2020 Early Signing Period

[Irish#1]

Not so impressive tbh

Yeah, like you’re banging Halle Berry or Charleze Theron.

 

[stlnd01]

Interesting little thread here from Sampson.
https://twitter.com/PeteSampson_/status/1207463703152603138?s=20

Notre Dame signed no one from Indiana. Also no one from Ohio or Michigan. One apiece from Illinois and Pennsylvania. That's our heartland, traditionally.

And just one player from Florida, Georgia, California and Texas, combined. (This was the last commit. Ramon Henderson). Especially interesting as we've hit Georgia pretty hard the last few cycles, and USC was pathetic but we didn't really capitalize at the big SoCal Catholic schools. Also no one from North Carolina, which has been pretty good to us in recent years, and where we play pretty much annually thanks to the ACC.

But, a lot of good players. A top 10-ish class. It's just a a truly national class, built by looking under rocks in places like Denver, Omaha, Boston and Germany! Most schools don't have to work this hard.

 

[greyhammer90]

A top ten class in one of our "under twenty guys" years is fantastic.

 

[Irish YJ]

A top ten class in one of our "under twenty guys" years is fantastic.

3 less than any team in front of us.

TX though has 2 less than us, is right behind with a 92.+ AVG.

We'll be bumped I'm sure, but 11 is still awesome with only 18

 

[Irish#1]

Interesting little thread here from Sampson.
https://twitter.com/PeteSampson_/status/1207463703152603138?s=20

Notre Dame signed no one from Indiana. Also no one from Ohio or Michigan. One apiece from Illinois and Pennsylvania. That's our heartland, traditionally.

And just one player from Florida, Georgia, California and Texas, combined. (This was the last commit. Ramon Henderson). Especially interesting as we've hit Georgia pretty hard the last few cycles, and USC was pathetic but we didn't really capitalize at the big SoCal Catholic schools. Also no one from North Carolina, which has been pretty good to us in recent years, and where we play pretty much annually thanks to the ACC.

But, a lot of good players. A top 10-ish class. It's just a a truly national class, built by looking under rocks in places like Denver, Omaha, Boston and Germany! Most schools don't have to work this hard.

I would have never guessed that.

 

[Irish#1]

3 less than any team in front of us.

TX though has 2 less than us, is right behind with a 92.+ AVG.

We'll be bumped I'm sure, but 11 is still awesome with only 18

247 has us at 10 as of this morning.

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

Just nice to have a full cycle with no bad news. So rare for us.

Outstanding job by this staff, especially with the Chip Long news last week.

Fingers crossed for a big time flip to put the icing on the cake, but either way great class.

 

[NDty9]

I am NOT AT ALL disappointed in this class one bit. Super excited for some of the Elite talent coming through (Tyree, Watts, Hawaiian Jordan, Tosh, Jordan Johnson, etc), along with the high upside guys!!

I do have one follow up question...

With this being a somewhat "smaller" class, are we expecting something larger in 2021? With the way it has started, i'm also guessing its going to be an EPIC class as well?

 

[NDMIA]

2021

QB - 1
RB - 1
TE - 1-2
WR - 3-4
OL - 3-4
DL - 3-4
LB - 3
DB - 4-5
ST - 0-1

This is a guesstimate!

QB is done. RB is Will Shipley right now! They’ve got some other guys in the pipeline like Corey Kiner and Donovan Edwards but I think the focus is definitely Will Shipley or bust for now! TE is interesting cause bringing in back to back classes of 2 TE’s seems like overkill but Chip Long was headed that way by offering Sam Hart and Brock Bowers. We’ll see if that remains true in the future and they’ve already got a sick piece with Cane Berrong. WR should be a decent sized class and they are already killing it with Styles and Colzie. If they add one more dominant player then I’d shut it down unless somebody really special wanted in. OL is definitely gonna be a big class this cycle. Crippen definitely isn’t a part of it and I think Quinn would like to see Spindler and Tegnwall join Blake Fisher which would make for an unreal recruiting class. He’s definitely going big game hunting and I think he’ll do well this cycle.

