2026 LB Karsten Busch Enjoys Notre Dame Stop

There was a sense of familiarity for Karsten Busch‍ when he visited Notre Dame this weekend…a little too familiar in one regard, but overall, the visit was a positive one for the 2026 Kentucky linebacker.

“It went well,” Busch told Irish Sports Daily afterward. “I liked it. The main thing I liked is how much it actually felt a lot like St. Xavier, the school I go to now, in terms of faith is a big part of their culture and stuff. 

“All the coaches are super friendly, nice friends with each other. During pregame, Coach (Marcus) Freeman was going around dapping everyone up and stuff like that. I liked some stuff like that.”

Busch had the chance to meet Freeman, linebackers coach Max Bullough as long with staffers Caleb Davis and Carter Auman. 

“I thought he was a nice guy,” Busch said of Bullough. “He's a huge dude. He seemed locked in when I talked to him. It was only about 45 minutes before the game started, so he was nice to talk to. He had some good questions, asked me about my season, how my game was last night, so it was a good conversation.

He was impressed with Davis and Auman as well.

“They're just super friendly,” he said. “Their job is to make you feel at home and make you feel very included in what they're doing and that's exactly what they did. So they do their job well.”

Despite the Irish’s loss to Northern Illinois, Busch enjoyed experiencing the atmosphere inside Notre Dame Stadium. He said the loss doesn’t impact the way he views the Irish and noted a similarity between his own team.

“Every great team goes through tough games and not a lot of production stuff like that,” he said. “At St. X, we just did that (Friday) night, so I felt what Notre Dame felt today. It doesn't change anything.”

Busch has some other visits coming up.

“I'll be at Kentucky next weekend, then probably going to Wisconsin and then I think in probably a month or two, I'll get up to Ohio State.”

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