The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have a roster full of players, and we want to talk about them all. One Foot Down’s player profile series will, once again, take a look at every single one of them, and hopefully we all learn a little bit more about these guys, and Notre Dame’s chances for the upcoming 2021 season.

#29 Khari Gee, S

Khari Gee (pronounced like in “gee whiz” or if you got cut off before emphasizing the ‘p’ in “Jeep”) joined the Irish program as a pleasant Early Signing Day surprise in December 2020, as the 6’3”, 185-lb safety recruit from Atlanta had been committed to the LSU Tigers for 7 months when he decommitted from Ed Orgeron’s program and then committed to, and signed with, the Fighting Irish.

He doesn’t come into the program with as much hype or expected potential as the last tall, athletic safety from Georgia to sign with the Irish, but Gee is a very good athlete with lots of size, speed, and smarts — that may explain why, aside from LSU and ND, he held offers from Clemson, Florida State, Cincinnati, Michigan, Michigan State, Oregon, USC, Virginia Tech, Tennessee, Ole Miss, and many others.

He was rated as a high 3-star by the 247sports composite rankings, with a #393 national prospect rank to go along with being slotted as the #28 safety in the country and the #31 player in the state of Georgia.

The Restaurant That Fits

Moe’s Southwest Grill

For Gee, I’m going to go with Moe’s as my restaurant choice. It started in Atlanta and it’s actually a very solid place in the same vein as other fast-casual Mexican restaurant chains like Chipotle and Qdoba, but it’d certainly be considered a newer, less-established, and less-favored/trusted player in that space compared to those behemoths.

Similarly, Gee comes to the Irish as a DB whom LSU wanted (which is always a great sign), and he’s clearly got lots of potential — but right now, he’s the new guy in the back of the secondary and he’s gotta work on some things and allow people the chance to really give him a try before he can step into the shoes of someone like Kyle Hamilton.

2021 Outlook

As a true freshman who did not enroll early, don’t expect to see Khari Gee break into the safety rotation in 2021. We all know there’s not a TON of depth there (and so maybe if he comes to summer camp much more ready than people think, this will change), but he’ll still likely be 3rd or 4th on the depth chart at the Boundary Safety position behind Houston Griffith, D.J. Brown, and Litchfield Ajavon, with all those guys being upperclassmen.

Instead, expect Gee to spend a year in development on the scout team, and maybe playing on special teams if he’s just too great of an athlete to keep off the field. 2022 and beyond is when we can start talking about Gee’s potential PT, what with a number of those upperclassmen likely moving on after this season and Marcus Freeman needing tall, athletic guys to step in and man the position.