Look, losing this kid is bad, but a lot of the immediate feeling is timing. If we never thought we had him, we wouldn't feel so let down. We'd look at this class's quality and think it was pretty good.
The other thing is this: It's a pretty good class for a team coming off 8-5. Off the top of my head, only Ohio State and Fla, perhaps, did better with worse records, and they both have their individual circumstances that give/gave them advantages. If you want more top guys, you need to have a better record. But this group, with that record, is pretty good and points to credit for the recuiting staff and the good brand ND still has.
Finally, Kelly recruits to his system, which means you'll get guys who might not be ranked as high who turn out to contribute "disproporionately" to the system. He doesn't rely on a "five star" saving his team.
So let's not over-react too much. It still builds on last year, including giving us some top flight players.
And I'm hardly Pollyanna around here.