Notre Dame Welcomes Back Former Commit via Transfer Portal; What Keon Keeley Brings to South Bend
- Brenden Duffy
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
“Better late than never.” At one point in time, Keon Keeley represented Marcus Freeman’s biggest recruiting win. After spending three seasons at Alabama, the former five-star edge rusher has again been won over by Freeman and Notre Dame, this time as a top-rated transfer.
Keeley entered the transfer portal on January 4th, rated as the #7 edge and #51 overall prospect (247 Sports). Following a January 7th visit to South Bend, the 6-5 and 282-pounder transferred to Notre Dame with two years of eligibility.
Coming out of Berkeley Prep in Tampa as the #3 overall recruit in the class of 2023, Keeley committed to Notre Dame early in his process in the summer of ‘21. 14 months later, the highly-touted defender decommitted from the Irish and reopened his recruitment before officially committing and signing with Alabama in December of 2022. Ohio State and Florida were other major players in his high school recruitment.
Keeley redshirted and did not play in the 2023 season at Alabama. In 2024, the Crimson Tide switched the OLB to DL while he recorded three tackles in six games played.
This season, Keeley tallied 16 tackles, three sacks, one PBU, and a blocked punt in 13 games played as a key rotational piece. His best performance of the year came at a good moment, in the team’s first round CFP game at Oklahoma, where he notched a season-high four tackles, one sack, and a PBU in the road win over the Sooners.
So how does the top-rated transfer fit at Notre Dame? This past year, Keeley did a lot of rotating on the interior and off the edge for the Tide’s defense. The addition of Keeley provides the Fighting Irish with more versatility up front. Bryce Young could be utilized on the interior more, as he appears much more comfortable there compared to Keeley, thus filling a current need. Notre Dame will still need to add a true run-stuffing DT and possibly some depth pieces to sew this unit together. However, an edge combination of Keeley and Boubacar Traore should cause massive headaches for next season’s opposing offenses.
I believe Keeley still has some untapped potential in his game, and this move to Notre Dame with recently hired DL Coach Charlie Partridge should unearth that. On just 100 pass rush attempts last season, he recorded nine pressures, including two QB hits. Keeley has not shown to be much of a factor against the run, recording two stops while facing 62 rush attempts last year. Perhaps an increased volume would change this, but he definitely poses more of a pass-rushing threat. Positively, the former Crimson Tide defender is a pretty clean tackler, with just two missed tackles coming against the run in week two, his only blemishes.
Who will Notre Dame bring home next? Comment below.
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