2026 Safety Nick Reddish Hopes To Return To Notre Dame

Nicholas Reddish‍ has had to watch his Independence School play without him the past few weeks. 

“I got injured a couple of weeks back, so I'm just going through the rehab process,” the top 2026 North Carolina safety says. 

“It's been a little upsetting, but at the same time, just watching them go out and handle adversity without me has been good.”

Reddish wants to get back as soon as he can, but isn’t going to rush it before he’s healed. 

The 5-foot-11, 185-pounder has offers from schools like Notre Dame, North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Tennessee, Wisconsin and USC among several others. 

He only made a handful of recruiting visits this fall. 

“I've been trying to get to more, but these flights are getting expensive,” he says. 

He did make it to Wake Forest and Virginia Tech, where his brother plays safety. 

“They were pretty good,” Reddish says. “The atmosphere was crazy down at Virginia Tech on a Thursday night. 

“Wake Forest, they played Clemson, so they were turned that game.”

He also made stops at North Carolina and NC State earlier this month.

As for Notre Dame, Reddish says he has constant communication with Irish defensive backs coach Mike Mickens, defensive coordinator Al Golden and head coach Marcus Freeman. 

“Every day,” he says. “Every day.”

Reddish says he probably hears from Golden the most.

“It's just a blessing being able to see messages coming from him every day about the defense, about the turnovers, just about everything,” he says. 

“Just the fact that they're thinking about me down there, that big-time program, the fact that they want me that bad and just going through that.

Reddish visited Notre Dame twice this past offseason. He was hoping to get back this fall, but will return at some point.

“Definitely,” he says. “In the offseason, I'll try to get back over. Even if it's for an OV, I'm definitely going to get back up there though, for sure.

“I really want to get to know the players, some of the players and how they interact outside of football and what they do and how they connect with each other outside of it.”

He’s thinking he’ll start narrowing his list down a bit this offseason as well.

“When the offers really start rolling in in May, then I'll start cutting down to see a Top 8 or Top 7. Then, I'll take those OVs and see how those go, and then commit from there. Probably the beginning of August or late-July.”

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