Class Impact: Notre Dame Lands Defensive Tackle Tiki Hola

Breaking down how the commitment of Tiki Hola impacts the Notre Dame 2026 recruiting class and depth chart

Notre Dame is one of the nation’s hottest teams on the recruiting and that continued today when Bastrop (Texas) High School defensive tackle Tiki Hola pledged to the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame beat out SMU and USC among many others to land this talented defender.

Let’s break down how this impacts the Notre Dame 2026 recruiting class, how it impacts the Irish depth chart and we’ll dive into his film.

Hola is the 15th player to commit to Notre Dame in the 2026 recruiting class. He’s the seventh defensive player to commit to Notre Dame and the third defensive lineman, joining North Carolina edges Rodney Dunham and Ebenezer Ewetade.

Notre Dame has really upped its game in recent seasons recruiting the edge, and that continues in the 2026 class, as that group will join talented edge players like Bryce Young, Boubacar Traore, Josh Burnham, Christopher Burgess Jr. and others. Where Notre Dame really wants and needs to take another step is inside. The focus was on getting bigger and adding disruptive, high level talent to the interior of the line.

Landing Hola is step one in filling the numbers need at the position, but it’s a huge first step when it comes to adding more beef and disruptive talent to the interior. Notre Dame made Hola a must-get defender in this class, so landing him was huge for this class. Hola gives Notre Dame a major boost in size and playmaking potential to its interior.

Hola is list at 6-3 and this spring he has checked in at 300 pounds, so he continues a trend by defensive line coach Al Washington, who is looking to add a lot more beef to the defensive line. Hola also has the impressive length that Notre Dame desires on defense, which is another reason he was a priority prospect. Hola played inside as a sophomore and moved to the edge as a junior, but his future is inside. The Bastrop big man has the power and playmaking combination Notre Dame wants to have at nose, but he is long enough and disruptive enough to play the three-technique spot as well.

Hola was listed between 265-285 pounds as a junior, but you could always see he had the frame to easily get to 300 pounds. That has already happened, as Hola is now up to 300 pounds, which he’s checked in at on campus visits and at spring camps. He’s a natural 300-pounder and hasn’t had to add any bad weight to get to his current weight, and there’s still room for him to fill out even more as he gets into a college weight room. Hola also has very impressive length, and he knows how to use that length to keep blockers off his body. Combine that with his impressive strength and it makes him a highly effective block destruction player when his technique is right.

Overall, Hola shows the combination of upper and lower body strength/power you want in an interior player. He has the mass and lower body strength to hold up extremely well at the point of attack, making him an effective two-gap player when you need him to do so, and it makes him very hard to move in a one-on-one block. His upper body strength combines with his length to allow Hola to get off blocks and get to the ball carrier, which is why he was so disruptive in the run game as a junior (102 tackles, 12 tackles for loss). He can rock blockers back off the line when he plays with violent hands, and it makes him extremely difficult to block. He’s got some bully to his game, which you want in an interior defender.

Class Impact: Notre Dame Lands Defensive Tackle Tiki Hola

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