BD's article was mostly right. His opinion within the article was exactly right (in certain aspects):
1. His opinion - had ND waited on Dante they still could have landed him. But Carr's commitment soured this situation.
2. The supposed reclassification or specter of CJ reclassifying did get out. This hurt with Dante's commitment. That was well understood at ND as well. It was a wrong move.
ND could have handled it better. Rees is known to be impatient. By taking Carr's commitment while Dante was still doing his visits and discussions of reclassifying had the chilling effect that they knew it would. ND should have held out with Carr. But the agenda was pushed on the Carr side.
Yes we got Carr. He better RECLASSIFY because we will have two years in a row with weak ass QBs. If TB gets hurt or moves on, the QB room could be stranded for two years. The QBs left in 2023 are not game changing talents (like Dante was). Get Carr to reclass and hunt for a Top 100 QB in 2024. That is the best strategy now. They should do this now so they could jump back in with Julian Sayin. But I don't think the Carr family wants another 5 star on the ND sidelines...... So we will get a Top 300 QB, hopefully. Ugh.
That’s a very skewed summary of what Driskell wrote.
Dante was given a few months to go public, and ND told Carr to hold off while they waited for Dante.
Dante’s family didnt want ND, ever.
So when ND gave Carr the green light, that was ammo the family used against ND to wedge a stake between Dante & ND.
The Carr stuff was weeks after things already started going sour. ND was giving Dante all the chances in the world & literally changing dates of visits of other recruits for Dante. Instead of keeping his promises he went other places instead. That was all before the Carr commitment.
And the Carr family knew ND was pushing for Dante & they told the Carr family they wanted Carr to wait until Dante went public.
The Carr family had zero problem with ND recruiting Dante. CJ wanted to commit right after Dante committed in February.
This was 75% Dante’s family not wanting ND, and 25% NIL.
The Moore family just used the Carr commitment as ammo against ND. It wasn’t the initial reason.