Darieon Prescott isn't waiting around. The Bolingbrook, Illinois product just wrapped up his sophomore season and he's already off the board, committing to Notre Dame over a finalist group that included Oregon and Texas A&M. For a kid who's ranked as high as No. 7 overall in some services' 2028 rankings, that's the kind of early, decisive pledge that gets recruiting departments buzzing.
Hayes Fawcett broke the commitment news for Rivals, laying out the 6-foot-5, 250-pound edge's decision and where he landed in the industry rankings.
The numbers on Prescott jump off the page depending on which service you trust. Rivals has him at No. 18 nationally, 247Sports slots him at No. 7 overall and No. 3 among edge rushers, while ESPN pegs him at No. 36 overall but still top-10 at his position. However you round it, he's a five-star, and as a sophomore he put up 65 tackles, 14 for loss, 26 pressures and 5 sacks — the kind of production that gets a kid recruited before he's driving to school himself.
Notre Dame's lead recruiter on Prescott was Charlie Partridge, who's set to take over as the program's defensive line coach, and reports out of the recruitment framed the decision as being about culture and relationships as much as anything on the depth chart. That tracks with how Marcus Freeman has built this program — the Irish have made pass rush development a calling card, and landing a blue-chip edge this early in the cycle is a statement to the rest of the 2028 class.
Beating out Oregon and Texas A&M matters too. Both programs have been aggressive in the portal and on the recruiting trail under their own staffs, and neither is an easy team to out-recruit for a top-20-caliber prospect. For Notre Dame, it's another data point that the program can go head-to-head with the SEC and the Pac-12's resurgent Oregon machine and win on pitch alone, not just tradition.
It's still 2028, so plenty can change between now and signing day — commitments this early are pledges of intent, not contracts. But for a fan base that's watched the Irish churn out disruptive defensive linemen for years, getting a five-star this locked in this soon is exactly the kind of early win Freeman's staff wants on the board.