'25 FL RB Justin Thurman (Kansas Verbal)

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JamIrish

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This.... all this! Deland McCullough is a star and 2025 is off to a great start. Thurman is going to be a big riser in the rankings
 
Irish4life

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Says a lot about RB recruiting that a 4 star RB with good track times feels like a gimme.
 
Luckylucci

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Awesome, I love adding that type of speed to the offense and team in general. Seems like a great fit also.
 
Luckylucci

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And, I realize this is part of the Freeman hype era but nobody finds it odd that we're placing so much significance on these recruiting wins?

From purely a recruiting win perspective I do find it odd that this comes off as such a "huge" win. He's rated by 247 as a 90, the composite a 90.3, and ranked #279 in the country. For perspective, the top 3 backs in Taylor's last 3 classes were all rated/ranked higher. These are good wins, no doubt. But this isn't some type of elite recruiting we didn't have before. In fact, the last 3 RB's McCullough has received commitments from, are all ranked lower than the last 3 Taylor had.
 
IRISHMAN

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good pickup for ND, now all ND has to do is try to hold onto him for 1.5 years.
 
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notredomer23

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Luckylucci said:
And, I realize this is part of the Freeman hype era but nobody finds it odd that we're placing so much significance on these recruiting wins?

From purely a recruiting win perspective I do find it odd that this comes off as such a "huge" win. He's rated by 247 as a 90, the composite a 90.3, and ranked #279 in the country. For perspective, the top 3 backs in Taylor's last 3 classes were all rated/ranked higher. These are good wins, no doubt. But this isn't some type of elite recruiting we didn't have before. In fact, the last 3 RB's McCullough has received commitments from, are all ranked lower than the last 3 Taylor had.
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I see your point, but I don't think it needs to be a Taylor verses McCullough debate or that McCullough is getting too much hype. Both are excellent coaches. It has more to do with the fact that 2016-2019 was some of the worst RB recruiting we've seen. ND got incredibly lucky that Kyren Williams and to a lesser extent Tony Jones panned out or else they would have had a 4 year stretch of some awful RB recruiting with some cycles (I think 2017) not even taking one.
 
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arrowryan

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Luckylucci said:
And, I realize this is part of the Freeman hype era but nobody finds it odd that we're placing so much significance on these recruiting wins?

From purely a recruiting win perspective I do find it odd that this comes off as such a "huge" win. He's rated by 247 as a 90, the composite a 90.3, and ranked #279 in the country. For perspective, the top 3 backs in Taylor's last 3 classes were all rated/ranked higher. These are good wins, no doubt. But this isn't some type of elite recruiting we didn't have before. In fact, the last 3 RB's McCullough has received commitments from, are all ranked lower than the last 3 Taylor had.
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Because I watch his film and think to myself that there’s no way there are 20 running backs in the ‘25 class better than him. So, once again, 247 has a Notre Dame commit under ranked.

His explosiveness through the line and his size seem borderline elite, for someone who’s only going to be a junior in high school.
 
Crazy Balki

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Luckylucci said:
And, I realize this is part of the Freeman hype era but nobody finds it odd that we're placing so much significance on these recruiting wins?

From purely a recruiting win perspective I do find it odd that this comes off as such a "huge" win. He's rated by 247 as a 90, the composite a 90.3, and ranked #279 in the country. For perspective, the top 3 backs in Taylor's last 3 classes were all rated/ranked higher. These are good wins, no doubt. But this isn't some type of elite recruiting we didn't have before. In fact, the last 3 RB's McCullough has received commitments from, are all ranked lower than the last 3 Taylor had.
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Taylor's prospects were scouted and evaluated by Barton Simmons, who is competent and has some semblance of an understanding of how to scout, and can provide something resembling an unbiased perspective.

McCullough's prospects were scouted and evaluated by Andrew Ivins, who has about as much scouting experience as I have and has a 24/7 raging hate boner for ND.
 
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JamIrish

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Luckylucci said:
And, I realize this is part of the Freeman hype era but nobody finds it odd that we're placing so much significance on these recruiting wins?

From purely a recruiting win perspective I do find it odd that this comes off as such a "huge" win. He's rated by 247 as a 90, the composite a 90.3, and ranked #279 in the country. For perspective, the top 3 backs in Taylor's last 3 classes were all rated/ranked higher. These are good wins, no doubt. But this isn't some type of elite recruiting we didn't have before. In fact, the last 3 RB's McCullough has received commitments from, are all ranked lower than the last 3 Taylor had.
Click to expand...

The way I see it, there's a pretty good parallel between Taylor and McCullough as far as RB types and rankings.

Taylor-Tyree. McCullough- Thurman
Taylor- Estime. McCullough- Young
Taylor- Price. McCullough- Love
Taylor- Diggs. McCullough- Payne or Williams

Taylor- Tyree 96.8. McCullough- Love 96.34
Price 92.07. Young 92.83
Estime 91.48. Williams 91.2
Diggs 88.15. Payne 90.36
 
Luckylucci

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Finding talent and recruiting wins are two very different things. Both important to be a good recruiter but still very different. Kyren Williams and Tony Jones are good examples of that.

You all make high quality subjective statements. Which the same was said for them. His rating/ranking relative to others and his offer list are objective.

At this moment in time, it feels like we're searching for every reason to over inflate recruiting wins for subjective reasons. That's fine. I hate to be a debbie downer but honestly, it takes away from the truly huge recruiting wins when landing a solid 4 star back gets our RB coach a statue.
 
NDohio

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Luckylucci said:
Finding talent and recruiting wins are two very different things. Both important to be a good recruiter but still very different. Kyren Williams and Tony Jones are good examples of that.

You all make high quality subjective statements. Which the same was said for them. His rating/ranking relative to others and his offer list are objective.

At this moment in time, it feels like we're searching for every reason to over inflate recruiting wins for subjective reasons. That's fine. I hate to be a debbie downer but honestly, it takes away from the truly huge recruiting wins when landing a solid 4 star back gets our RB coach a statue.
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This doesn't seem to be a new situation though. I think this board has always over-inflated recruiting wins. That's part of the charm of IE.
 
Luckylucci

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Love the fit. Love that they identified him early. Love his upside.

Considering his ranking and offer list, this doesn't move the needle as far as recruiting victories goes. That's all.
 
NDPhilly

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Any time we beat out SEC powers for a kid from the South is a recruiting win worth celebrating. Lucci is right tho, if the kid was from Illinois and had offers from Michigan, PSU, Wisconsin, Iowa, etc… he’d just be another low 4 star. Nothing wrong with that, they are always going to make up the bulk of a good class.
 
bobbyok1

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So, watching his film he seems to have good "vision." Often finds the lanes and even the crevices. I will say I was not blown away by his ability to break tackles. Seemed slow in his transitions/cuts, in other words, he didn't seem "quick" in his moves. Also seemed to run pretty much straight up, with very little lowering of the shoulder.

Not sure I see this kid as elite, but am glad to have him on board nonetheless. Hopefully, I will eat my words years from now and he will be a stud RB for us.
 
Armyirish47

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I think he was saying it's odd that the difference between the #3 RB and the #21 RB is 1 ranking point.
 
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