2026 LB Colsen Gatten Recaps Notre Dame Stop

After two trips to Notre Dame last year, Colsen Gatten‍ returned to South Bend this weekend for another visit.

“It was amazing, really good,” the 2026 Pennsylvania linebacker told Irish Sports Daily. “Exceeded my expectations.”

The 6-foot-2, 210-pounder received an offer from Notre Dame as part of last month’s Pot of Gold Day push. 

When he arrived in South Bend, he took in a team meeting before defensive meetings.

“It's impressive watching Coach (Al) Golden,” he said. “They were pulling up practice film and coaching the guys up and just showing the really good plays and some of the bad plays. They were just coaching the guys up, which was really cool. 

“After that, we went to the linebacker meeting. They were going over stunts, blitzes, stuff like that, asking a bunch of questions before practice.”

Between meetings and practice, Gatten and his family toured campus.

“It was really impressive,” he said. “It's one of the nicest ones I've seen.

“Practice was really impressive. It was super competitive, best-on-best, one-on-ones, stuff like that. It was a really good, really good competitive environment. The coaches were really into it, so it was really good, a really good day.”

Gatten, who was at last year’s spring game and home game against Pittsburgh, had the chance to speak with multiple coaches, including Golden, linebackers coach Max Bullough and Marcus Freeman.

“Coach Golden talked to my whole family for a while,” he said. “We were just catching up. He was really good. It was just some small talk because it was just right after practice. 

“Coach Freeman, we talked for a while. He was just saying how they loved the tough-nosed Pittsburgh kids like the Hinish brothers. He was talking about that for a while.”

Gatten attends the same Central Catholic High School that produced Kurt and Donovan Hinish.

“Then Coach Bullough, we were just having small talk about practice and stuff like that,” Gatten said. “It was a really good day.”

Gatten’s offer sheet also includes schools like Penn State, Pitt, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Duke, Oklahoma and Tennessee among others.

He will visit Tennessee next weekend.

He said the Irish “definitely” moved up his list this weekend and he’ll return at some point for another visit.

“I'm going to try to get back during the summer just to be on campus for a couple of days, spend time with the coaches, players. If it's not in the summer, I'll definitely be back for a game.”

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