Former Penn State assistant just handed Notre Dame a huge recruiting win.
When former Penn State running backs coach left Happy Valley for South Bend this offseason, he looked intent on bringing four-star 2026 running back commit Messiah Mickens with him. Mickens hasn’t flipped, so Seider turned his attention to an even more highly-ranked 2026 running back and just scored Notre Dame a massive recruiting win.
On May 3, four-star running back Javian Osborne committed to the Fighting Irish and helped their recent surge to No. 2 in the national recruiting rankings. With the 5-foot-10, 200-pound running back in tow, Notre Dame trails only USC nationally and is two spots ahead of Penn State. Ja’Juan Seider brings four-star running back Javian Osborne to Notre Dame
Osborne is the sixth-best running back in the 2026 recruiting class according to 247Sports Composite Rankings and the 90th-ranked player in the country. Now that Seider, who is also the associate head coach for Marcus Freeman, has landed Osborne, he’s likely to lay off his recruitment of Mickens.
On top of landing Osborne, Seider has Notre Dame predicted to land four-star running back Brian Bonner, who has official visits scheduled to Notre Dame, Washington, UCLA, Nebraska, and Penn State. Bonner will be in Happy Valley on June 13, but Stan Drayton, who replaced Seider on James Franklin’s staff, with have an uphill battle recruiting against Seider
