2023 - State of the Recruiting Class

[Free Manera]

Here is the real problem ND will have: Transfer Portal Rankings

 

[ThePiombino]

Here is the real problem ND will have: Transfer Portal Rankings

Add it to the list.

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[Dizzyphil]

Here is the real problem ND will have: Transfer Portal Rankings

Add it to the list.

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Right beside JUCO transfers.......

 

[Irishdrunk]

I agree with you. If we are going to build a championship team we need to land a couple 5 stars consistently each year but Irishdrunk is acting like this is an average class and that Kelly would have been able to put this class together. Neither are true. This is a very good class.

I never said it was an average class. Top 10 is very good class. But its not shopping down a different aisle or gap closing. Its just not. I like it but you can't look at this class and say, onward to Natty. There is not enough firepower.

A class with Keeley, Bowen, Thomas is that extra firepower that speaks to Natty talent.

It was there but Freeman and his staff couldn't keep the extra fire power.

Blame it on NIL or ND limitations that Kelly dared to reference as HC.

It sucks but I am not going to be a homer and say this is a Natty winning class. Its not.

Its a very good class. MF can - if he has any ability as a HC - string a few Top 10 classes together and go more like 10-2 and not 8-4.

 

[Irishdrunk]

Here is the real problem ND will have: Transfer Portal Rankings

There are many challenges and limitations at recruiting at ND. Kelly was excoriated for bringing them up and left. Freeman has done the best he can by selling the positives (i.e. 4 for 40) but the results are the same. 5 stars are going to be few and far between. I just didn't like the fact that many ND Analysts wanted to excoriate Kelly rather than accept and acknowledge the limitations. "We are now shopping down a different aisle" kind of nonsense.

No we are still ND. A very high academic school, a different campus life, no NIL upfront, No easy Transfers, Old Legacy of winning that is not recent, etc.

Its just hard. And rather than being Homerish about it, the acceptance that thank god for the expanded playoffs but winning with 270 - 280 classes vs. 300 classes is uphill - especially when you take a green HC.

You want Top 3 Class with these huge limitations you need to hire a HC with Natty experience and that would have been Meyer or Stoops but neither were going to be considered. So on balance this is why you pick the sure experienced winning HC over the recruiting - because recruiting at ND is always going to have its challenges, otherwise. Fickell would have been a more sound decision. Now Freeman has to show he can actually become a quality HC because that has yet to be seen.

 

[Dizzyphil]

I agree with you. If we are going to build a championship team we need to land a couple 5 stars consistently each year but Irishdrunk is acting like this is an average class and that Kelly would have been able to put this class together. Neither are true. This is a very good class.

Although it would be nice, but I also believe a lot has to do with how they will be coached up as well. This is where MF earns his 'stripes'.......

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

I don't get the hate

It's just typical angst and hyperbole attempting to fill voids that will never be filled.

 

[Dale]

Solid class but I think we’re overrating Freeman’s recruiting ability while underrating Kelly’s. Yea I said it. Kelly gets labeled a “lazy recruiter” yet he was doing An in home visit last year while he had a foot out the door. And his personality clearly hasn’t scared away recruits from LSU. Freeman for all his hype, basically just hit the previous ceiling for ND recruiting. Kelly left ND for LSU, and LSU continued to recruit to the LSU standard while ND continued to recruit to the ND standard. Both coaches reach #9 in their first full year recruiting classes at ND. I don’t really look to much into average rating comparison because if you look at the top 10 from 2011 compared to 2023, their is a solid 2-3 point composite difference for all the teams average player rating.

Basically nothing has changed, it’s hope that Carr is a stud (and sticks to his commitment) or bust for this program’s title chances.

This is eerily similar to you’re Book - Pyne argument, multiple holes, some pretty disingenuous parts and mainly, incorrect.

 

[Irishdrunk]

It's just typical angst and hyperbole attempting to fill voids that will never be filled.

So we should be okay with 4 loss season and a slid down in our recruiting class? This is a no complaint zone?

"Nothing to see here children, move along..."

 

[Domina Nostra]

Okay, but let's not pretend like Freeman inherited a great situation.

The notion that he did because Kelly had a great record the previous 5 seasons doesn't tell the full story.

ND started last season 6-1, but had it not been for some major heroics from the likes of Jack Coan, Kyle Hamilton and Kyren, they could've easily been 3-4. The kind of difference makers that Kelly had the luxury of to bail him out in '21 wasn't available for Freeman in '22.

