Top 2026 DL Elijah Golden Breaks Down Notre Dame Official

Elijah Golden‍ returned to Notre Dame for his official visit this weekend. 

The elite 2026 Florida defensive lineman visited South Bend several times throughout the recruiting process over the past couple of years, but this is expected to be his final visit before making his college choice.

“It was pretty good,” the Cardinal Mooney High School standout told Irish Sports Daily. “I definitely had a good time.”

Golden came into the trip wanting to get a better look at the dorms in South Bend.

“It's not bad to be honest,” he said. “It's kind of what I expected.”

He also had the opportunity to see what the players’ off-campus apartments looked like.

“Yeah, those are pretty nice,” he said.

He appreciated the chance to get around the players on the team again.

“They're definitely cool guys to be around,” he said.

The Irish coaches, led by Marcus Freeman and Al Washington, also made their pitches to Golden.

“He was telling me more about the school like what the school can do for you,” Golden said of Freeman. “He said, ‘If you believe it, it will happen.’

“I feel like Notre Dame could do a lot on and off the field.” 

The 6-foot-4, 275-pounder took official visits to Virginia Tech, Oklahoma and Alabama in the preceding weeks.

“I feel pretty good about Notre Dame,” he said. “I'm still going to look at my other options and all these schools and make a decision from there.”

He is expecting to have a final decision sometime within the next couple of weeks, although he likely won’t announce it publicly until a later date.

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