Ryan Roberts discusses what the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are getting in 2026 four-star defensive tackle Tiki Hola!
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00:00Notre Dame received a huge commitment from four-star defensive tackle Tiki Hola on Saturday.
00:05Let's talk about what this means for the Irish and why this was such a massive commitment in the
00:102026 recruiting class. Ryan Roberts from A to Z Sports bringing down everything Notre Dame football
00:17folks on Saturday. Notre Dame got a massive commitment from four-star Bastrop, Texas
00:25high school defensive tackle Tiki Hola of course is in the 2026 recruiting class chose the fighting
00:31Irish over finalists SMU and the USC Trojans. I know most people will kind of say oh man beat Chad
00:38Bowden for a defensive tackle out of the state of Texas that Notre Dame wanted in a big way
00:44but in actuality SMU kind of finished second in this one and a hat tip to SMU to be able to even
00:51be in this conversation because Notre Dame really was trending in a great direction the last couple
00:56months this kind of one kind of felt more like when when not really if at this point and you get
01:02the commitment from the six foot two 285 pound defense lineman who's going to be over 300 very
01:07quickly if you watch this film from Bastrop as a junior Hola actually despite playing defensive tackle
01:13playing a lot of nose in their system was the leading tackler on the entire team over 100 tackles
01:18over 10 tackles for loss this is a run stopper a guy that is going to impact early downs on the
01:24college level not necessarily a big time pass rusher so I do think that there is a need in this
01:29in this class kind of finishing forward of a impactful interior rusher whether that is a Kyrie
01:36Wilder out of out of California or somebody else that kind of gets onto the board a little bit later
01:40I really think that there's still you need you still need an impact pass rush or at least a
01:45penetration style player to go along with Tiki Hola but it's the floor that gets you excited
01:50Notre Dame over recent years has been a little bit too small on the interior we always have the
01:56conversation of like why is Notre Dame not a great rush defense well they did a little bit more size
02:01on the interior they need a little bit more size on the first level and I do think that we're seeing
02:05that start to trend upward here under head coach Marcus Freeman going into the 2025 college football
02:10season the three deep for Notre Dame if you average all the weights out averages at 306 pounds so it's
02:17been a while since Notre Dame was averaging over 300 bills per player up front on the interior but times
02:23are changing a little bit I think Tiki Hola allows you to continue to do that we this was a big one though
02:29this is the biggest thing that I want to mention here was Notre Dame is in a great spot on the edge in this
02:35class you already have commitments obviously from a five-star Roddy Dunham you have Ebenezer Ewutade in
02:40the class as well you're trying to still go after guys like Mikhail Blade out of the state of Illinois
02:45that's a really talented strong side defensive end Dre Quinn like there's some other talented edge
02:50players on the on the board but the interior defensive line board is a little bit thinner right
02:55like you knew Tiki Hola I mentioned Kyrie Wilder you're recruiting guys like Noah Clark still but and we'll see
03:01what ultimately ends up in this class but I really think Hola was a huge commitment for Notre Dame
03:05literally because he was on a pretty small interior defensive line board a guy that you've been on for
03:11a while and Notre Dame was able to get it done folks right now go watch some huddle highlights of
03:17Tiki Hola because I want your comments in the chat right now put in what do you like about him
03:21what do you dislike the 2026 recruiting class put in some more thoughts the momentum doesn't stop here
03:26folks there's a lot more on the horizon and very shortly here so make sure that you hit the like
03:32button and subscribe on the way out and as always go Irish