just to play devil's advocate. If we had not signed the trio of DT's late in BVG's first cycle the internet bitching would have been multi-fold. He was finishing up a class on the fly with little time to spare. Slack was given. Now we know he was trash and we have gaping depth concens at DT because we were in a position of grabbing fliers late.
I agree they have been doing a good job, but there have been some early head scratchers too that everyone, including myself, are giving them the benefit of the doubt for because of the good early success.
But my point remains. If we are turning down players like Newsome, Waggoner, O'Rouke, Vann, then I expect those positions to be filled with equal or better talent. Not the Mokwuah's come late January or my trust goes right out the window.
Have to give Van Gorder a pass with the first few months on the job, too. After that, he was a lazy recruiter. Wasn't proactive and wasn't anywhere near close to being a part of the 21st Century when it comes to what the top programs do daily with recruiting (Ohio State, Clemson, etc.). Notre Dame has plenty of resources to allow the football staff to recruit their asses off. The academic admissions process is what it is, but that doesn't give anyone the excuse to not put forth the effort.
The last two DC gave us a body of work that was pretty poor overall. Mike Elko is doing things the right way. Whether that yields the maximum results that everyone wants, we'll find out. When my job is on the line, I'm going to go for the players I want to eventually piece into my two deep. If they don't fit for any reason, on the field or off, move on. Notre Dame's margin for error isn't Alabama's or Ohio State's in that regard. They should still utilize social media, mailings, visits, etc. like those guys do. That's about where the similarities end, though. The pool is smaller.
Do I expect Elko to have recruiting cycles in the future that resemble the one that ended a few months ago right after he took the job? No, but should that be the case, I think we all know how that story is likely to end.