DL is definitely going to be a smaller class. They return 15 scholarship guys right now in 2021! That’s a long way from happening but right now they are definitely tight and I could see them being extra picky. Jason Onye, Najee Story, Aaron Armitage, and Elliot Donald make up a good DE prospect group that Elston is after and for DT he might just stick with Gabriel Rubio unless someone at ND transfers or leaves between now and 2021. George Rooks is a guy who’s got interest in ND and is a giant dude that’s talented but idk if ND has room for him right now which is too bad. LBer is something that’s gonna need to be addressed cause ND skipped a class, now needs probably a 3 man group and doesn’t have much in the way of traction so far. We’ll see what kind of prospects they can pull but idk right now. I’m very confident in Clark Lea’s ability to evaluate and recruit guys for his system though. For DB it looks like they’ll have plenty of space to fill up another class. Hunter Wohler and Justin Walters are the safety names that jump off the page. I think ND has a good shot at both thanks to Terry Joseph. For CB it is once again a guessing game and I think it’ll be a new CB coach recruiting the 2021 class so I hope whoever it is can be a really good recruiter cause ND needs some impact talent in the secondary.

For ST’s, ND could give their open scholarship to Harrison Leonard if they see him as the surefire starting kicker after Doerer leaves or they can go offer one to a top kicker which I think they’ll do. I trust Polian to bring in a top flight ST’s guy as he’s brought in arguably the top Long Snapper and top Punter in back to back classes.

 

[Irish YJ]

247 has us at 10 as of this morning.

Yup, I'm talking about when TX ultimately adds another.

 

[NDty9]

2021

QB - 1
RB - 1
TE - 1-2
WR - 3-4
OL - 3-4
DL - 3-4
LB - 3
DB - 4-5
ST - 0-1

This is a guesstimate!

QB is done. RB is Will Shipley right now! They’ve got some other guys in the pipeline like Corey Kiner and Donovan Edwards but I think the focus is definitely Will Shipley or bust for now! TE is interesting cause bringing in back to back classes of 2 TE’s seems like overkill but Chip Long was headed that way by offering Sam Hart and Brock Bowers. We’ll see if that remains true in the future and they’ve already got a sick piece with Cane Berrong. WR should be a decent sized class and they are already killing it with Styles and Colzie. If they add one more dominant player then I’d shut it down unless somebody really special wanted in. OL is definitely gonna be a big class this cycle. Crippen definitely isn’t a part of it and I think Quinn would like to see Spindler and Tegnwall join Blake Fisher which would make for an unreal recruiting class. He’s definitely going big game hunting and I think he’ll do well this cycle.

DL is definitely going to be a smaller class. They return 15 scholarship guys right now in 2021! That’s a long way from happening but right now they are definitely tight and I could see them being extra picky. Jason Onye, Najee Story, Aaron Armitage, and Elliot Donald make up a good DE prospect group that Elston is after and for DT he might just stick with Gabriel Rubio unless someone at ND transfers or leaves between now and 2021. George Rooks is a guy who’s got interest in ND and is a giant dude that’s talented but idk if ND has room for him right now which is too bad. LBer is something that’s gonna need to be addressed cause ND skipped a class, now needs probably a 3 man group and doesn’t have much in the way of traction so far. We’ll see what kind of prospects they can pull but idk right now. I’m very confident in Clark Lea’s ability to evaluate and recruit guys for his system though. For DB it looks like they’ll have plenty of space to fill up another class. Hunter Wohler and Justin Walters are the safety names that jump off the page. I think ND has a good shot at both thanks to Terry Joseph. For CB it is once again a guessing game and I think it’ll be a new CB coach recruiting the 2021 class so I hope whoever it is can be a really good recruiter cause ND needs some impact talent in the secondary.

For ST’s, ND could give their open scholarship to Harrison Leonard if they see him as the surefire starting kicker after Doerer leaves or they can go offer one to a top kicker which I think they’ll do. I trust Polian to bring in a top flight ST’s guy as he’s brought in arguably the top Long Snapper and top Punter in back to back classes.

