On Sunday, it was announced that Notre Dame safeties coach Chris O’Leary was leaving the program to join the Los Angeles Chargers staff. That, of course, brings a lot of questions for the future of the position with the Irish. Recruiting is a part of it, with the Irish having two excellent commitments in the 2025 class with Ivan Taylor and Ethan Long.

Notre Dame is also heavily pursuing 2025 Winston Salem (N.C.) Mount Tabor star safety JaDon Blair, who has already solicited an official visit to the school on June 7-9. The Irish staff has been trending in a great way with the North Carolina native, battling most notably with Penn State for his services.

With O’Leary leaving, there is slight uncertainty moving forward but the staff is doing their best to maintain momentum. According to Blair, Notre Dame is still in a very good position with him.

“Being 100 percent honest, Coach O’Leary leaving does play a huge role to me because I have a great relationship with him personally and we have been building for about a year now,” Blair told Irish Breakdown. “Even though he is leaving, I have a great relationship with the other coaches on the staff as well and that’s why Notre Dame ranks so high for me.

“When I found out the news he was leaving I heard from almost the whole coaching staff about how they still want and need me in their program and that doesn’t change how hard they are going to recruit me,” he continued. “I trust what Coach (Marcus) Freeman and AI Golden are doing over there and I’m just going to build more with them.”

Counting out Freeman when it comes to recruiting is unwise. The staff will attempt to soften the blow and close on the star safety. As far as the rest of Blair’s recruitment, he is busy setting up visits and enjoying the process. Blair has also set three other official visits for this offseason. He will also be taking trips back to South Carolina (May 31st), Michigan (June 14th) and Penn State (June 21st).

“I’ve been building great relationships with coaches and just leading a lot about different programs and what they do differently,” Blair explained. “I’m more than excited for the visits I already have set up and I’m looking forward to each one of them.

“In my opinion everyone still has a fair chance but I’m coming down to a top ten so I’ll just be taking my time though,” Blair added. “Notre Dame is a real contender to me and is probably one of the highest on my list.”

Those official visits are going to be the last major datapoint for Blair to make his decision. There is a clear timeline that he would like to stick to.

“Personally I would like to commit in July after all my visits are done,” he said. “That’s the timeline I’m working with right now.”

The next couple weeks will be dedicated for the Notre Dame staff to rebuild momentum and make Blair feel comfortable. He is a player that the Irish program wants desperately and will hope to make him continue to feel like a priority. In this instance, Blair not being in a hurry to commit should benefit Notre Dame by giving the staff plenty of time to have the new position coach build a strong bond with him.

During his dominant junior campaign for Mount Tabor, Blair made a ton of plays from his safety position. Blair finished with 57 total tackles, three tackles for loss, four interceptions, one forced fumble and another fumble recovery.

The 6-4, 180-pound athlete was also utilized on the offensive side of the football for the Spartans. He hauled in 10 receptions for 255 yards and six touchdowns. That’s a stellar average of 25.5 yards per catch.

Blair is considered a consensus four-star recruit by every major recruiting platform. He ranks highest on the On3 ranking, currently sitting as the No. 28 overall player and No. 2 safety in the 2025 recruiting class. The North Carolina native has been pursued by some of the top programs in college football, including LSU, Miami, Florida State, Tennessee, Mississippi State, NC State, Maryland, Louisville, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Georgia Tech, Duke and Wake Forest among others.