Notre Dame’s vaunted recruiting class in 2023 took a serious hit as an elite defensive end Keon Keeley has announced that he is retiring from the Fighting Irish program and is resuming his recruitment.
Keeley became the first player to sign for Notre Dame in the Class of 2023, signing with the Irish over a year ago (June 28, 2021). At that time he was not considered a top recruit, but then he was considered a defensive coordinator Markus Freiman saw elite potential in Keeley and made a strong attempt to win him over.
Keeley jumped on board and has long been a firm commitment, including encouraging other players to join him in class. Since then, however, Keeley has been a national recruit and is now considered a five-star player. Programs like Alabama and Ohio State, schools that didn’t think highly of Keeley when Freeman landed him, eventually got involved.
Although Keeley has been engaged for over a year, he has decided to officially attend these programs — and likely others as well — despite having made one trip to Ohio State and several trips to Alabama. Rather than remain committed to Notre Dame, Keeley has decided to resume his recruitment.
Notre Dame has a policy under Freeman that it will not accept players signed to other programs, and it does not want its signings to attend other schools for official visits. Keeley decided it was important for him to make official visits, so he made the decision to back off his commitment and resume his recruitment.
Notre Dame still wants Keeley in the class and plans to continue recruiting the standout defensive end. According to sources, Keeley plans to continue thinking about Notre Dame and there was a lot of thought about possibly staying engaged and continuing to visit, but he eventually chose to drop out of the class.
Recruiting Keeley will continue to be a top priority, but when a player de-obliges, it rarely ends with him going back to the class he was originally a part of. We’ve seen it in the past at Notre Dame (Stephen Tuitt, Aaron Lynch), but rarely occurs. That means Notre Dame needs to expand its board and try to re-engage with other prospects it passed on to focus on Keeley.
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Contents of the Irish breakdown
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Notre Dame 2022 squad
Notre Dame 2022 schedule
Large plaque of the Notre Dame 2023 class
Notre Dame 2023 Commit Board – Offensive
Notre Dame 2023 Commits Board – Defense
Notre Dame 2023 Scholarship Offers
Notre Dame 2024 Scholarship Offers
Ranking The Signatories of 2022 – Offensive
2022 Signatory Ranking – Defense
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