WOW!!! thank you much sir! love it

 

[Luckylucci]

So after digesting all the material from yesterday and reading some of the articles our there discussing the class (prister's Thursday thoughts for example). I'll post one that sticks out the most.

The first being the DB class. I think the generally wrong philosophy that has permeated this group is we ended up with the #58 CB in the country (Clarence Lewis as an example) because we missed on 1-57 and couldn't get anyone better. Polians interview shed some light on their approach. Once they missed on those top few/several prospects, they spent a tremendous amount of time and effort to hone in on the guys they wanted to target next and for various reasons ended up with this group. It wasn't that they couldn't get guys higher rated than #58, it's because these were the guys that stood out to them the most, after that initial tier of players.

Now, it doesn't mean they'll be right on all of them, or they'll be ready to play right away, and it may not give some more confidence than before. But, it sure does for me. It was a very intentional effort by the entire staff to identify this group.

If you get a chance, listen to Polians press conference and interview from yesterday, it's good stuff.

 

[Dizzyphil]

So after digesting all the material from yesterday and reading some of the articles our there discussing the class (prister's Thursday thoughts for example). I'll post one that sticks out the most.

The first being the DB class. I think the generally wrong philosophy that has permeated this group is we ended up with the #58 CB in the country (Clarence Lewis as an example) because we missed on 1-57 and couldn't get anyone better. Polians interview shed some light on their approach. Once they missed on those top few/several prospects, they spent a tremendous amount of time and effort to hone in on the guys they wanted to target next and for various reasons ended up with this group. It wasn't that they couldn't get guys higher rated than #58, it's because these were the guys that stood out to them the most, after that initial tier of players.

Now, it doesn't mean they'll be right on all of them, or they'll be ready to play right away, and it may not give some more confidence than before. But, it sure does for me. It was a very intentional effort by the entire staff to identify this group.

If you get a chance, listen to Polians press conference and interview from yesterday, it's good stuff.

How many out of the 1 - 57 would qualify educationally to get into ND? How many would that eliminate and does that affect how far down the line or where the line was drawn that ND recruiters had to start looking?

 

[Legacy]

Oregon's sixteenth ranked class has the first and second ranked ILBs, two four star QBs ranked in the top ten at their positions, and eight four or five star recruits out of twenty signees. They also got Devon Williams, WR, - a former four star recruit - as a transfer out of USC in September. Out of the twenty-five enrollees in 2019, twelve were four or five star recruits. The Ducks also got a transfer in 2019 in Juwan Johnson, a four star recruit, who left PSU as a grad transfer, and was Herbert's favorite target this year.

 

[ThePiombino]

So after digesting all the material from yesterday and reading some of the articles our there discussing the class (prister's Thursday thoughts for example). I'll post one that sticks out the most.



The first being the DB class. I think the generally wrong philosophy that has permeated this group is we ended up with the #58 CB in the country (Clarence Lewis as an example) because we missed on 1-57 and couldn't get anyone better. Polians interview shed some light on their approach. Once they missed on those top few/several prospects, they spent a tremendous amount of time and effort to hone in on the guys they wanted to target next and for various reasons ended up with this group. It wasn't that they couldn't get guys higher rated than #58, it's because these were the guys that stood out to them the most, after that initial tier of players.



Now, it doesn't mean they'll be right on all of them, or they'll be ready to play right away, and it may not give some more confidence than before. But, it sure does for me. It was a very intentional effort by the entire staff to identify this group.



If you get a chance, listen to Polians press conference and interview from yesterday, it's good stuff.

This is certainly encouraging if you take it at face value, but what was he going to say? "We whiffed on 1-57, so we settled for 58."? I hope it's true and I hope this kid contributes, but dear God, how many 10+win seasons til we start landing the 1st tier guys at this position?

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

 

[IrishFaninTX]

This is certainly encouraging if you take it at face value, but what was he going to say? "We whiffed on 1-57, so we settled for 58."? I hope it's true and I hope this kid contributes, but dear God, how many 10+win seasons til we start landing the 1st tier guys at this position?