Freeman inherited the mess that was the WR room, along with an unideal QB situation, and the lack of LB experience and depth, and the lack of size at DT.

Freeman also had to play a significantly tougher schedule in '22 than Kelly had in '21. Here's the number of teams with winning records that Freeman played this year:

Ohio State (11-1), Clemson (11-2), USC (11-2), North Carolina (9-4), Marshall (9-4), BYU (8-5), Syracuse (7-5).

Now here's the number of teams with winning records that Kelly played in '21:

Cincinnati (13-1), Wisconsin (9-4), Purdue (9-4), Toledo (7-6).

Freeman had to face nearly double the number of winning teams in his first year, while also inheriting the several deficiencies on the roster that Kelly allowed to permeate over the years that were no longer his problem.

Freeman absolutely did inherit a great situation compared to Kelly. Kelly left some problems for Freeman, but ND football was a wreck after Willingham and Weis. The negativity was palpable--kids were not excited about ND football. And the depth of the 2022 teams was completely different than the 2008 team. The relative strength of schedule might help explain 8-4, but it does not change the overall roster superiority.

I agree Freeman did not inherit a good QB, but neither did Kelly. And Freeman was free to bring in a grad transfer QB, while that was MUCH harder to do in 2021. Kelly brought in Coan and did fine. Freeman and Rees made a huge mistake in the last offseason, probably because they did not want to send out the signal that they could not develop from within.

I love Freeman, but it's too early to judge what the results of his excellent work ethic and obvious charisma will be.

 

[Dale]

A- with ZERO instant impact players? I dunno. Hard to lose Moore, Keeley, and (to this point) P.Bowen and call it an A-. B, B+? I can get with that. The class is good. It's balanced, fills some needs, but not all. Not sure how you can grade that an A-.

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Can’t really confidently say there will be ZERO instant impact players when Ben Morrison was our only instant impact player last year, and Jadarian Price was going to be the other. Not Jaylen Sneed. There are many guys that could be, like Morrison which is the upside of this class. There are not a lot of guys who’s ceiling is being a JAGs (Just a Guy). 5 stars are not 5 stars because they are instant impact, in many cases it’s the opposite, they got it based mainly off potential. Jagusah is a 5 star, he will not be instant impact. I never expected Sneed to either to be honest.

How did Morrison contribute right away? He has 4.5 star athletic traits + advanced CB training. If he had 5 star athletic traits but barely played CB in HS, he actually would have been ranked higher.

 

[NDFAN2008]

I give the class an B+-A-, they are bringing in an elite recruiting class on the offensive side. Minchey is a top 5 QB in my eyes, Love is one of the best athletes in this class, WR was a home run, TE is good, OL was great. Defense had misses. We need a DE and Safety in the portal. DL seems mine just missed on the WDE, I think Christian and Micah Bell can get reps day one.

 

[irishff1014]

Listen Freeman is a decent fellow. I want him to win but he didn’t win this year and he couldn’t close this Class like he should have. We nearly had a 300 point class and the it was picked apart a bit too much.

The news now is about Oregon, Miami, USC and Oklahoma- all with either rookie or fairly new HCs.

Losing 4 games - two of them of which are inexcusable is costly. I just don’t have confidence as Freeman as HC. He should let Rees go but I don’t think he has the gumption or even authority to do so.

You have to remember that ND isn't going to lower the academics for the student athletes. If you don't like that then you should probably go find another team to root for or you are going to be highly upset.

Again Miami, Oregon, Oklahoma, and USC students aren't going to put the work into the calls room. Riley has already said they are going to hit the portal harder than than recruiting. I would say most of that is due to not wanting to do the work a teach them. Which he never did on defense to being with.

Pretty much everyone on this board said that IF we had taken a Transfer QB, we wouldn't have lost two of those games. Our head coach has flat out admitted it was a mistake. After the start we had and being able to get this team, the players, coaches and other staff members to stay dialed in and competing is all the confidence i need. Did we get better. Yes.

Moore's parent's were all about the money you can't do anything about that. Bowen was an immature 17 year old. If they had Hillman's parents we are talking a different ball. A lot of the Moore and Bowen situation comes back to good parenting.

 

[stlnd01]

Although it would be nice, but I also believe a lot has to do with how they will be coached up as well. This is where MF earns his 'stripes'.......

Oddly, coaching and development matters. Quite a bit. So does culture and character.

