Lucky Charms: Intel on a pair of big 2025 Notre Dame recruits, more

Here are today’s Lucky Charms, a Monday-Thursday insider notes article on Notre Dame football recruiting.

*** I’ve spent a lot of my week digging on where things stand with Winter Garden (Fla.) West Orange’s Ivan Taylor, who ranks as the nation’s No. 59 overall recruit and No. 7 safety according to the 2025 On3 Industry Ranking. Taylor has been committed to Notre Dame since December but opened up his recruitment when he took an official visit to Alabama, plus a trip to Florida yesterday, and he’ll be at Michigan this weekend.

In my Gold Standard article that I published a couple days ago, I wrote that I was losing my optimism that the Irish would be able to keep him in the class. But as I’ve continued to make more calls this week, I’m getting some of that optimism back. I can’t share many details, but things are going really well with Taylor and Notre Dame this week. He had a productive call with position coach Mike Mickens today as well. The Steelers-ND connections that are well documented play a role here, plus his strong connections with the other Irish commits.

We’ll see where it goes; I’m not saying it’s a lock that Taylor sticks. But I have more sources who feel that Taylor isn’t going to flip. This is encouraging.

*** Notre Dame would like to land a top high school kicker in the 2025 cycle, and the staff has circled Milwaukee (Wis.) Marquette’s Erik Schmidt as the name to know. This would be as a preferred walk-on, but Schmidt has scholarship options. Wisconsin and Boston College have offers on the table for Schmidt, and Michigan has a PWO out to him. Schmidt visited Notre Dame this week and had a great meeting with Irish head coach Marcus Freeman from what I’m told. Special teams coordinator Marty Biagi is leading the charge in the recruitment.

*** In the 2024 cycle, Notre Dame tried to flip defensive line recruit Nnamdi Ogboko away from Georgia, but its efforts were unsuccessful. The Irish are recruiting his younger brother though. Ekene Ogboko, who ranks as the nation’s No. 18 overall player and No. 4 offensive tackle per the 2026 On3 Industry Ranking, picked up an offer from Notre Dame for Pot of Gold day and keeps in regular contact with Joe Rudolph and the staff.

During an interview with On3’s Chad Simmons, Ogboko mentioned Notre Dame as a school that he’s interested in.

“I like Notre Dame’s o-line development with coach Joe Rudolph. What he did with Joe Alt was impressive. I like Joe Alt as a player. He plays nasty and has great technique and great size. I could definitely see myself playing there. 

“Also, the academics there are great while you are playing football. They have nice facilities too. I definitely like Notre Dame. I think they’re trying to build a winning culture there. I can see where they’re going with that program.”  

Georgia is currently considered the team to beat for Ogboko.

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