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

I don't know. Pride, Love, and Vaughn were all pretty good gets. I mean their rankings. But for whatever reason, the last 2 cycles have been really poor as far as rankings go.

 

[Irish YJ]

It's nice to hear this type of stuff (really), but we've heard similar before about classes/positions/individuals that were poorly ranked... Basically "we struck out on all of our top guys, but really worked hard to pick the best of the leftovers" type stuff.

 

[BabyIrish]

It's nice to hear this type of stuff (really), but we've heard similar before about classes/positions/individuals that were poorly ranked... Basically "we struck out on all of our top guys, but really worked hard to pick the best of the leftovers" type stuff.

True, but Bartleson was heavily recruited by OSU, and they're known as DBU at this point. I'm thrilled to have him in the class

 

[Sea Turtle]

This is certainly encouraging if you take it at face value, but what was he going to say? "We whiffed on 1-57, so we settled for 58."? I hope it's true and I hope this kid contributes, but dear God, how many 10+win seasons til we start landing the 1st tier guys at this position?

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

If you were a top tier guy, would you go to Notre Dame or Ohio State, Clemson, Alabama, Oregon, etc?

You have the chops for tough academics? They have plenty of difficult classes and majors if you want them. Robert Smith from Ohio State became a doctor.

 

[Wingman Ray]

If you were a top tier guy, would you go to Notre Dame or Ohio State, Clemson, Alabama, Oregon, etc?

You have the chops for tough academics? They have plenty of difficult classes and majors if you want them. Robert Smith from Ohio State became a doctor.

This.

How many top tier guys actually read at 12th grade level, much less can remotely sniff NDs academic entry and class loan requirements?

How many top tier guys who have spent much of their lives having doors opened wide for them based on how they perform at sports rather than in a school room, want to academically be challenged?

Answer: Not many

 

[Domina Nostra]

If you were a top tier guy, would you go to Notre Dame or Ohio State, Clemson, Alabama, Oregon, etc?

You have the chops for tough academics? They have plenty of difficult classes and majors if you want them. Robert Smith from Ohio State became a doctor.

This.

How many top tier guys actually read at 12th grade level, much less can remotely sniff NDs academic entry and class loan requirements?

How many top tier guys who have spent much of their lives having doors opened wide for them based on how they perform at sports rather than in a school room, want to academically be challenged?

Answer: Not many

How many elite students with full rides chose Alabama or Clemson over ND or Stanford. Why? The same reason the elite football players go to the best programs.

We know that you can go to Kent State or Delaware or Mississippi Valley State, get good coaching, and be a Super Bowl MVP... All of those schools could say, "you want good workouts, we have excellent workout facilities and great coaches."

... Yet 99% of the best athletes go to elite football programs? Why? To be surrounded by other elite athletes, with common goals, and all the resources needed to win. If you are serious about school, and money is not an option, you go to the best school.

If you are serious about football, and have infinite options, you go to one of the elite programs.

If you are serious about both, you go to ND, Stanford, Duke, NW, or a couple other schools.

 

[Pops Freshenmeyer]

If you were a top tier guy, would you go to Notre Dame or Ohio State, Clemson, Alabama, Oregon, etc?

You have the chops for tough academics? They have plenty of difficult classes and majors if you want them. Robert Smith from Ohio State became a doctor.

That’s an odd example to pick out. Smith accused OSU of pressuring him to quit his pre-med track so it wouldn’t get in the way of football.

 

[arrowryan]

Not Notre Dame related, but 5* running back Zachary Evans, per crystal balls, seemed like a done deal to LSU. Well, a flood of UGA predictions came in today. The rich get richer.

 

[Sea Turtle]

That’s an odd example to pick out. Smith accused OSU of pressuring him to quit his pre-med track so it wouldn’t get in the way of football.

Maybe that staff did. The point is, you can be a doctor or anything else you want to be at most universities, provided they have a school in that field.

But most football players want to play football and have a degree to fall back on, not be a doctor.

