A week ago, Cincinnati St. Xavier High defensive end Gordy Sulfsted had an unofficial recruiting visit to watch the Notre Dame football team practice under his belt but no scholarship offer from the Irish.
On Sunday the 6-foot-5, 245-pound senior-to-be at the perennial Ohio high school powerhouse announced via Twitter/X and Instagram his verbal commitment to ND’s top-ranked 2025 recruiting class.
And just as he was narrowing his options to two finalists, Duke and Wisconsin, two schools he planned to take official visits to in early June. Instead he becomes verbal commitment No. 21 and the fifth defensive lineman in the class.
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Stanford, Rutgers and Wisconsin were reportedly his other finalists from an offer list of 24 colleges, mostly from Power 4 schools.
Rivals lists Sulfsted as a three-star prospect and the No. 28 strongside defensive end nationally in the class. He’s expected, though, over time to become an interior defensive lineman for the Irish.
Already in the class are four four-star D-linemen — Christopher Burgess Jr., Joseph Reiff, Davion Dixon and Dominik Hulak, the latter of whom is listed as a linebacker prospect by Rivals but who Notre Dame projects as a vyper end.
“I like Gordy’s potential as a defensive tackle,” said longtime recruiting analyst Tom Lemming of the Prep Football Report. “He’s got really good length and a nice burst. Great kid and smart kid with a 3.9 GPA. He had 41 tackles and 3.5 sacks last year for one of the best programs in the state of Ohio year after year.”
Sulfsted's father, Alex, was selected in the sixth round of the 2001 NFL Draft as an offensive lineman out of Miami (Ohio) and played in 18 games over four seasons for the Kansas City Chiefs, Washington Redskins and Cincinnati Bengals.
Gordy Sulfsted, who also plays for the St. Xavier boys basketball team, has been invited to play in the U.S. Army Bowl, a high school all-star game set for Dec. 23 in Frisco, Texas.
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