2026 OL Ekene Ogboko Calls Notre Dame Offer "Special"

Notre Dame has been recruiting Ekene Ogboko‍ for a while now, which is why the 2026 North Carolina offensive lineman was so excited to receive an offer from the Irish during the Pot of Gold blitz on St. Patrick’s Day. 

“It means something special for me,” the 6-foot-6, 260-pounder told Irish Sports Daily. “I know how good of a place Notre Dame is in general, not even for football, but academics. It's just a good school. 

“I like how the program is going and it means a lot to me to be offered by them. It shows that my work is paying off and that I'll keep working to get more and more offers.”

Ogboko has kept in touch with Notre Dame Director of Recruiting Dre Brown and offensive line coach Joe Rudolph.

“Usually every Wednesday me and Dre Brown will probably get on the call; me, him and Coach Rudolph,” he said. “Sometimes we'll just talk about ball and me getting up there for spring dates and camp and stuff like that.”

The South Garner High School standout said he’ll most likely get back to South Bend.

“I just don't know when I'm going up there yet,” he said. “I'll probably have to talk with my coaches and my family and we'll see when we're getting up there.”

Ogboko was at Clemson for a spring practice and Georgia for the Bulldogs’ spring game last weekend. Ogboko’s brother will be a freshman defensive lineman for the Bulldogs this fall.

Ogboko and his brother were in South Bend for the Irish’s game against Ohio State last year.

“That was a great atmosphere,” Ogboko said. “That game was a great atmosphere. To see how the fans are, the environment is, it was just amazing. Even though they lost in the final seconds, you could see the players were still genuine and ready to get back to work, even though they lost. 

“So I just appreciate that. I got to talk to some of the coaches there. I talked to the d-line coach, he was cool. I got to talk to him of course because he was with my brother, so it's just a cool connection there.”

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