'24 NC S Malcolm Ziglar (North Carolina Verbal)
- Thread starter BobbyMac
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Too who? There aren’t any good safeties left to target? We either passed on 2 of our top 6 or got beat out
NDMatt91
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My guess, and it’s just a guess, is that it’s spin from the staff because they feel they won’t get him and know that Safety recruiting has been a shit show.
The ironic thing is, Carter said in an interview that ND wasn’t in his top group & it was O’Leary who won him over. He wouldn’t be at ND if not for him. Harper said O’Leary played a major roll in his choosing ND too.
Sounds like O’Leary works best with more mature, older kids, since the current players all love him too.
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I'm assuming this is the point.
Create enough confusing and contradicting narratives that it diverts attention away from the fact that a lot of these guys just didn't want to come. After we were told how confident we should be to land them, lol.
PutuporShutup
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Maybe safety is what ND calls players that aren’t good enough to start on defense or have a pure position but are “safe” bets for special teams
This is so confusing
Since when did Freeman forget how to put together a defensive recruiting board. Evidence is starting to suggest he is doing too much ass kissing, nd club schmoozing, fund raising, nice guy glad handing and left too much defensive responsibility to Golden child on his coaching rehab tour. Hope it doesn’t bite him in the ass.
NDMatt91
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Golden and O'Leary should definitely be on the chopping block at the end of the season.
PutuporShutup
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No excuse for our D to not be significantly improved this year
I feel like Golden did a few return to the NFL interviews but turned em all down because he ❤️ ND….Bullshit
PutuporShutup
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Maybe because he runs nickel D all the time in the red zone even in short yardages
FWIrish4
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I remember Matt Freeman stating on Power Hour (around a month ago I think) that ND would have to turn down safeties that wanted to come. I was floored at the time that ND could choose to turn away any safety and even more confused now.
Jiggafini19Deux
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Still 6 months until early signing day.
Domina Nostra
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I think safety recruiting is not going well, but I am still struggling with the O'Leary narrative. Not sure why its so obvious that he's the problem. Does he greenlight takes vs. passes?
What if ND goes 12-0 & the Defense & Safety play are outstanding?
That’s all that really matters, right?
Are we firing coaches who recruit 3 Stars & low 4 Stars and gets them to play like high 4 Stars & 5 Stars?
ND had one of the best Safety tandems in the country between a HS QB (Elliott) & a 2 Star (Gilman). As a tandem, they played better than two top 50 nationally Safties (Hamilton & Houston Griffith).
Recruiting is important, but actual playing results matters more.
That’s all that really matters, right?
Are we firing coaches who recruit 3 Stars & low 4 Stars and gets them to play like high 4 Stars & 5 Stars?
ND had one of the best Safety tandems in the country between a HS QB (Elliott) & a 2 Star (Gilman). As a tandem, they played better than two top 50 nationally Safties (Hamilton & Houston Griffith).
Recruiting is important, but actual playing results matters more.
Sure, on-field production will always trump recruiting rankings/stars. O’Leary has given us average production from our safeties, to go with below average production on the recruiting trail.
He’s closer to Rees and Del, than he is to Stuckey or DMC.
ColinKSU
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Is there a multi-coach conspiracy by Brian Kelly and now Marcus Freeman to purposely tank specifically safeties recruiting? Because that's the position this keeps happening at since O'Leary came on board.
Jiggafini19Deux
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What?
O’Leary has given much better than average Safety play.
What on field production has Stuckey given?
O’Leary is considered one of the best position coaches on the team.
Your hatred of him in recruiting is blinding your ability to see his coaching of the Safties.
Going into the season last year the Safties were expected to be the weak link of the D.
At the end of the season everyone agreed the D-line underperformed, the LBs struggled, but the Safties were good.
On offense, obviously the QB position struggled, the WR position struggled (horrible if not for Mayer), O-Line struggled the first half of the season. The CBs struggled when hit with injuries. The RB room was good.
The Safties were probably the best position group, game 1 through 13, behind the RBs for the year.
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There is just too much to unpack with how S recruiting has played out for 3 cycles since Freeman took over the defense that I personally don't view these problems as just on O'Leary. There are just too many issues for it to be one person's fault. There are quite a few decisions that I would be shocked if made at the position coach level.
