Coach | Work Ethic Sets Top 2026 Notre Dame WR Target Brody Keefe Apart

Myers Park High School will be sending a pair of its top football prospects to South Bend for visits this spring. Notre Dame is hoping to get receiver Brody Keefe‍ and defensive end Rodney Dunham‍ to make the stay permanent eventually.

Keefe will be in South Bend on March 28th for an unofficial visit while Dunham is set for an official visit in June.

“I call them twins because in my opinion they have some similar personality traits,” Myers Park head coach Chris James says of the duo. “Brody is the type who does lead more so by example, works his butt off. Brody's the one you have to tell to slow down. He is consistently doing something to prepare himself physically or mentally for the game of football. So what is considered offseason isn't necessarily your typical offseason that you would see for a high school kid. 

“In my opinion, Brody does the things now that you would see a high-level college guy do in terms of preparing his body, what he puts in his body as far as food, how he treats his body, how he recovers.”

James acknowledges that few players showed similar dedication back in his day.

“His family puts a lot of time and effort into that and he puts a lot of time and effort into that and it's important for him, which is why I think he has become a national prospect because he does it a little different,” says James. 

The 6-foot-3, 191-pound Keefe has a lengthy offer sheet that includes schools like Notre Dame, North Carolina, NC State, Duke, Georgia, Florida, Ohio State, Tennessee, Penn State and Michigan among several others.

James believes Keefe and Dunham are interested in the Irish for similar reasons.

“I think they have seen what Notre Dame has been traditionally and what they've been over the last few years,” the coach says. “Obviously, being able to do what they did this season, making it to the national championship game has been great. Coach (Mike) Brown, the receivers coach has done a really good job with Brody recruitment-wise.

“Overall, I think the school has made a really good impression.”

James also believes the Irish will be aided by having recruited the Charlotte area so well in recent years, landing guys like Bryce Young, Micah Gilbert and Jack Larsen.

“Bryce had a chance to play a lot this year and in talking to Coach (Marcus) Freeman about Micah and Jack Larsen's developments and how they develop guys, not rushing them into roles where they have to be productive as freshmen, but also knowing what it looks like for them in the future,” says James. “I think our guys pay attention to that. I know initially they both have their eyes obviously set on wanting to play just the competitor in them. But I also know that they know that this next level is going to be different and there's going to be a development process that has to take place. I think they're not opposed to maybe having to go through the process of redshirt if it's in the right situation.”

Keefe has already been to Notre Dame once and wants to get to Florida and Georgia soon as well.

He has told ISD that he plans to make his decision sometime this spring, between April and June. 

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