish class.

It turns out that the fight for the Pennsylvania standout was a title weight fight between several powerful programs, including Notre Dame and Oregon. And according to Mike Singer of On3, the Ducks almost won the day. Until O'Brien went to South Bend and realized he'd be missing something really special if he decided to commit to Dan Lanning's program.

Notre Dame football lands 4-star DB Joey O’Brien after Oregon nearly won his commitment

"I was set on Oregon after my official visit there," one of the newest commits to the Notre Dame football program told Singer. However, before closing out his recruitment, O'Brien realized he had some unfinished business.

"I was thinking, Notre Dame has been there from the beginning. Let me be respectful, give them their visit and I'll go to Oregon after."

O'Brien was that close to never being a member of the Irish's 2026 class. Notre Dame was more of an afterthought than anything. A way for the defensive back to be classy and thank Marcus Freeman and his staff for showing so much interest in him.

"But the first night on my Notre Dame OV it all changed," O'Brien added. "I was like, 'wow this place is amazing.'"

And that was that. O'Brien decided he preferred the Notre Dame football program over Oregon. He chose the Blue Blood program on the rise over the Big Ten upstart. And now it looks like he's one of those unflippable prospects that Freeman will be pointing to in a few years as one of the reasons he's managed to have so much success since taking over for Brian Kelly.