Top 2026 LB Thomas Davis Jr. Ready For Notre Dame Return

A pair of visits to Notre Dame earlier this year put the Irish in strong position with Thomas Davis Jr.‍ and the top 2026 North Carolina linebacker is set to return to South Bend for next week’s home game against Florida State. 

“Just see them actually play in action,” Davis says. “I've pretty much seen everything else.”

This will be the 6-foot-2, 205-pounder’s first chance to see the Irish play a game.

“Just being able to visualize myself playing there and stuff like that,” he says of what he hopes to take away from his latest visit.

The Weddington High School standout has remained in constant communication with the Irish for months.

“Pretty much every week, I've been talking to Coach (Max) Bullough, Coach (Al) Golden and Coach (Marcus) Freeman and Carter Auman,” he says. “I talk to Carter almost every day.”

Davis says the conversations are just about “continuing to build our relationship.”

“They're great people,” he continues. “Football and non-football, great people.”

That’s part of the reason why his interest in the Irish is so high.

“Just their overall development of guys on and off the field,” he says. “They really develop them from a football standpoint and then outside of it as well. It's a great school.”

Davis has offers from schools like Notre Dame, North Carolina, Clemson, LSU, Miami, Tennessee, Texas A&M,  Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Oregon, USC and UCLA among several others. 

He hasn’t hit the road much this season outside of a couple stops.

“I went to an Oregon game and I went to a Tennessee game,” he says. “That's pretty much it.”

He’s planning a trip to Ohio State for its annual rivalry game against Michigan at the end of the month. 

Davis expects to trim his list down sometime after the season. 

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