Those things don't show up on star ratings. Many of our best players of recent years (Foskey. Kyren Williams. JOK.) were not exactly elite recruits. Many of our top recruits (Jordan Johnson, Rocco Spindler, Styles/Colzie) haven't really lived up to the hype. Yeah more five-stars increases the natural talent level, and the likelihood of success (Keeley, in particular, I think would have been huge for us). But there is a metric ton of high-quality four stars in this class, and they can win a lot of football games if the coaches put them in the right positions to do so.

Personally I think Freeman has some in-game coaching to learn, and the Xs and Os have room for improvement, especially on defense. But the culture of this program and the way they stuck with it after Marshall and again after Stanford speaks very highly of his skills as a leader. The fact that we haven't lost many guys yet to the portal is also a sign of strong culture, IMO. Hopefully this class - which seems pretty well-connected to one another - helps build on all that.

 

[IrishLax]

The biggest issue ND is going to have moving forward is the inability to compete for elite undergrad transfers in the with instant eligibility madness.

The NIL thing sucks for landing 5-star players and it’d be great if ND had a better way to facilitate payments for 2-3 guys a class but I personally don’t think the A&M method (or Miami and Oregon method this year) will work long term. I think it will cause major issues in a locker room and the numbers say that most of these guys won’t pan out.

The best use of NIL is to do things like add a Caleb Williams, Addison, etc. Paying for a proven instant-impact player can do a ton to transform your roster. Similarly, not being able to pay to keep one of your star players can be devastating. If ND doesn’t fix their shit (or the NCAA doesn’t change their rules) it is only a matter of time until we see an impact player leave ND’s roster for a seven figure pay day somewhere else.

 

[stlnd01]

The biggest issue ND is going to have moving forward is the inability to compete for elite undergrad transfers in the with instant eligibility madness.

The NIL thing sucks for landing 5-star players and it’d be great if ND had a better way to facilitate payments for 2-3 guys a class but I personally don’t think the A&M method (or Miami and Oregon method this year) will work long term. I think it will cause major issues in a locker room and the numbers say that most of these guys won’t pan out.

The best use of NIL is to do things like add a Caleb Williams, Addison, etc. Paying for a proven instant-impact player can do a ton to transform your roster. Similarly, not being able to pay to keep one of your star players can be devastating. If ND doesn’t fix their shit (or the NCAA doesn’t change their rules) it is only a matter of time until we see an impact player leave ND’s roster for a seven figure pay day somewhere else.

That Dasan McCullough story that made the rounds the other day was pretty eye-opening. We have more to offer than IU but you could totally see that scenario playing out at ND too.

 

[NDRock]

It’s a very good class but I think people are overestimating how good on paper. The biggest problem is once again we landed zero 5* guys. That hurts, no matter what anyone says. Elite players win championships and 5* guys become elite at a much higher rate than anyone else. Pretty sure the playoff team that had more 5* players won 80%+ of the matchups since the playoff started. It matters.

What we did get is a lot of very good prospects, which hopefully means some will turn out to be elite players/difference makers. Just need to keep stacking them every year which I think Freeman will do.

 

[fightingirish26]

I always like taking two-year views when reflecting on recruiting classes, as they provide some helpful context. The grades are for the '23 class only.

QB - Minchey (Angeli)
Minchey was a masterclass after the clusterfuck of Dante Moore. Hyper accurate, has stud college QB written all over him. We should know a bit more about Angeli in a week, but personally don't have the highest expectations, so this was very, very important. A

RB - Love (Price, Payne)
CFB is littered with former ND running back commits. I enjoyed the few months where we had a utter embarrassment of riches to be completely honest but shit happens. Love is a high end talent that we've been clamoring for. I would have preferred two RBs just due to Price's Achilles and Payne's injury history/potential talent ceiling but that's being picky especially with a great RB on board already for '24. A-

WR - James, Greathouse, Flores, Smith (Merriweather)
Got numbers, got some good football players. I think we'll be heavy run once again next year as our WR room will be big, physical, but perhaps not overwhelmingly dynamic (or deep). Greathouse fits that mold and it's interesting to hear Rees talk about him as an obvious first year contributor with guys such as Kaleb Smith the elder and Jayden Thomas looking similar on the hoof. Need numbers again next year to fully turn that room over. None of these guys truly blow me away but all could be very productive college receivers. A-

TE - Flanagan (Raridon, Staes)
He was sold on ND the whole way, he's technically advanced from a great HS program, and he doesn't seem to gaf about the talent ahead of him. Great blocker. No fuss, love it. A

OL - Jagusah, Absher, Pendleton, Otting, Terek (Wagner, Chan, Schrauth, Craig)
Just from sheer numbers we should be able to field a formidable OL for years to come. Plenty of wiggle room to accomodate busts/transfers. This particular class is deep but perhaps overflowing with guys who project better inside. Then again, that's probably true of the vast majority of OL prospects at this stage. A-

So the whole offense just got A/A- from me. Damn good.

