2026 OL Greg Patrick Previews Notre Dame Official & More

Gregory Patrick‍ took a tangible step in his recruitment last week, when the 2026 Michigan offensive lineman announced four official visits.

Patrick will take officials to Penn State, Michigan State, Notre Dame and Michigan on consecutive weekends starting at the end of May. 

“I think they're going to help me in a lot of ways,” the 6-foot-5, 275-pounder told Irish Sports Daily. “I think they're going to help me get to know the players a little better and get a bit closer with those guys. And also see the coaches, get a lot more time with them and experience campus, see campus a bit more and all it has to offer.”

Patrick had several other offers, but the list is likely to remain at four moving forward.

“I took game visits to those schools and I really enjoyed the experiences there,” he said. “I've also visited those schools before and felt really comfortable with coaches and the staff and the players.”

Notre Dame’s reputation and offensive line coach Joe Rudolph put the Irish in the mix.

“I really like the educational and life-after-football opportunities,” said Patrick. “Coach Rudolph, I really enjoy his coaching style. He's talking to me about how he's never taken a portal o-lineman before, he really trusts his players a lot.”

That says a lot to Patrick.

“He's really loyal,” said Patrick. “I think it's just the trust he has in the players he's recruited. It just shows he's loyal to his players. The guys he recruits out of high school, he believes they can win at the highest level. It speaks a lot about the trust and the loyalty and his ability to develop, especially.”

He also likes the direction of the program under head coach Marcus Freeman.

“I think with Coach Freeman, the program is exponentially better, it's growing fast,” he said. “I think that's pretty cool. Obviously they're competing in national championship games, so they have a lot to offer.”

Patrick has been in regular contact with Irish offensive line commits Tyler Merrill, Ben Nichols and Sullivan Garvin.

“I've definitely talked to them a decent amount,” said Patrick. “They still talk to me and text about the National Championship and what their experiences were like at that Junior Day that I wasn't able to attend. They're definitely talking to me. 

“I actually do offensive line training with Sully. It's pretty cool.”

Patrick expects to be back at Notre Dame even before the official in June.

“Definitely,” he said. “I'll visit there as much as I can to be honest.

“I'll probably be there in the spring with them a few times. I'll try to get a spring visit worked out with the o-linemen and see if we're able to do that. That would be pretty cool.”

But that official visit will remain crucial to his decision process.

“Just getting to know the players is probably a big thing, seeing their perspective on things and just being able to talk to Coach Freeman longer and do a lot more of educational opportunity stuff that you really don't get a lot of on unofficial visits,” he said. 

“On official visits, you can kind of go more in depth on what the school's like and the aspect of being a student-athlete there.”

Patrick expects to have a final decision shortly after he wraps up his officials.

“Probably in early-July, just being able to shut stuff down before you go into the heat of high school football senior year.”

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