Plus there are two things we know to be certain.
1. We know Freeman has said he recruits the top of everyone's board. Well, where are the high profile S's he's landing? Over 3 cycles, he'll have landed 1 in Johnson.
2. We know, from comments made by recruits and commits alike, that Bowden speaks with the S targets very frequently.
Plus there are two things we know to be certain.
1. We know Freeman has said he recruits the top of everyone's board. Well, where are the high profile S's he's landing? Over 3 cycles, he'll have landed 1 in Johnson.
2. We know, from comments made by recruits and commits alike, that Bowden speaks with the S targets very frequently.
fightingirish26
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OLearys safeties:
Hamilton: freak of nature, impossible to mess up. When you walk in and dominate from practice 1 of your freshman year, hard to give the position coach credit for development.
Griffith: not good
Brown: took a step back from 21 to 22 imo
Watts: His best developmental example thus far. Still TBD if he can be a consistent, quality starter.
Henderson: several mental lapses
Joseph: Was he overrated coming in? Probably but can't make an argument he got markedly better at ND.
I missed the safeties being good last year I guess
Hamilton: freak of nature, impossible to mess up. When you walk in and dominate from practice 1 of your freshman year, hard to give the position coach credit for development.
Griffith: not good
Brown: took a step back from 21 to 22 imo
Watts: His best developmental example thus far. Still TBD if he can be a consistent, quality starter.
Henderson: several mental lapses
Joseph: Was he overrated coming in? Probably but can't make an argument he got markedly better at ND.
I missed the safeties being good last year I guess
Stuckey was tasked an impossible job last year, thanks to Del and Rees. Del was an awful recruiter and terrible at player development. Rees failed to develop the QB room, resulting in the worst starting QB at Notre Dame since 2007. There was no way in hell the receivers were going to look good last year.
I guess my definition of average safety play is different than yours. The position group lacks NFL talent, creates minimal splash plays, and I couldn’t even tell you who the starting safeties will be against Navy. That kinda says a lot, because the rest of the starters are pretty much set in stone.
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Sorry for the fragmented posts but in addition to the above.
I think O'Leary's role is all of this is he doesn't seem to have his targets lined up to take the spots when they come available. And, in my opinion that is where Freeman's position coaches should focus. They are Robin to Freeman's Batman for the elite guys and then they are Batman in their own roles recruiting the guys in the middle of the board. Both Freeman and O'Leary have failed in their roles as Batman, lol.
We really shouldn't have guys in the middle of the board, especially this many, taking OV's and not being able to close them. That is a position coach and recruiting coordinator problem.
I think O'Leary's role is all of this is he doesn't seem to have his targets lined up to take the spots when they come available. And, in my opinion that is where Freeman's position coaches should focus. They are Robin to Freeman's Batman for the elite guys and then they are Batman in their own roles recruiting the guys in the middle of the board. Both Freeman and O'Leary have failed in their roles as Batman, lol.
We really shouldn't have guys in the middle of the board, especially this many, taking OV's and not being able to close them. That is a position coach and recruiting coordinator problem.
Hamilton played 5.5 games for O’Leary.
In fact, when Hamilton got hurt, O’Leary did a phenomenal job keeping the Safties playing well the rest of the year.
Griffith was year 5 when O’Leary got him, no fixing that. In fact, O’Leary was the first coach to bench him.
Brown didn’t take a step back. He improved.
Watts. No retort needed.
Henderson had less mental lapses than Hart & Lewis. Mickens’ guys.
You can go read the post season reports from 247, Rivals, On3 & IB (don’t know about ISD) & they all say Safety play was the pleasant surprise of the season.
Pops Freshenmeyer
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FWIW, Henderson converted to safety between weeks 9 and 10 of the 2021 season. Last year was his first full year at the position.
I am also confused about safety recruiting. Since we're reduced to reading tea leaves about recruiting decisions, I can't be sure that the staff doesn't just have a different view of what they want from the position going forward.
I am also confused about safety recruiting. Since we're reduced to reading tea leaves about recruiting decisions, I can't be sure that the staff doesn't just have a different view of what they want from the position going forward.
stpeteirish
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A lot of attempts to evaluate the job O'Leary's doing here but the only evaluation that matters is Freeman's.