Nothing against you Domina, but I think we need to invest the time and resources to find a fit. I think the general perception of ND is that it's old school, antiquated and all work. We need to change that image while retaining our values. Success stories along those lines of Nix, Daniels, Tuitt, Ishaq, Luke, Nyles, etc. outweigh the pain of guys like Davonte Neal, Aaron Lynch, and company IMO. To get the talent, we need to take chances, and I think we can mold young men into "RKGs" as easily or more easily than we can find them ready-made.
It's certainly not old school. Old school ND was a Catholic school. ND sold out its Catholic values to attempt to become an elite academic university (mainly by hiring faculty who were indifferent to Catholicism in their fields).
The old ND was a little more blue collar and rough around the edges. It could stomach having a football team for its own sake. Now the team has to fit into the infomercial proclaiming ND excellence.
Old school or not, it's a small private school in South Bend. If you just want to have wild a-- party experiences with lots of random hooking up, ND can't compete with Ohio State or Auburn EVER. You can have tons of fun at ND, but its not mega-State school fun.
I am not sure you can make them "RKGs" once they get here. They usually make the choice based on the girls, parties, easy academics, before they get here.
IMO, Tuitt, Ishaq, Luke, Nyles were RKGs.
As far as Nix and Daniels, not sure they are overwhelming success stories. Nix whined for two years and then took another to get his head together. BUT Nix was a strange bird and making his own decision seemed right in character for him. Daniels has never gotten his act together, but he came from a lot of money and a small school. ND was a very good fit for him.
My point is the talent has to like what ND is selling, and there are certain things you can't fake, like climate and student body size.
You can win with ND kids, just like Stanford is doing and we were doing in 2012.