DL - Vernon, Traore, Houstan, Mukam (Ford, Gobaira, Hinish, Tuihalamaka, Burnham)
Idk what to think of Vernon, he gets double teamed every snap in HS so hard to gauge how he'll be in college. I'm sold on Traore, NFL bloodlines have been seriously working out for us lately (Alt, Morrison). They talk about Houstan's dance moves, his big bro is a basketball star, that man is gonna be agile. Our next Howard Cross, but probably longer, which is terrific. Jamie U has been honking the Mukam horn of late so plenty of reason for optimism there too. Keeley hurt like hell but as another poster pointed out we could perhaps be shifting scheme so that could have simply accelerated the process? All of our young pass rushing talent is extremely raw. Failing to land a high end pass rusher is just a gap-closing box that we couldn't tick off this year. All of the rising sophomores listed above have everything to prove. Balis better earn his money this offseason with that crew. B

LB - Bowen, Ausberry, Zinter (Sneed, Zeigler)
Zinter may be next to follow Jr and Burnham down closer to the line of scrimmage. Bowen simply has to hit, there's no way I see him not being a success. Ausberry has talent, turn him into a violent heat seeking missile. Him playing fast will be key. With position changes, numbers aren't as deep as once thought, but the talent in the room is still apparent. A-

DB - Gray, Bell, Shuler, Minich, Hillman (Morrison, Mickey)
The safety position really suffered yesterday. We have immediate needs there and struck out last cycle. Like what we landed at the position but a plug and play 5 star at a position of need is one that we really could have used. Gray has stud written all over him, his arms look so long. Bell has a quiet assassin vibe. Good haul, hurts with the ending. 3 safeties in two cycles, with neither Minich nor Hillman appearing to be day 1 guys, is not good enough. CB has talent but maybe need to take three next year. B

Defense was marginally lower more due to roster holes not being filled. The guys we landed I am high on. I think the defensive class has a higher percentage of players that I think will be studs, but the roster is looking healthier on offense moving forward.

 

[Irishdrunk]

You have to remember that ND isn't going to lower the academics for the student athletes. If you don't like that then you should probably go find another team to root for or you are going to be highly upset.

Again Miami, Oregon, Oklahoma, and USC students aren't going to put the work into the calls room. Riley has already said they are going to hit the portal harder than than recruiting. I would say most of that is due to not wanting to do the work a teach them. Which he never did on defense to being with.

Pretty much everyone on this board said that IF we had taken a Transfer QB, we wouldn't have lost two of those games. Our head coach has flat out admitted it was a mistake. After the start we had and being able to get this team, the players, coaches and other staff members to stay dialed in and competing is all the confidence i need. Did we get better. Yes.

Moore's parent's were all about the money you can't do anything about that. Bowen was an immature 17 year old. If they had Hillman's parents we are talking a different ball. A lot of the Moore and Bowen situation comes back to good parenting.

I agree with the fact that ND isn't going to change their academic bar, change their campus structure, change their NIL policy or Transfer Acceptance policy. ND is a great, great university.

But then again, I don't go into this think ND is where you can win a National Title. That is why I was happy with Brian Kelly - he did get out a lot from his recruits. You can't as a fan have it both ways - pride in the Academic Standards, that ND doesn't pay for 5 stars and allow easy transfers and at the same time take serious the possibility of winning a National Title. Its not happening.

 

[Irishdrunk]

I always like taking two-year views when reflecting on recruiting classes, as they provide some helpful context. The grades are for the '23 class only.

