Elite 2024 safety Peyton Woodyard goes in-depth on Notre Dame football
A few hours Notre Dame kicked off against USC last month, Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco class of 2024 safety Peyton Woodyard was on the field with some pretty good company.
Earlier this year, Woodyard found out that he is a cousin of Fighting Irish safety Kyle Hamilton, and they met for the first time over the summer both were in South Bend. Woodyard chatted it up with Hamilton before the Oct. 23 game along with Pleasant Hill (Iowa) Southeast Polk class of 2022 five-star safety Xavier Nwankpa.
Hamilton was an elite safety back in the 2019 class and has at the very least met all expectations set on him. Nwankpa is one of the nation’s most coveted safeties in the current recruiting cycle. And Woodyard is next up in the 2024 class. He is one of two safeties on Rivals’ top-100 watch list for his class.
It was a neat moment for Woodyard to interact with two high-level safeties that he looks up to.
“I saw Kyle before and after the game,” Woodyard said. “He always has good things to say about Notre Dame. Xavier is a really good guy too. He told me that if I ever needed anything that I can hit him up. Being able to talk to these guys older than me so I can learn from them is a great experience.”
Woodyard’s first experience for a Notre Dame game was a good one. The rivalry contest between the two the Irish and Trojans is typically the most marquee recruiting weekend for Notre Dame of the fall, and this year’s matchup was no different.
“It was an overall great visit, especially seeing the game and getting my parents out there,” Woodyard noted. “The atmosphere at the game was crazy. The stands were full; I didn’t see a single empty seat. We were sitting next to the student section, and there were kids with their shirts off in 40 degree weather. It was an overall awesome experience.”
Woodyard had an extended visit at Notre Dame as he also spent Sunday on campus to get more of a feel of it, and he was with safeties coach Chris O’Leary for the entire day.
“Coach O’Leary was showing me how they’d use me in a similar role to Kyle,” Woodyard said. “He was with me the whole day on Sunday. Coach [Marcus] Freeman is the head guy of the defense. I got to talk to him a bit, and that was really good.
“I toured the campus on Sunday, saw the academic side and showed my mom around because it was just my dad with me the first time I went there. She saw how great Notre Dame is.”
You often hear about “late bloomers” in the recruiting process, but Woodyard is far from that. He received his first scholarship offer from Arizona State in August of 2020 well before he played a snap at the high school level, holds around 20 scholarship offers and has visited programs from coast to coast.
While he’s more “advanced” in his recruiting process than most recruits so far in his class, he’s still in no rush to commit. After all, he’s only a sophomore.
“I still have time,” he said. “I would like to make a decision after my junior year. I’ve been focusing on football, and I want to win a championship in high school.”
Whenever it does come decision time, Notre Dame will be a factor.
“Notre Dame is a great place to be,” he said. “They have strong academics and football. The whole vibe you get when you there — it’s hard to explain. There’s just something about being there.”
Woodyard’s St. John Bosco squad plays in the CIF Division I semifinals this Friday against Anaheim (Calif.) Servite. The winner of that game plays the winner of Corona (Calif.) Centennial vs. Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei matchup in the championship. All four of those teams rank inside MaxPreps’ top 11 schools in the country.
Per MaxPreps, Woodyard has posted 50 tackles, one pass deflection, one fumble recovery and one forced fumble this season.
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