 

[stpeteirish]

That’s an odd example to pick out. Smith accused OSU of pressuring him to quit his pre-med track so it wouldn’t get in the way of football.

and I don't think he ever became a Doctor. Works for the Big Ten Network.

 

[NDMIA]

Not Notre Dame related, but 5* running back Zachary Evans, per crystal balls, seemed like a done deal to LSU. Well, a flood of UGA predictions came in today. The rich get richer.

In a world of cheaters, I don’t know how Dell McGee does it. Getting Kendall Milton and Zachary Evans in the same class is just ridiculous. Their RB talent is stupid at UGA

 

[DONTH8]

Not Notre Dame related, but 5* running back Zachary Evans, per crystal balls, seemed like a done deal to LSU. Well, a flood of UGA predictions came in today. The rich get richer.

Direct deposit finally hit the account.

 

[stlnd01]

Maybe that staff did. The point is, you can be a doctor or anything else you want to be at most universities, provided they have a school in that field.

But most football players want to play football and have a degree to fall back on, not be a doctor.

Yes, of course you can.
But if the message from the coaching staff - and all your peers on the team - is to take the easy road academically and focus on the football, nine out of ten kids will ultimately do that, even if they arrive on campus wanting (and able) to do more.
Peer pressure's a powerful thing. Coaches are even more powerful.

 

[IrishLax]

Maybe that staff did. The point is, you can be a doctor or anything else you want to be at most universities, provided they have a school in that field.

But most football players want to play football and have a degree to fall back on, not be a doctor.

Yeah, and you can grow up in Sudan and become a renowned astrophysicist. That doesn't mean if you aspire to be an astrophysicist you should be fine with living in Sudan rather than attending MIT if you have the option.

The most disingenuous argument people make... and it's generally those supporting Big State School X or who didn't go to some highly rated university... is that you can be successful "anywhere." This is true, but there is a reason the best and the brightest all try to go to the same schools rather than, say, Oregon State. To reject that there is value to a Tier 1 education is to say that all of the smartest people in the country every year are actually stupid and should just be taking their full rides to Big State School X instead of paying to go to Harvard or wherever.

There are many people who go to public universities ranked outside the top 50 that are smarter than people who go to Yale or Stanford or Notre Dame. And there will be people from all walks of life that are more successful than people who go to prestigious universities. But especially when it comes to football... where the proof is in the pudding with graduation rates and the majors kids get forced into... absolutely no one on this board should be equivocating what kind of education experience a football player gets at LSU or Ohio State versus Notre Dame. They are worlds apart.

 

[Sea Turtle]

Yeah, and you can grow up in Sudan and become a renowned astrophysicist. That doesn't mean if you aspire to be an astrophysicist you should be fine with living in Sudan rather than attending MIT if you have the option.

The most disingenuous argument people make... and it's generally those supporting Big State School X or who didn't go to some highly rated university... is that you can be successful "anywhere." This is true, but there is a reason the best and the brightest all try to go to the same schools rather than, say, Oregon State. To reject that there is value to a Tier 1 education is to say that all of the smartest people in the country every year are actually stupid and should just be taking their full rides to Big State School X instead of paying to go to Harvard or wherever.

There are many people who go to public universities ranked outside the top 50 that are smarter than people who go to Yale or Stanford or Notre Dame. And there will be people from all walks of life that are more successful than people who go to prestigious universities. But especially when it comes to football... where the proof is in the pudding with graduation rates and the majors kids get forced into... absolutely no one on this board should be equivocating what kind of education experience a football player gets at LSU or Ohio State versus Notre Dame. They are worlds apart.

You basically just made my original point for me. People are going to go where their talents will be most cultivated. Astrophysicists are going to go tho MIT, etc. while tier 1 football prospects are going to go to Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State and so on.

The very few top tier prospects who also have the chops for tough academics could very well go to ND or Stanford. They could also take a tougher academic road at a state school if they choose to do so. Peer pressure? Welcome to life. They talk about this stuff with the coaches and the school before they commit