Coach | 2026 Notre Dame TE Target Brayden Fogle "As Good As They Come"

Notre Dame has expanded its tight end board in the Class of 2026 to include some additional big-time names, Ohio’s Brayden Fogle‍ being one of them.

The Lexington High School star already had major offers from schools like LSU, Georgia, Penn State and Ole Miss among several others.

He took an official visit to LSU this past weekend and will be at Notre Dame on Thursday for an unofficial before heading to Georgia on an official this weekend. He also has an official set for Penn State next weekend.

“Athletically, he's as good as they come,” Lexington head coach Andrew Saris says. “He's got the size, he's 6-4, 235 pounds, runs like a wide receiver, but has that frame of a tight end. And then he has got tremendous ball skills. We talk about high-pointing footballs. He can jump up and high-point of football as good as they come. 

“He grew up a big-time basketball prospect. He had his first Division-I basketball offer before he even bounced a ball in high school. He's now transitioning. He's still a great basketball player, but he knows football's where the next level's going to come in at. He's got that smooth kind of skillset that somebody who grew up really heavily around basketball would have.”

Fogle checks as many boxes off the field as on it, according to his coach.

“He's a tremendous kid,” says Saris. “He's an upperclassman now. He's only in our building three or four periods a day just because he’s leaving and taking college classes already. He's a tremendous student. He comes from a tremendous home. Because of that education's always been taught to him as being the most important thing in his household, which is great for us coaches. We want to hear those kinds of things. 

“In terms of presence in the building, he's got a good presence. I say this in a positive way, but if he wasn't 6-4 and 235 pounds, you might not even know who he was in the hallways. He keeps to himself. He's close with his teammates but doesn't make things about him.”

Notre Dame came in later than most, but apparently not too late as Fogle is giving the Irish a serious look.

“How can you not?” Saris says. “Touchdown Jesus and the history that Notre Dame football has. The success that they've had in the past few seasons, I think it would be really difficult to not go and check that out for somebody who's been around and understands football.”

If all goes well in South Bend this week, the Irish will be hoping to get him back for an official visit later this month.

Fogle is certainly open for now, but he isn’t looking to keep his recruitment open indefinitely.

“He definitely wants to take his official visits and let the process happen after that. I think the goal is before our season officially starts for him to have made that decision to get that weight off of his shoulders.”

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