QB - Minchey (Angeli)
Minchey was a masterclass after the clusterfuck of Dante Moore. Hyper accurate, has stud college QB written all over him. We should know a bit more about Angeli in a week, but personally don't have the highest expectations, so this was very, very important. A

RB - Love (Price, Payne)
CFB is littered with former ND running back commits. I enjoyed the few months where we had a utter embarrassment of riches to be completely honest but shit happens. Love is a high end talent that we've been clamoring for. I would have preferred two RBs just due to Price's Achilles and Payne's injury history/potential talent ceiling but that's being picky especially with a great RB on board already for '24. A-

WR - James, Greathouse, Flores, Smith (Merriweather)
Got numbers, got some good football players. I think we'll be heavy run once again next year as our WR room will be big, physical, but perhaps not overwhelmingly dynamic (or deep). Greathouse fits that mold and it's interesting to hear Rees talk about him as an obvious first year contributor with guys such as Kaleb Smith the elder and Jayden Thomas looking similar on the hoof. Need numbers again next year to fully turn that room over. None of these guys truly blow me away but all could be very productive college receivers. A-

TE - Flanagan (Raridon, Staes)
He was sold on ND the whole way, he's technically advanced from a great HS program, and he doesn't seem to gaf about the talent ahead of him. Great blocker. No fuss, love it. A

OL - Jagusah, Absher, Pendleton, Otting, Terek (Wagner, Chan, Schrauth, Craig)
Just from sheer numbers we should be able to field a formidable OL for years to come. Plenty of wiggle room to accomodate busts/transfers. This particular class is deep but perhaps overflowing with guys who project better inside. Then again, that's probably true of the vast majority of OL prospects at this stage. A-

So the whole offense just got A/A- from me. Damn good.

DL - Vernon, Traore, Houstan, Mukam (Ford, Gobaira, Hinish, Tuihalamaka, Burnham)
Idk what to think of Vernon, he gets double teamed every snap in HS so hard to gauge how he'll be in college. I'm sold on Traore, NFL bloodlines have been seriously working out for us lately (Alt, Morrison). They talk about Houstan's dance moves, his big bro is a basketball star, that man is gonna be agile. Our next Howard Cross, but probably longer, which is terrific. Jamie U has been honking the Mukam horn of late so plenty of reason for optimism there too. Keeley hurt like hell but as another poster pointed out we could perhaps be shifting scheme so that could have simply accelerated the process? All of our young pass rushing talent is extremely raw. Failing to land a high end pass rusher is just a gap-closing box that we couldn't tick off this year. All of the rising sophomores listed above have everything to prove. Balis better earn his money this offseason with that crew. B

LB - Bowen, Ausberry, Zinter (Sneed, Zeigler)
Zinter may be next to follow Jr and Burnham down closer to the line of scrimmage. Bowen simply has to hit, there's no way I see him not being a success. Ausberry has talent, turn him into a violent heat seeking missile. Him playing fast will be key. With position changes, numbers aren't as deep as once thought, but the talent in the room is still apparent. A-

DB - Gray, Bell, Shuler, Minich, Hillman (Morrison, Mickey)
The safety position really suffered yesterday. We have immediate needs there and struck out last cycle. Like what we landed at the position but a plug and play 5 star at a position of need is one that we really could have used. Gray has stud written all over him, his arms look so long. Bell has a quiet assassin vibe. Good haul, hurts with the ending. 3 safeties in two cycles, with neither Minich nor Hillman appearing to be day 1 guys, is not good enough. CB has talent but maybe need to take three next year. B

Defense was marginally lower more due to roster holes not being filled. The guys we landed I am high on. I think the defensive class has a higher percentage of players that I think will be studs, but the roster is looking healthier on offense moving forward.

I agree this looks good if not great in a vacuum. But you take a 2 year run of Bama, UGA, OSU, Michigan (with transfers), Texas and soon USC and OU and it would be noticeably better than ND. If you had kept Keeley and Bowen that would have been far better argument.

 

[Irish#1]

One more class in the 75-85% range and ND in theory should have the blue chip ratio to compete for a title.

Bingo. You can't fault the flips on MF. He immediately improved the recruiting in his first attempt. I expect he will improve the recruiting even more given this experience. If the school gets on board with a more favorable support of NIL then look out.

 

[drayer54]

LOL I know but people keep missing the point. This class is objectively better, in most cases by a lot, than every Kelly class except 1. It's not even the same ball park. People are just looking at the recruiting ranking and not the actual make up of the class.

Amen. Good class. Bring ‘em in and find a good option or two in the portal and get ready to rock. I can’t see why people are upset about this. Excited to see these guys grow.

