Keon Keeley De-Commits From Notre Dame

Notre Dame has lost its top recruit in the 2023 class as Keon Keeley has opened up his recruitment

Notre Dame's vaunted 2023 recruiting class suffered a huge blow as elite defensive end Keon Keeley has announced he is de-committing from the Fighting Irish program and reopening his recruitment.

Keeley was the first player to commit to Notre Dame in the 2023 class, pledging to the Irish over a year ago (June 28, 2021). At the time he wasn't considered a top recruit, but then defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman saw elite potential in Keeley and made a strong push to land him. 

Keeley jumped on board and for a long time was a solid commitment, including pushing other players to join him in the class. Since then, however, Keeley has become a national recruit and is now considered a five-star player. Programs like Alabama and Ohio State, schools that didn't think as much of Keeley when Freeman landed him, eventually got involved.

Despite being committed for over a year, Keeley has decided he wants to take official visits to those programs - and likely others - despite already having made a trip to Ohio State and multiple trips to Alabama. Instead of remaining committed to Notre Dame, Keeley has decided to reopen his recruitment.

Notre Dame has a policy under Freeman that it will not host players committed to other programs, and it does not want its commits to visit other schools for official visits. Keeley decided it was important on him to take official visits, so he made the decision to de-commit and reopen his recruitment.

Notre Dame still wants Keeley in the class and plans to continue recruiting the standout defensive end. According to sources, Keeley plans to continue considering Notre Dame and there was a lot of thought to possibly staying committed and still taking visits, but he ultimately chose to leave the class.

Recruiting Keeley will remain a top priority, but when a player de-commits it rarely ends with him going back to the class he was originally a part of. We've seen it in the past with Notre Dame (Stephon Tuitt, Aaron Lynch), but it's a rare occurrence. That means Notre Dame will need to expand its board and try and get back involved with other prospects it passed on in order to focus on Keeley.

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Irish Breakdown Content

Notre Dame 2022 Roster
Notre Dame 2022 Schedule

Notre Dame 2023 Class Big Board
Notre Dame 2023 Commits Board - Offense
Notre Dame 2023 Commits Board - Defense

Notre Dame 2023 Scholarship Offers
Notre Dame 2024 Scholarship Offers

Ranking The 2022 Signees - Offense
Ranking The 2022 Signees - Defense

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