2024 DB Shamir Fredericks excited for Notre Dame offer, his first Power Five option: ‘I worked for this’

It’s a hard moment to forget. A Power Five college football offer doesn’t just fall into one’s lap. And once one comes, others typically flow in.

For 2024 Brooklyn (N.Y.) Canarsie safety Shamir Fredericks, that first Power Five offer came from Notre Dame. Last week, Irish safeties coach Chris O’Leary visited the New York City area and watched Fredericks work out. The rising junior left practice with an opportunity to play for a top-10 football program.

“It feels good,” Fredericks said. “I worked for this.”

The sophomore transferred schools this offseason, and his recruitment picked up immediately. Fredericks does not yet have an On3 Consensus ranking, but On3 itself has him ranked the No. 35 safety in the country and No. 5 player out of New York in the 2024 class. The New York native also holds offers from Akron, Bowling Green, Massachusetts and Temple, and he’s just getting started with recruitment.

“I would say my height, especially for the position I play,” Fredericks said when asked what is special about his style of play. “I’m 6-4 as a free safety, but I can get sideline to sideline. I have good lateral quickness, hips, ball skills.”

PROMOTION: Sign up for just $1 for your first year at Blue & Gold

On3 also lists Fredericks as 170 pounds, a different body type but the same height as former Irish safety Kyle Hamilton, who was just taken as the No. 14 overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.

“That shows that Notre Dame has experience with good safeties, and they know how to develop them,” the rising junior said. “Hopefully that’s in my future.”

Fredericks has not yet visited Notre Dame, but he would like to get to South Bend for a camp, practice or game this fall. He has a few camps in mind this summer, but nothing is set in stone. For now, he’s drawn to and interested in Notre Dame’s academic prestige.

“The academics are good, and I heard Notre Dame is one of those schools you can’t turn down,” Fredericks said. “Academics are a priority for me. If I go to the NFL, I want to graduate first. I don’t know what I want to major in yet, but I know I want to graduate.”

Fredericks has an On3 NIL Valuation of $5,700. The index looks to set the standard market value for both high school and college-level athletes. The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.