Notre Dame football 2025 safety target Ethan Long sets commitment date
A Notre Dame football 2025 target with a connection to the Irish has set a commitment date.
Ethan Long, a four-star safety and No. 1 player in Connecticut for the 2025 recruiting class, announced Saturday on his X/Twitter account that he'll announce his college commitment on Monday at 5 p.m. EST.
Unlike 2024 defensive end signee Bryce Young or 2025 tight end commit James Flanigan, who are the sons of former Notre Dame players, Long's family connection to the Irish is through his cousin, Austin Webster. From 2014-18, Webster played under former head coach Brian Kelly as a walk-on wide receiver and served as a team captain in his final season. Long grew up attending Webster's home games and seeing Notre Dame's campus.
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Long, the No. 27 safety in the 2025 class, is deciding between Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin. He reported 20 total offers in the recruiting process and visited all but one of his finalists, the Badgers, on game-day visits last fall.
The 6-foot-2, 188-pound recruit out of Greenwich Brunswick visited the Irish for their game against Ohio State in September and also paid a visit in July for their Grill & Chill recruiting event. Long's primary recruiters have been safeties coach Chris O'Leary, head coach Marcus Freeman, cornerback coach Mike Mickens and director of recruiting Chad Bowden.
After receiving his offer in May, Long returned to camp under O'Leary in June and received close instruction from him and Freeman. Long spoke highly of his relationship with ND's staff over the summer and loved the game-day environment against the Buckeyes despite the result.
“Coach O'Leary and I bonded so much over two days it made my relationship with him much stronger and made me trust him to develop me over my years,” Long told Inside ND Sports previously. “When he relates me to Kyle Hamilton, it really makes me feel good and want to work with him.”
Per Rivals, Long has a 5.8 rating, which deems him an All-American Candidate with first-to-third-round NFL Draft potential and among the nation’s top 300-325 prospects according to the Rivals football recruiting rankings formula.
Following Saturday's commitment from four-star defensive end Christopher Burgess Jr., Notre Dame's 2025 class remains No. 1 in the Rivals 2025 team rankings with a 1,407-point total. O'Leary has already reeled in one commitment from safety Ivan Taylor, a Rivals100 prospect out of Winter Garden (Fla.) West Orange. The Irish are also after Long and four-star safety target JaDon Blair out of Winston Salem (N.C.) Mount Tabor.
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