DJ McKinney Brings Experience, Confidence and Elite Potential to Notre Dame

Notre Dame cornerback DJ McKinney has seen it all over the last four years.

The 6-foot-1, 190-pounder started his college football journey at Oklahoma State before spending the last two seasons at Colorado.

McKinney didn’t practice with the Fighting Irish during the spring, but he was on campus while finishing his degree from Colorado. He’s fully embraced a new culture at Notre Dame, and McKinney couldn’t be more pleased with his decision.

“It's amazing just being here,” McKinney stated. “I'm grateful for the opportunity and blessed to be a part of the Notre Dame program and the Notre Dame culture. As soon as I got here, I felt the love, the culture, just the brotherhood that Notre Dame comes with.” 

In fact, Notre Dame’s culture might have blown McKinney away. 

“It's so strong here,” McKinney said. “There's just nothing like it I've ever felt and I've been to Oklahoma State's program, been at Colorado's program. The culture is just so strong here. You have people that come back and just give almost everything to the program, which means a lot. It shows you how strong it is and also just how elite the program is.”

The Texas native had been coached at a high level at Colorado, but he quickly realized Notre Dame would provide a new kind of learning experience during his first few days in South Bend.

“I learned so much my first week being at Notre Dame,” explained McKinney. “My football IQ went up just being around guys like Lenny (Leonard Moore), how he watches film, how he diagnoses certain formations out on the field.

“Coach (Aaron) Henry, he knows a lot. He played under Coach (Chris) Ash, so he knows the ins and outs of the defense. Coach Ash is also just a football defensive genius to me.” 

McKinney was named a preseason All-Big 12 selection in 2025, but injuries limited him during the season, including forcing him to miss the final three games. Those setbacks ultimately hurt his NFL Draft stock.

As one of the top cornerbacks in the Transfer Portal, McKinney could have easily chosen a program where he would be the clear-cut No. 1 corner.

Instead, he chose to compete in one of the deepest cornerback rooms in the country.

“The ceiling for this DB room, there's no cap to it,” McKinney said. “From top to bottom, I feel like everybody has a chance to just go out there and just compete to the best of their ability.

“I never run from competition. I embrace it. With these guys, it's always competitive, but it's never combative. We all got love for each other. We all just giving it 100 percent.” 

There are high expectations for McKinney and Henry has already been impressed with the athlete he’ll be developing.

“He has feet like a deer,” explained Henry. “Getting in and out of breaks, he's very, very, very smooth, a smooth operator. That dude's arms are extremely, extremely long and then he's very physical.

“When he puts his hands on you, you feel him. When McKinney gets his hands on you, you're going to feel it. He has a strong punch when he's in press coverage, a really smooth backpedal. He can turn and open and flip his hips. He's just a gifted dude.” 

The goal is for McKinney and Moore to form a nightmare combination on the perimeter.

That possibility is in Henry’s hands and there certainly isn’t a lack of excitement within the Notre Dame staff about what the duo could become.

“He's been a thrill for me because this is a new spot for him. He's salivating at the mouth because he wants to learn and grow. We know who DJ McKinney is, but DJ McKinney's never played here. For him to have an opportunity to compete in that DB room, I think he's thrilled about it and he's only going to get better.” 

Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, who knows a thing or two about cornerback play, believes McKinney is a first-round talent.

Henry wasn’t going to put expectations on his new cornerback, but he also wasn’t going to disagree with Sanders.

“I don't want to make any predictions,” Henry explained. “This is what I will tell you. I've been very fortunate to be around a couple of first-round corners. He's in that category. He has the potential to be a very, very, very special player with his God-gifts, his physicality, his tools to do whatever it is he wants to do, all right, whether it's a first-rounder, right, a second-rounder, third-rounder. He has elite-level potential. 

“We love corners of that size and that stature. I will probably venture to say Coach Prime has a little bit of wisdom about knowing that position. If he said it, especially at that position, there's probably a lot of validity to that.” 

McKinney’s talents and experience are a luxury teams crave in the transfer portal era, but he can also bring perspective to a room filled with young talent. 

“Definitely just how I look at the game, how I go about the game,” said McKinney. “I’ve always got to have that confidence and then just keep everything neutral. That's what Coach Prime instilled in us at Colorado, just making sure that we're not just playing not to get beat but playing to make plays.”

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