Lucky Charms: Father of Notre Dame safety target JaDon Blair talks Fighting Irish

Here are today’s Lucky Charms, a Monday-Thursday insider notes article on Notre Dame football recruiting.

At the On3 Elite Series in Nashville a couple weeks ago, Blue & Gold spoke with Jay Blair, the father of key Notre Dame safety target JaDon Blair, about his son’s recruiting process with Notre Dame. The younger Blair, who ranks as the No. 155 overall prospect and No. 15 safety nationally per the 2025 On3 Industry Ranking, and his family start their Notre Dame official visit Tuesday.

On his son’s comments that Notre Dame has ‘set the example’ in JaDon’s recruitment

“I see it the same way. They’ve set the bar as far as steady contact — constant communication with both parents and him. And also, Notre Dame’s fans love JaDon. Every post he does, they make sure he knows that they love him.

“But you have to remember, we’re going on a year and a half of the recruiting process, and we have great relationships and conversations with all of his top schools. Notre Dame has been the most consistent.”

On the Notre Dame staff…

“One of our non-negotiables is needing a steady and secure head coach. And we believe Coach [Marcus] Freeman is that. We know that he’s coming up on a make-it-or-break-it type season where you get the long extension. We’re confident that he can do that — no different than when Coach [James] Franklin secured his.

“Coach Golden is very meticulous in what he does, and we didn’t know Coach Mick[ens] that well at first. We were being recruiting by [Chris] O’Leary, and when he made his jump — which we loved by the way, who wouldn’t — we were wondering, ‘Who’s the person to replace him?’ They said Coach Mickens would take over the whole defensive backfield, so we wanted to go meet with him. That’s a lot of the reason why we went up there in April for four days.

“We wanted to see if Notre Dame would still — without Coach O’Leary — feel right. We did already move off one school when a coach left, because we knew it wouldn’t feel right. And it still felt right [at Notre Dame].

“What they have going on — we can buy into to it … The head coach sets the culture, and when the coordinators and position coaches leave, you trust him to bring in like-minded individuals.”

On if there’s anything else he wanted to mention on Notre Dame and JaDon’s recruiting process…

“Notre Dame is putting itself in a really good spot … I told all the coaches recruiting him that there’s nothing else that they can do. It’s all about the feel for JaDon on these official visits.”

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