 

[Irish#1]

There are many challenges and limitations at recruiting at ND. Kelly was excoriated for bringing them up and left. Freeman has done the best he can by selling the positives (i.e. 4 for 40) but the results are the same. 5 stars are going to be few and far between. I just didn't like the fact that many ND Analysts wanted to excoriate Kelly rather than accept and acknowledge the limitations. "We are now shopping down a different aisle" kind of nonsense.

No we are still ND. A very high academic school, a different campus life, no NIL upfront, No easy Transfers, Old Legacy of winning that is not recent, etc.

Its just hard. And rather than being Homerish about it, the acceptance that thank god for the expanded playoffs but winning with 270 - 280 classes vs. 300 classes is uphill - especially when you take a green HC.

You want Top 3 Class with these huge limitations you need to hire a HC with Natty experience and that would have been Meyer or Stoops but neither were going to be considered. So on balance this is why you pick the sure experienced winning HC over the recruiting - because recruiting at ND is always going to have its challenges, otherwise. Fickell would have been a more sound decision. Now Freeman has to show he can actually become a quality HC because that has yet to be seen.

Man you get tiring. I assume you were walking the minute you came out of the womb? It was Freeman's first year. Give the dude a chance.

 

[Irish#1]

The biggest issue ND is going to have moving forward is the inability to compete for elite undergrad transfers in the with instant eligibility madness.

The NIL thing sucks for landing 5-star players and it’d be great if ND had a better way to facilitate payments for 2-3 guys a class but I personally don’t think the A&M method (or Miami and Oregon method this year) will work long term. I think it will cause major issues in a locker room and the numbers say that most of these guys won’t pan out.

The best use of NIL is to do things like add a Caleb Williams, Addison, etc. Paying for a proven instant-impact player can do a ton to transform your roster. Similarly, not being able to pay to keep one of your star players can be devastating. If ND doesn’t fix their shit (or the NCAA doesn’t change their rules) it is only a matter of time until we see an impact player leave ND’s roster for a seven figure pay day somewhere else.

Agree, this is just the beginning of NIL and the money being thrown out is insane. I just don't see it as sustainable.

 

[anarin]

Not sure if this was posted.

 

[ACamp1900]

It’s a very good class but I think people are overestimating how good on paper. The biggest problem is once again we landed zero 5* guys. That hurts, no matter what anyone says. Elite players win championships and 5* guys become elite at a much higher rate than anyone else. Pretty sure the playoff team that had more 5* players won 80%+ of the matchups since the playoff started. It matters.

What we did get is a lot of very good prospects, which hopefully means some will turn out to be elite players/difference makers. Just need to keep stacking them every year which I think Freeman will do.

Yeah, this class is strange and todays ou news really fucked me up. I’m aware of the balance of this class and its rating, but there seems to be no true impact/five star or unique guys when a month ago we had at least two,… maybe I need to simmer down but right now this is the worst I’ve felt about a class since Charlie took over and it’s all due to what we should have had.

 

[Dale]

there seems to be no true impact/five star or unique guys

Not sure I understand this, are these the only true impact or unique guys we’ve had play for ND in the past decade?

Jordan Johnson
Michael Mayer
Jaylen Sneed
Tommy Kraemer
Max Redfield
Jaylon Smith

The terms 5 star and impact and unique are not interchangeable IMO.

 

[stlnd01]

Yeah, this class is strange and todays ou news really fucked me up. I’m aware of the balance of this class and its rating, but there seems to be no true impact/five star or unique guys when a month ago we had at least two,… maybe I need to simmer down but right now this is the worst I’ve felt about a class since Charlie took over and it’s all due to what we should have had.

There are no five stars, and that is disappointing considering how things looked earlier in the cycle. But there are 12 guys in the Top 200. Some of them are going to be dudes. I'm watching Love, Grey, Greathouse, Minchey, Traore, Flanagan

 

[NDRock]

Not sure I understand this, are these the only true impact or unique guys we’ve had play for ND in the past decade?

Jordan Johnson
Michael Mayer
Jaylen Sneed
Tommy Kraemer
Max Redfield
Jaylon Smith

The terms 5 star and impact and unique are not interchangeable IMO.

One nitpick. Johnson was bumped down to a 4* in the final 247 rankings.

 

[Free Manera]

Bama OSU and UGA always have a ton of five stars. But look at their BCR over the last 4 years. If ND can maintain 80-90% BCR, it looks a lot like those teams.

BCR isn't the be all end all, but it is pretty clear 82% under Freeman vs. 62% under Kelly is a massive difference.