Notre Dame may have made a real move with one of the top linebacker prospects in the 2028 class.
Kaiden Buchanan has plenty of options. The 6-foot-0, 220-pound standout from Tupelo High School in Tupelo, Mississippi, already holds nearly 60 scholarship offers and has taken more than 40 reported unofficial visits, with nine of those coming in June alone. But his latest stop in South Bend seems to have landed differently than most of the others.
After the visit, Buchanan said Notre Dame climbed in his view.
“ I’d say after visiting Notre Dame,” Buchanan told Rivals analyst Kyle Kelly recently. “They definitely moved up on my list. They left a strong impression on me.”
That’s a promising sign for Marcus Freeman and his staff, especially because the Irish appear to have connected with Buchanan on the defensive side of the ball. Even with the distance from his hometown, Notre Dame now looks like a program that has his attention.
Buchanan is ranked by Rivals Industry Rankings as the No. 207 player in the 2028 class, the No. 20 linebacker and the No. 5 player in Mississippi. He’s also drawing attention from a long list of major programs, including Alabama, Arkansas, Baylor, BYU, Colorado, Duke, Florida, Florida State, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Texas A&M, UCLA and USC, among many others.
The production explains the chase. Buchanan put together a huge sophomore season in 2025, finishing with 75 tackles, 13.5 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks, 3 pass breakups, 4 forced fumbles, 3 fumble recoveries and a blocked punt.
He was even more disruptive as a freshman in 2024, when he totaled 108 tackles, 11.5 sacks, four forced fumbles and one fumble recovery. Through his first two varsity seasons, that adds up to 183 tackles and 18 sacks.
Notre Dame already has two commitments in the 2028 class. Defensive back Andre Jones is the son of former Irish running back Julius Jones, and kicker Owen Davies was the first pledge in the group.
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For Notre Dame, the key wrinkle is the playoff argument, because the SEC remains the lone holdout on a proposed 24-team format that other Power Five leagues and the Irish are said to favor. The conference would rather stick with a 16-team model that preserves its championship game, but even with the split talk gaining momentum, there is still no consensus inside the league and no concrete plan for what comes next. [Read more 🡒]
Arch Manning Just Drew A Stunning Heisman Reality Check
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For Notre Dame fans, the more immediate intrigue is that Steeles top 10 includes CJ Carr near the top of the board, a sign the Irish could have a real presence in the national award conversation if the season breaks right. The broader field still looks wide open, though, and the case for Trinidad Chambliss is gaining traction because of both his previous production and the expectation that Ole Miss will stay competitive enough to keep him in the spotlight. [Read more 🡒]