Top-150 four-star RB recruit from Georgia includes Notre Dame in his top 10
Carrollton (Ga.) Central four-star running back recruit Jonaz Walton is still considering Notre Dame despite a major shift in the Fighting Irish coaching staff.
On Sunday, Walton, the No. 114 overall player and No. 11 running back in the class, announced a top 10 schools with On3 national recruiting reporter Hayes Fawcett. The No. 15 player in Georgia, Walton, is down to Notre Dame, Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Miami, Oregon, Stanford and Tennessee.
The Irish are still in the mix for the 5-foot-9, 190-pounder from the Peach State despite his primary recruiter in South Bend, former running backs coach Deland McCullough, leaving the program on Feb. 5 for the same position with the Las Vegas Raiders. McCullough departed his post 11 days after Walton unofficially visited Notre Dame for the first time.
“I wanted to visit because of him — just how he’s talked about the place as well as the person he is,” Walton told Blue & Gold on Jan. 25. “I could just see the things he was saying were true. I saw that today. But just him — he attracted me to visit — as well as their recent success in football. They’ve always been a pretty good program, honestly, as well as academically. So, I had to see it for myself.”
New Notre Dame running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider offered Walton when he was at Penn State. However, the Nittany Lions did not make his top 10.
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In addition to Penn State, Walton also left out South Carolina, Georgia Tech, Southern Cal, Texas A&M, Texas, Ohio State, Nebraska, Duke, Virginia, Vanderbilt, Wisconsin, UCF, Indiana, West Virginia, Michigan, Kansas State and Ole Miss. According to the Visit Center on Walton’s On3 profile, he unofficially visited Georgia Tech, South Carolina and Clemson. The Tigers have not offered him a scholarship.
The in-state Georgia Bulldogs and rival Alabama Crimson Tide have welcomed Walton to campus four times each, more than any other school. He has also been to Auburn and Tennessee twice. Notre Dame is the only northern school that has hosted him on a visit.
In the 2026 class, seven prospects have verbally committed to the Irish. However, they are still looking for their first running back.
Raymore (Mo.) Raymore-Peculiar four-star DeZephen Walker and Harrisburg (Pa.) High four-star and Penn State commit Messiah Mickens are set to officially visit Notre Dame in June. They are the Nos. 99 and 108 overall players and No. 9 and 10 running backs in the class, respectively.
Walton has not yet announced his official visit schedule.
