Passing on Redding was a comical mistake and many of us called it at the time. How this class is rounding out reminds of '12 all over again... small class, got way too picky too early, and then it imploded close to signing day after ND didn't get it done on the field.
Let's hope this one finishes better.
1) I think the staff wasn't impressed with Redding, thus why they passed on him. Have to say, I felt much of the same. Felt he was overrated.
2) This year is absolutely nothing like 2012, at all. We are currently sitting at 13 recruits on July 1. By this time in 2011, Kiel, Neal, Day, Stanley, Shumate, Russell, Jones, Brown, Okwara and Mahone were not committed to us. That's 10 of what turned into a 16 player class, not on board yet. Shepard and Greenberry didn't abandon ship because of what happened on the field. They left because Shepard wasn't acclimating to the academic environment for one reason or another and Greenberry realized that Shepard wasn't going to be there and panicked. Darby may have been the one guy who decommitted due to results (considering he committed to FSU who ND lost to in the bowl game). Not to mention, ND appears to have overhauled their recruiting formula since the early Kelly days. ND had an unusually high amount of defectors in 2011-14. Those numbers have since dwindled considerably.
