2026 CB Dorian Barney Talks Top 12, Notre Dame
Dorian Barney cut down a list of 50 scholarship offers to a dozen over the weekend.
“It's really just the relationships I grew over time with them from my process, from my whole journey,” the 2026 Georgia cornerback says.
“I've visited the majority of those schools and I'm looking forward to getting down to the ones that I haven't visited yet.”
Barney’s list includes Texas A&M, Penn State, Ole Miss, Ohio State, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Colorado, Michigan, Miami, North Carolina, Oregon and Notre Dame.
The Carrollton High School standout has visited the first seven of those schools and says he plans on visiting the final five sometime in March or April.
After that, he expects to trim his list to five schools and take official visits.
“That'd be the plan,” he says.
Irish head coach Marcus Freeman has been his primary source of contact in South Bend and is a major reason Notre Dame made the cut.
“Really just the relationship I have with Coach Freeman,” Barney says. “He was texting me during the season, during his season. And he had a long season, he went to the national championship. He could be doing anything else. He's the head coach.
“He’s got a lot on his mind, but with him taking the time out to talk to me, hop on a phone call with me, send me a text, him taking the time out to do that, that means a lot. He could be doing a lot of other things, especially as the head coach.”
Freeman’s message is a consistent one.
“What he's telling me is there's no other place like Notre Dame that you want to play football, get good academics, life after football Notre Dame,” Barney explains. “Overall, you get everything when you go to Notre Dame.”
Barney is excited to learn more about the University when he gets to South Bend.
“The questions will really come when I get there, when I see something or I have a question about something,” he says. “I want to see everything because it is getting down to the wire.
“I'm planning on making my decision before the season, so it's going to get down to the wire because after that it'll probably be an official visit to them. I need to see everything. I'll talk to the coaching staff, see how they see me fitting in the defense and we'll go on from there.”
Barney has already identified multiple key factors in his decision, including one he knows will be difficult.
“Relationships,” he says. “I'm going to have relationships with all the schools that I have interest in. I'm going to try my best to have the strongest relationship with the coaching staff, but that's going to be the hard part.
“Then, development. Who could get me to the next level, so I can play on Sundays? That's the main goal for everybody, to play on Sundays. Who could help me do it?
“Then, the culture. How's the culture out there? How are the students? How is it out there? And life after football. How can the university help me after football? How can the staff, not even just the staff, but just the university overall, how can that help me after football?”
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