Its a big miss because of a few things.
3. If you want to take a 3-star athletic freak and develop him, then you take one in 2015 or 2017. If you take one this year, then its going to be at the end of the class when you can't get anyone. Some can argue that they already took the project in Julian Okwara. He is going to need a lot of weight and strength before he is ready to see the field.
4. Notre Dame needs WR's in the class and can't afford to lose out on kids that should be locks to Notre Dame. After this season, you are looking at losing Chris Brown, CJ Prosise, Amir Carlisle and possibly Will Fuller. I don't feel comfortable with Torii Hunter, Corey Holmes, Justin Brent and the incoming freshman.
5. Austin Mack isn't going to scare away Osiris St. Brown. And I honestly don't understand the point about Aliz'e Jones getting the ball.
A. Mack isn't a tight end.
B. If Mack isn't a quality player, then how isn't a more talented player going to take touches away from Aliz'e? I don't really follow your points.
C. Notre Dame is going to reach their # at WR this year regardless of St. Brown. He is going to be looking at a stocked stable of WRs, so once again if there are more talented guys out there for ND focus on, then why would Orisis come to ND if they are getting more talent than Mack?
6. Mack is from Indiana and you need to keep in-state talent in state. In Notre Dame's case that is bigger than most programs. The talent in Indiana isn't the greatest and losing out on Mack means Robertson isn't going to come to Notre Dame more than likely, so you just lost the two best players in the state in 2016.
7. Notre Dame offered Mack early, because he is extremely talented and has an even higher ceiling. I would encourage you to watch Mack's film again and try to watch the different routes that he is running and then watch the other prospects film. Mack is running a very complex route tree and sets his guy up for what he wants. The other kids are simply using great athleticism and speed to make plays. At the college level, it is about leverage, angles and understand where to run your route pre-snap. The other guys outside of McKinley are simply not at that point yet.
I don't have time to address all of your points, but I'll try to address some:
1. First, you make the WR situation after this year sound pretty dire, but there's a good chance we only lose Brown and Carlisle. I just don't see NFL scouts giving out a 1st Round grade to someone with Fuller's size or Prosise's lack of experience. That would leave us with Fuller, Robinson, Prosise, Hunter, Brent, Holmes, St. Brown, Boykin, Guyton and Sanders. Eight of those guys will have multiple years of eligibility remaining
after the 2015 season. So if even if we whiff entirely on WRs this year, it won't be optimal, but it won't be devastating either.
2. I should have been more clear about my Aliz'e Jones point. First, I feel like he is someone we are going to need get in the game and get the ball for as long as we have him. However, we also have other quality TEs that are going to play. I see Aliz'e Jones being split wide a lot as a result, which essentially turns him into another WR in a lot formations.
3. I don't think taking Mack would scare off St. Brown by any means. I only mentioned him because he's part of the reason I wouldn't particularly mind missing out on Mack. He could be the start of a great 2017 class at WR.
4. I don't buy the "he's not good because he doesn't play high enough competition" arguments. I think that may be a concern with linemen that look dominant because they're playing a bunch of scrubs (I see you Tiassum), but if a WR has great hands and great speed then the competition doesn't mean as much. However, I don't find Mack to be a particularly exciting recruit because he doesn't appear to have any elite skill set. I feel like we have other guys like that on the roster in Holmes, Guyton, Brent and Robinson (although his height may be one), that are good at a lot of things but not great at any of them. With those guys already on the roster, I'd like to go after some burners like Nixon and Mitchell or someone with a ton of raw potential like Corley.
5. I was being somewhat facetious with the 3-star athletic freak line, but the point remains the same. The weakness on this team that has no discernible solution is the lack of a pass rush. We need one guy, just one guy, that can consistently get to the QB without the assist of an elaborate BVG blitz. Until we find that guy, we are going to put too much pressure on our DBs and OLBs to stay with men in coverage for longer than they should have to. We need to be throwing the kitchen sink at some of the DEs on our board, for me WR isn't a huge priority.
