Notre Dame received the second of three weekend verbals from the 2025 class immediately after the game ended on Saturday night when defensive end CJ May committed to the Fighting Irish. The 6’4″/225-pounder out of Alabama was the fifth player to join Notre Dame’s recruiting class of 2025, which currently ranks third in the nation per the 247 Composite team rankings behind Georgia and Alabama.

Recruiting Service Rankings

247Sports Composite — 4 star (.9095), #259 overall, #20 EDGE, #14 in AL

On3 Consensus —  4 star (90.20), #232 overall, #19 EDGE, #14 in AL

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

247Sports — 4 star (90 rating), #171 overall, #18 EDGE, #13 in AL

On3 — 3 star (89 rating), #242 overall, #21 EDGE, #13 in AL

Rivals — 3 star (5.7 rating), NR overall, #21 WDE, #17 in AL

ESPN — 3 star (79 rating), #29 overall, #24 DE, #15 in AL

Friend of the Stripes Jamie Uyeyama does the recruit evaluations for ISD, and we trust his evals as much as anyone’s. So while the 247 Composite and the On3 Consensus don’t factor in ISD evals, we put a lot of weight on them ourselves.

Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (90 rating)

Cohort

CJ chose the Irish over other offers from Georgia, Auburn, Clemson, Ole Miss, Arkansas, Duke, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, Penn State, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, Vanderbilt, Troy, and UAB.

Highlights

CJ’s film shows a kid that’s a sure-fire Vyper prospect for the Irish. He’s a twitchy athlete with high upside as a pass-rusher. He still has a long way to with his development but the physical tools are there for him to grow into a very good player for the Irish.

For a more detailed film review from an actual professional, I always recommend reading ISD’s Film Don’t Lie piece on CJ May.

Impact

Vyper has been a big need for the Irish in the 2024 and 2025 cycles and they have some good ones currently committed right now in Loghan Thomas, Cole Mullins, and CJ May. I’d be surprised if Notre Dame was done recruiting the position in either cycle, but adding a guy with legit SEC offers like CJ May should allow them to be selective with who they take moving forward.

It’s likely that CJ will require at least a redshirt season to start working his way into the rotation at Vyper for Notre Dame. ISD’s Jamie Uyeyama has a player comp for CJ that I think all of us would be pretty pleased with — Julian Okwara. If his career follows the same trajectory as Julian’s did at ND, this will prove to be a great pickup for the Irish.

Welcome to the Irish family, CJ!