2026 Edge Defender Garrett Witherington Talks Notre Dame Offer, Visit

Shortly after completing his midterm exams at Briarwood Christian School this year, Garrett Witherington‍ began receiving requests via his guidance counselor to release his transcripts to the University of Notre Dame.

“When they started doing that, I really thought they were starting to look at me a little bit,” the 2026 Alabama defensive lineman said.

Then, some Irish staffers began following the 6-foot-5, 250-pounder on social media.

“I've always known that Notre Dame's a big deal, obviously, but I've never really been up there,” he said. “I didn't really know too much about it. So when they sent me their spring practices, I just was really interested in coming up there and seeing what all they had.”

Witherington made his way to South Bend this weekend and left with a scholarship offer from the Irish.

“It means a lot,” he said. “It was my second Power Five - or I guess you just say Power Four now. It meant a lot. It was really nice meeting with all the coaches, watching the players work. It was cool watching them at practice.”

Witherington also has offers from Cal, Troy and Northern Arizona.

When he arrived on Saturday, Witherington and the other visiting recruits sat in on a team meeting led by head coach Marcus Freeman.

“It was about just the grit and the hard work pays off in the end,” Witherington recalled. “Then, we watched the practice and then I met with a few coaches.”

Throughout the day, Witherington had meetings with Freeman, defensive coordinator Al Golden and defensive line coach Al Washington.

“They're all great people,” he said. “Every single one of them really made me feel like I've known them forever and it was the first time I met them. I feel like they all cared about me and it felt real genuine even after meeting with them for 30 minutes.”

Even before a half-hour meeting with Freeman, Witherington began getting the sense an offer could be coming.

“Pretty much the entire day, I feel like some of them didn't know that I didn't know yet,” he said. “They were like, 'We'd love to have you here,' and stuff like that. 

“Then, I met with Coach Freeman and he started talking like that. So I was like, 'Oh, OK, what's about to happened?' Then, I went to Coach Washington's office after I met with Coach Freeman and he pretty much told me and then we watched a presentation.”

Prior to visiting Notre Dame, Witherington made his way to Georgia for a spring practice.

He may visit Ole Miss and Mississippi State soon, but he isn’t sure if he’ll be able to yet. He’s also going to try to get out West to see some schools, but doesn’t have anything locked in.

He doesn’t know exactly when he’ll return to South Bend, but says he will.

“Over the summer, I might try to get up there and go to a camp. I'm going to definitely come back for a football game in the fall and look at what the game day life is like

.”

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