Notre Dame kicked off the 2025 recruiting cycle with its first verbal commit on Friday night as Florida defensive tackle Davion Dixon started the class off after visiting campus and receiving an offer from Marcus Freeman. The high school sophomore plays for Belen Jesuit Prep in Miami and has been a disruptive interior prospect early in his career so far, including 10.5 sacks in 2022.

Dixon was the only 2025 non-edge defensive lineman on campus this weekend for the Blue-Gold Game.

Recruiting Service Rankings

247Sports Composite — 4 star (.8931), #302 overall, #30 DL, #42 in FL

On3 Consensus — Not Yet Rated

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

247Sports — 3 star (86 rating), NR overall, #38 DL, #55 in FL

On3 — Not Yet Rated

Rivals — 4 star (5,8 rating), #185 overall, #10 DT, #31 in FL

ESPN — Not Yet Rated

Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (90 rating)

Cohort

Dixon received his first scholarship offer from Florida State during the middle of his freshman high school season and then added offers from Syracuse, Michigan State, and Penn State during the off-season. Going into his sophomore season, Dixon received offers from Louisville and Auburn before Florida offered this January.

Highlights

Establishing the size for Dixon is tough because he’s listed as tall as 6’3″ and as heavy as 310 pounds or as light as 250 pounds in certain places. He has big arms and a big lower half, although he carries his weight well throughout his midsection and doesn’t really look like a 300-pounder to me. For his age, that’s probably a good thing as he’ll have a lot of time to add good weight.

If we’re contemplating 3-tech versus nose guard for Dixon, it’s probably the latter without much questioning. He has a great motor and does a really good job fighting through traffic to make a play on the ball. Dixon is really adept at engaging blockers and ripping past them with his strength and speed. If there’s one thing that make me think nose guard all the way it’s that Dixon’s explosiveness off the ball needs a lot of work and will be an area of improvement over the next 2 seasons.

Impact

Notre Dame doesn’t have an interior defensive lineman committed yet for the current 2024 class, although the size of verbal Owen Wafle is showing no signs of slowing down and he’ll likely be a player similar to Rylie Mills and end up inside.

Dixon fits the bill as a playmaking nose guard for the Irish. It’ll be interesting to see how he develops physically and what kind of real size he’ll bring to the table early in his career with Notre Dame. He’ll have a lot of eyes on him in Florida which will be a concern with so much time until Signing Day, but playing at a private Catholic school should help Notre Dame to keep him in this class.

Welcome to the Irish family, Davion!