Top 2024 S Peyton Woodyard Has Unreal Notre Dame Experience

2024 St. John Bosco (Calif.) safety Peyton Woodyard‍ made his first trip out to Notre Dame over the summer and left blown away by what he learned about the program. 

The 6-foot-1, 175-pounder returned to South Bend on Saturday and left super impressed with what he saw on and off the field. 

"The whole atmosphere during the game - I had never been to a game where it was that packed to the brim," Woodyard told ISD. "The student section was doing the pushups and throwing kids up in the air. It was just crazy and an unreal experience." 

The opportunity to see Marcus Freeman's defense and safeties coach Chris O'Leary in action was important as that was something Woodyard hadn't done. 

"I got to learn a lot about how tough they are, but they're also a really smart defense," explained Woodyard. "I spoke with Coach O'Leary and he talked about how they'd use me in the back end of the defense." 

Notre Dame made the early move to offer Woodyard during the summer and the California native makes sure to call O'Leary at least once a week. 

"Coach O'Leary is my guy," stated Woodyard. "I talk to him weekly. He said he'd use me in a role like Kyle (Hamilton). It's exciting because I'm in high school and I blitz off the edge, play coverage and I can also go play deep quarters and in the middle of the field. I'm doing a lot of everything now, so it was exciting to hear I could do the same thing in college." 

Speaking of Hamilton, Woodyard was able to connect with his cousin before and after the game and other top recruits on campus. 

"I got to hang out with Kyle and I saw him today too," Woodyard said. "I talked to Xavier (Nwankpa) and he's a real cool guy. I like his game and it'd be cool if we went to the same college. 

"I got to meet a lot of other recruits and that was a fun experience. I met some of the commits. I met Drayk Bowen. I met up with Julian Sayin, the quarterback from San Diego in my class and Hero Kanu and we actually played each other on Friday night. We beat them like 41-16." 

As far as a commitment, Woodyard is taking his time, but Notre Dame has set a bar.

"Not right now," laughed Woodyard. "Notre Dame is definitely high up on my list, especially with them coming at me this early in my recruitment. They're definitely at the top of my list." 

Offers: Alabama, Arizona, Arizona State, Boston College, Florida International, Florida State, Georgia, Kansas, LSU, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Oregon State, Penn State, UNLV and USC

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