FOOTBALL: La Salle’s Joey O’Brien commits to Notre Dame

SPRINGFIELD – Joey O’Brien said his college commitment began to come into focus at the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes on the La Salle rising senior’s visit to Notre Dame.

“We went to the Grotto at like 1 a.m. and it was just me and six commits,” O’Brien said. “And I was just talking to them and it was really cool. I was like, these are the type of dudes I want to be around.”

Friday night, O’Brien, one of Pennsylvania’s top football prospects in the Class of 2026 – made it official at a press conference at La Salle’s gym. With four hats in front of him, O’Brien opted for the Notre Dame one, putting it on in announcing his decision to verbally commit to the Fighting Irish.

“I wanted to go to a place that was going to develop me, win and then just be around a good bunch of guys,” “O’Brien said. “And I think Notre Dame did all three while having the best education.”

O’Brien, ranked by 247Sports as the 2026’s No. 1 recruit in the state and 30th nationally, chose ND – which reached last season’s College Football Playoff National Championship game – over three other premier programs in Penn State, Clemson and Oregon.

With his commitment, the Notre Dame 2026 class, which also includes O’Brien’s La Salle teammate Grayson McKeogh, an offensive tackle who verballed to the Irish earlier this week, is currently ranked second behind USC per 247Sports.

“I think what attracted most schools to Joey was his versatility,” La Salle football coach Brett Gordon said. “I mean, the more programs and coaches I talked to for him, it was all about he can play any one of five positions in the secondary. They all realize that so there’s a lot of versatility there.

“And then what’s really getting overlooked is how good of a wide receiver he is. I think we could have played wide receiver at any of these schools as well and I’m very interested to see how Notre Dame plans to utilize him on the offensive side of the ball.”

O’Brien and McKeogh verballing to ND added to the group of La Salle football rising seniors committed to Division I schools. In April, quarterback Gavin Sidwar committed to Missouri while Sunday wide receiver John-Patrick Oates committed to Temple.

“We have a handful of kids in this ’26 class but Joey’s (recruitment) kind of took on a life of its own,” said Gordon, heading into his second season at the Explorers’ head coach. “So I’m happy for not only Joey but all of our kids so far that have found homes so then we can kind of hopefully as the summer evolves, kind of put the college process behind us and now focus on what we’re here to do.”

O’Brien was named the Philadelphia Catholic League Red Division MVP last season, earning all-division first team honors at both wide receiver/tight end and defensive back. He also was selected to the Pennsylvania Football Writers Class 6A All-State first team at wide receiver.

“The places that I’ve been, they said I’ve been unicorn-like, cause obviously you don’t see a lot of 6-5 dudes being able to bend,” O’Brien said. “So I feel like that’s cool that I’m able to do that and that’s why I can play so many positions. But it’s also just take pride in being one of the best at both sides of the country, I feel like that’s something to take pride in.”

If his college career is to be in the defensive secondary, O’Brien sees Notre Dame as a program where his talents at those positions can further progress.

“You want to go to a place that you’ve seen develop people and I feel like they do that especially with (defensive backs) coach (Mike) Mickens,” O’Brien said. “He developed Sauce (Gardner), he developed Xavier Watts, Kyle Hamilton. He did all of them. Like I said, you want to go to a place that develops.”

In his junior season in 2024, O’Brien was second in both receptions (68) and receiving yards (1,029) in the Catholic League per easternpafootball.com while also leading the league in receiving yards per game (93.5) and tied for first in receiving touchdowns (12).

He caught nine or more passes in five games, including hauling in 11 passes for 199 yards and a touchdown in a 35-16 win over Roman Catholic Oct. 26. O’Brien had six catches – two for TDs – for 126 yards Nov. 9 in the 21-14 loss to St. Joseph’s Prep in the PCL 6A final, which ended La Salle’s season at 10-1.

Defensively, O’Brien had 30 tackles (28 solo), two tackles for loss, one interception and eight passes defended.

“He’s as good as advertised,” said Gordon of O’Brien. “Creates a lot of opportunities for us as a staff on both sides of the ball to get creative and get him the ball as much as possible and then trying to get him in the mix as much on defense to make sure he’s impacting the game.”

As a sophomore in 2023, O’Brien was named to the All-PCL Red Division first team at defensive back after having 38 tackles (30 solo), three interceptions and 14 passes defended. On offense, O’Brien had 24 catches for 339 yards and three touchdowns.

“He’s put in a lot of hard work in the weight room this offseason,” Gordon said. “I think that was the one area for him was getting a little more physical, a little stronger. He’s probably put on 10, 12 pounds of muscle. It’s obvious that he’s gotten a lot stronger. So from the standpoint of just continuing to develop physically and then also taking on a lot of a leadership role this offseason has been important too.”