2026 OL Carson Nielsen Enjoys First Notre Dame Trip

Carson Nielsen‍ made his first trip to Notre Dame this weekend and the 2026 Iowa offensive lineman was impressed.

“It went really well,” Nielsen told Irish Sports Daily afterward. “It's a really cool place. I got to talk to the o-line coach. I liked it a lot, just being there.”

The 6-foot-7, 275-pound sophomore already has offers from Iowa State, Kansas State and North Dakota State.

“It feels really good,” he said of the early offers. “It's a blessing to have them so young. They're really good schools too, so I'm excited about it.”

He came into Saturday’s trip with a high opinion of Notre Dame.

“They always produce good o-linemen, and it's Notre Dame,” he said. “They always have a good team, and the coach is really good.”

He enjoyed his chat with Irish offensive line coach Joe Rudolph.

“We just talked about the offseason and coming back down soon, coming back down for camp and some basketball and some stuff like that,” said Nielsen.

He may not be exactly sure when he’ll return next, but he does know he will be returning.

“I'll definitely be down there for camp this summer,” he said. “I can't wait to be back down.”

The Waterloo native said he’d like to see more of the facilities and meet more of the coaches and players. But what he saw during his trip for the Irish’s home finale against Wake Forest on Saturday was impressive.

“It was really nice,” he said. “I got to walk around the campus, actually. It was pretty neat, pretty historic and nice.”

He may hit the Nebraska-Iowa game this coming Friday, but isn’t sure yet.

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