2026 S Jermaine Santana-Diaz Hoping For Notre Dame Return

The end of the summer has been pretty quiet for Jermaine Santana-Diaz‍, but it’s about to pick up in a number of ways soon.

The 2025 Texas safety is getting ready for the start of his junior season at Ridge Point High School and college programs are getting set for their own seasons to get underway. 

“It's going to be a lot different,” Santana-Diaz says of his upcoming season. “I feel like we've definitely got some new pieces on both sides of the ball. It's just us stopping the run inside. The inside run was really our weak spot last year, and that's really just what we need to stop in order to win all our games.”

The 6-foot-1, 180-pounder expects his individual game to take a huge leap this season.

“Last year was my first time playing safety, so I've just been working on getting better, playing Man, and IQ-wise, just reading the field and tackling,” he says.

Despite his limited experience, Santana-Diaz ended up landing scholarship offers from schools like Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Miami, Boston College and Tulsa based on his play last season.

He’s hoping to be challenged by opponents this season.

“I feel like that'd definitely make it more fun,” he says. “Sometimes, being back there at safety, you don't get a lot of action. I think it'd definitely make it more fun. I think our defense is going to be a lot more versatile this year just because we were a lot younger last year in certain areas, but everybody's more developed now. We'll definitely run a whole lot of fancy stuff now.”

Santana-Diaz visited South Bend for the Irish’s spring game back in April and his hoping to return this fall.

“For sure,” he says. “I definitely plan on trying to make one of their games up there.”

He saw plenty during his initial visit, but would like to get a better feel for the people who make up the program.

“Everything I saw last time was a lot that I needed to see,” he says. “I didn't really get to talk to the coaches much when I went up there, so definitely just talking to the coaches a little bit more and seeing how they get ready for game day and stuff like that.”

Regardless of whether he gets back up to South Bend this fall or not, he’ll be seeing the Irish in person soon.

“After our first game, we're going to the Notre Dame-A&M game in College Station,” he says. “I think it'll be interesting. That's definitely a good first game for both teams. I just look forward to seeing what Coach (Marcus) Freeman does with the defense.”

Santana-Diaz will be watching what the Irish and the Aggies do defensively and what may fit him.

“I'm just looking at what type of defense they're running; if they’re running a 4-3 or a 4-2-5,” he says. “I really like a 4-2-5 a lot just because we're running five DBs. Just how they're using the safeties.”

He’s also looking at potential trips to Oklahoma, Texas or Tennessee for games.

Freeman is a major reason Santana-Diaz is interested in Notre Dame.

“Him being a defensive coach, that plays a big role.”

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