Just three days after adding their first linebacker commit for the 2024 class, Marcus Freeman and Al Golden added another early Monday morning when Bodie Kahoun announced his commitment to Notre Dame. The 6’3″/220-pounder out of Roanoke, VA is the 16th commitment in Notre Dame’s 3rd-ranked (per the 247Sports Composite rankings) recruiting class of 2024.

While the commitment itself doesn’t come as much of a surprise, the timing here sure did. Bodie announcing his commitment in a 7 am ET tweet seemed to catch almost everyone off guard, and the flurry of pay-site articles that usually comes immediately after a commitment were notably delayed this morning. You gotta at least give these guys time to finish their morning coffee.

Recruiting Service Rankings

247Sports Composite — 3 star (.8900), #428 overall, #36 LB, #7 in VA

On3 Consensus — 3 star (88.83), #429 overall, #45 LB, #6 in VA

The 247 Composite and On3 Consensus both combine 247, On3, Rivals, and ESPN rankings.

247Sports — 3 star (88 rating), NR overall, #52 LB, #11 in VA

On3 — 3 star (89 rating), NR overall, #42 LB, #10 in VA

Rivals — 4 star (5.8 rating), NR overall, #26 OLB, #5 in VA

ESPN — Not Yet Rated

Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (90 rating)

Cohort

Bodie chose the Irish over other offers from Virginia Tech, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Stanford, Florida State, NC State, Utah, Duke, Louisville, Miami, Cincinnati, Maryland, Indiana, West Virginia, Liberty, James Madison, Marshall, and Old Dominion.

Highlights

The two things that pop out the most to me in Bodie’s film are his closing speed and his reaction times in the open field. He diagnoses the play quickly and shoots towards the ball. He doesn’t waste time overthinking what he needs to do — he just does it. He played free safety until hitting a growth spurt before his junior season started, so it makes sense why it feels like he’s at his best playing sideline-to-sideline in pursuit.

For a full film review, check out ISD’s Film Don’t Lie piece on Bodie Kahoun.

Impact

I just talked about the linebacker depth a few days ago in the piece about Teddy Rezac’s commitment, so I’ll refrain from doing so again. Bodie will fit into the depth chart as either a Mike or a Will (or both).

As far as the recruiting impact goes, adding Bodie into the fold affords Freeman and Golden the opportunity to be very selective at linebacker moving forward. It sounds like the ND staff is focusing its efforts on Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, Chris Cole, and Keyshawn Flowers moving forward — with KVA being one of the top targets left on the board regardless of position. The most likely number of signees at the position is three right now, but would the staff be willing to push that number up to four if the official visits go really well next month? That remains to be seen.

Welcome to the Irish family, Bodie!